A box of wax cylinders found at Thomas Edison's lab turns out to be legendary recordings made in 1889 and 1890. They include a recording of Bismarck, the German chancellor, and of Helmuth von Moltke, a military strategist born in 1800. That's 13 years before Wagner and Verdi were born, during the lifetimes of Beethoven, Haydn, and Berlioz.
Read all about it and hear samples at the NY Times. The trove of Russian cylinders "recently uncovered" (not exactly!) is, of course, the Julius Block cylinders, published on Marston a few years ago.
I wonder if the advent in both popularity and availability of music had anything to do with that particular invention. :)
ReplyDelete