Edison phonograph cylinders (1888): Handel - Israel in Egypt

On Friday 29th June 1888, from 2pm, a performance of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt was captured on a number of wax cylinder recordings. This performance was part of the trienniel Handel Festivals mounted in the UK. They were recorded from the press gallery in Crystal Palace by Edison-representative Colonel Gouraud, as a way to test and show off Edison's phonograph. Three of these cylinders still survive.
The conductor was Sir August Manns, conducting an orchestra of some 500 musicians and a choir of over 4,000 voices, in front of an audience of 23,722 people.
These are the earliest deliberate recordings of music known to exist (earlier recordings from the 1870s are considered lost). Fortunately these can be played back at a quite definite pitch, as we know the pitch of the Crystal Palace organ at this time.
Unfortunately, the recordings are in very poor shape, audibly speaking. You are going to have a very hard time grappling with the sound, and trying to make out anything. Each cylinder contains a number of tracks. This is what you are hearing:
Cylinder 1 (0:00 - 2:27) -
The first text is "[Mo]ses, and the children of Israel sung unto the Lord and spake saying", from the chorus at the opening of Part II (very hard to hear the orchestra in this).
Following this is "I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed" from the next number in Part II (you should be able to hear the altos and tenors singing at the start of this). Near the end you might make out the word "gloriously" sung in Handelian semiquavers.
Cylinder 2 (2:30 - 5:10) -
The first track on this cylinder is effectively inaudible. We do not know what the music is on it.
The second track is no.24 from the Oratorio: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power". Unfortunately, the stylus sticks in this track.
The third track is from the same number at "Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy", also with some stylus sticking problems.
Track 4 is yet more of this movement, ending with "For He hath triumphed gloriously".
Cylinder 3 (5:14 - 7:45) -
The first track is the last part of movement 37: "...ever, the Lord shall reign for ever and ever".
The second track is a fragment of number 39: "For ever and ever"
The third track is a continuation of the previous one from "...shall reign for ever and ever", and continuing as far as "For He hath triumphed gloriously".
The last track is the very end of the oratorio, from "...horse and his rider, the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea".
Well, as I say, all very hard to make out. You can perceive a very slow tempo being employed at least.
Incidentally, Colonel Gourard was also present at the "phonograph party" in 1888 which captured Sullivan's voice (see my posting of this), and his voice too exists on wax cylinder.
I would be fascinated to hear what people make of these. For more info about these rolls, there is a fantastic website to read here: www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace

[@kasteman1]

Listening to this gives me a very strange feeling, almost as if I was never meant to hear it, like a recording of the afterlife.

[@chadhossack470]

Exactly. I feel that way everytime i listen to this since i stumbled on it about 4 years ago. Voices from beyond. 4000 ghosts singing the glory of God from the other side........

[@zeusmc.8662]

+kasteman1 It has an eeriness about it. I am trying to determine whether my response is a bit artificial. Created by the crackly sound rather than real eeriness of its circumstance. Cause if I see a video from 1920 with good quality, most of the people are now also dead there but it has lost some/most of that eeriness through its relative clarity (although it maintains a little bit). What might make this more eerie though, apart from the crackles, is the fact that an event at the Crystal Palace with so many people, would have been the spectacle. Nobody there would have thought about the recording going on in the press gallery. Nobody at that time would ever have envisaged the future of recorded sound. So these people would never imagine that their experience on that night would be transmitted into our rooms more than a century later. Even by 1920, the people we see had an awareness of recordings, photos etc. The world had changed. Only these people of 1888, just lived too long ago. They went home that night, probably some of them by horse and cart. Lit a gas light, read a book, went to bed after a night singing at this concert. Could they have ever comprehended us listening to their night that Friday night in June 1888 some 127 years later!

[@charlessale409]

+Zeus Mc. Damn dude that's poignant.

[@Pat4President1]

Zeus Mc. Now 129 years ago

[@amethyst760]

It has a beautiful, ethereal quality. Like hearing "Spem In Alium" sung far away in the distance.

[@timcallahan6368]

Even in its damaged state, this recording is a gift to posterity. As a musician I am very happy it exists.

[@Andy-im3kj]

Me too! This is absolutely beautiful!

[@chrisarchard2009]

Ditto that

[@AlisonBryen]

As a member of the human race I am happy this exists...

[@monstar4]

You know what's cool? is that we are hearing audio recorded in a time we will never see, hear, smell or feel with our own bodies. In reality, this recording is from another world. One we can only imagine, with various recordings, arts and documents. This audio gives me a nostalgic feeling, as if I'm hearing a glimpse of what I could've lived like. I always wondered how all the senses of the human body would feel In a world we were never born into. We'll never get to experience this orchestra at the very moment it was recorded. It makes me think about the world I'm living in now. Even though everything is recorded and documented with great quality these days, it's all still just a glimpse of what we're living like. So the next time you feel like you hate your time period, just remember that you're living the past in someone else's present. Some little kid 200 years from now will only have recordings, arts and documents of us, And he'll wonder what it was like to be alive in our period.

[@diamondmario64]

That's deep

[@BlackFlagHeathen]

It really does give you a vaporwave aesthetic; makes you nostalgic for a time you didn’t/don’t live in, for what could’ve been, but wasn’t, and will never be.

[@minecraftroblox4441]

Well said

[@y.m.3114]

We can still keep the phone and make them play amogus with it

[@disparkys2095]

Bruh, I want what you're smoking

[@mrman4645]

This makes me feel like I have a radio that lets you hear through time, and i've set the dial to 1888

[@diaz6884]

88 mph 🤔

[@ballasog]

That's not a radio! Don't let the car get up to 88mph!!!

[@spitshinetommy3721]

The year of Jack the Ripper.

[@thegamesbrotherssvk5135]

@@spitshinetommy3721 the year of one Of the first movies ever

[@Blaze850]

Just to put into perspective how unfathomably long ago this recording was made, this show was performed 129 years after Handel's death, and is now 131 years old, meaning that this recording is closer in time to Handel's life than it is to ours...

[@jordanlorts]

bruh

[@gasparocelloman9852]

This comment just gave me a brain wrinkle. 😵‍💫

[@ruperttmls7985]

Eso mismo pensé yo, ellos estaban mas cerca de Handel que nosotros!

[@emanueleromano2633]

who is Handel?

[@chrisarchard2009]

Yis, this, very much this.

[@phaasch]

Hearing this, it's almost possible to picture the scene: the concert hall packed, the audience in their thousands probably sweltering in the heat of the summer afternoon, the men in stiff collars, women in long dresses fanning themselves with their programmes, as the sun beats in through the glass.And this sound of massed voices soaring into the vaulted roof, and down the long, glittering nave of the Palace.A sound from the distance enchanted, Victoria's Golden Jubilee just gone, with 13 years still to reign, and the Empire yet to reach its zenith.

[@SkyVettel]

Exactly! Like nothing I have gotten to see in my life. I would've absolutely loved to, though. Incredible.

[@bryant7542]

This was in England so I doubt it was too hot.

[@AbrahamLincoln4]

@@bryant7542 could've been dark, cold and damp. Like London.

[@ferociousgumby]

And can you imagine the sheer volume of four thousand people singing at once!

[@igvmyslf1000ptss]

I'm somehow drawn to these recording. As if I stepped back in time to another dimension. It's amazing how we take everything for granted nowadays.

[@digitalmetadata1]

What was not mentioned is that this recording was sitting in the Edison Laboratory for over 100 years in a box. Edison's British agent Col. Gouraud visited Edison in June 1888 and was able to take the phonograph which was perfected the same month. (Look for the picture of an exhausted Edison in 1888 listening to an identical machine these recordings were made on). Gouraud sent this recording to Edison and Edison most likely listened once and then put them into a box and tucked them away. They were discovered in the Lab and were transferred in the late 1990's at the New York Public Library. Edison was a hoarder and to that we must be greatful for these recordings.

[@RlcChamp]

How was it recorded

[@thenorthamericanphonograph1039]

@@RlcChamp The 1888 machine used a large brass horn, and the sound vibrates 1 5/16" diaphragm and .005-.0085" glass disc, made by Zeiss of Germany for covering microscope slides; a rubber gasket was at the top and bottom of the diaphragm, so it could be sensitive to sound. At this time the recording stylus was a chisel shaped steel stylus, and played back with a curved metal wire, at the end it was polished into a ball, also vibrates a glass disc that exists into a set of listening tubes. The 1888 cylinders have square grooves, with saw tooth shaped vertical undulations, or sound waves. By 1889 sapphire was used for the recorder and reproducing stylus, and the recording stylus was, if you could imagine the shape of as a tiny drinking glass .036" in diameter, with a sharp edge, the center of the recording stylus was concave, (so a very shallow drinking glass with an edge so sharp as to cut your mouth) so as the sharp outer edge of the stylus would cut into the blank, the center would throw out the chip from the record away from the surface, the playback stylus was also a sapphire ball .036" in diameter, that reads the cylinder. The recorder and reproducer had screws that adjusted the carrier arm up and down, to the surface of the record, you had to be very careful not to go too deep with the playback stylus or it can score the cylinder. And NO they did not play the cylinder back for transfer on an 1888 machine for fear of ruining it, it was played back with a modern cartridge at Rodgers & Hammerstein archives by engineer Peter Dilg. This particular cylinder is made of 100 parts stearic acid, and equal parts ceresin, and Carnauba wax, I duplicated this formula for an antique phonograph trade journal article, and for display at the museum this record is housed at.

[@thenorthamericanphonograph1039]

(.005-.0085" is the thickness's of the glass diaphragms.)

[@YokozunaNumber1]

I was born in 1981, yet I knew people from this time, and it is certainly possible that they knew, or were at least in the presence of, people from the 1780s/90s. I had a school teacher who was born in 1893, though she was a retired substitute when I had her in kindergarten. In human years, yes, it was "long ago," but only because we don't live very long. People living at this time, in 2020, will live to see the 2120s and 2130s. One second at a time is how long it takes to get there.

[@bluejaymama9252]

Always be proud of the fact that you are one of the youngest people in the world with ties to the 19th Century. As you get older, it will become even more special.

[@AdonisJones]

There was an entirely different set of people alive on Earth when this was recorded. Not one person who was living when this was made is still alive, and not one person currently living was born yet when this was made. This recording and others pre-dating it are the closest things we have to an actual time machine.

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

Word

[@lookhear49]

It really touched my heart to hear all those people singing so beautiful. Listening to a concert made 122 years ago! They sound a bit like angels. All of them are now dead many years ago. May all of them rest in peace!

[@reviewgodusa9613]

*132 years ago. Learn to do math dummy

[@Trini84818]

@@reviewgodusa9613 His comment is 9 years old, learn to do math dummy!

[@2idiot2animate28]

@@Trini84818 more like idiot

[@deadchannel2210]

@@reviewgodusa9613 bruh

[@alanbstard9301]

There is actually a tortoise on Earth living right now which was 56 years old when this was recorded

[@BinglesP]

I hope it’s having a good time rn

[@ladyi7609]

I feel almost exactly the same -- this to me is what the choirs of angels sound like in Heaven as has been rendered in my head since I was a little girl. To consider that a recording this clear of so many talented choral singers performing this moving Handel piece 122 years ago, back when my great-grandparents were still Mexican youths and before a single relative of mine had touched American soil... astounding.

[@Matt571]

Because of the faint and crackly sound, it almost sounds like the recording was made half a mile down the road and the singers could just be heard in the distance. Still, it is amazing to hear all these voices from 1888

[@domusch111]

i love how youtube is the nearest thing to a time machine we have

[@musgrave6886]

i just can't wrap my head around this...the greatest halftime show ever...

[@grahamexeter3399]

Handel died on April 14th, 1759 - 47,190 days before the Crystal Palace performance. On Tuesday September 12th 2017 - 47,191 days after June 29th 1888 - it was recorded closer to Handel’s own lifetime than ours!

[@Kameelyun]

Although just to be clear, the music itself was written in the 1720's. Meaning, this 1888 performance is at roughly the halfway mark between the date of composition and today. That's even more mindblowing!

[@Josh-le6lu]

I've said it a dozen times, and I will say it again! The earliest recording of someone scrubbing their boots, eating Captain Crunch and cooking bacon on a locomotive train.

[@josiahcole3186]

Nice (;

[@BinglesP]

Damn Captain Crunch is old

[@beta_unknow3050]

This track have 132 years old in 2020. The original audio seem damaged but it's ok, because now, on KZbin, this will never be lost or more damaged. Really, listen at this made me nostalgic, sad and feel wonder. It's part of our history, a masterpiece from another time we should remember for ever. A pure jewel of what human is able to do. Truth be told, I think it's a gift from our past. So thank you Mr Edison for this beautiful gift and thank you to all persons singing in this track. And of course, thank you D60944 for share this monument of history with us.

[@pisfool3860]

...Until Google somehow decides to delete old videos for the sake of other useless changes, that is.

[@beta_unknow3050]

@@pisfool3860 It's sad. Fortunately we can download it for now

[@JamesIrwins78s]

@Pisfool, Oh and don’t forget about solar flairs. The entire internet would be lost, well at least for a short time, and even then a lot would still be lost.

[@ferociousgumby]

The chords and cadences are recognizably and unmistakeably Handel, even if they're very hard to make out. I keep thinking of FOUR THOUSAND singers sitting up there - what if you had to go to the bathroom? You'd be exploding by the end of it. Also, what if a fire broke out? Tens of thousands of people, half of them in bulky skirts and corsets, running for the exits.

[@skittlehappymatt]

In a way you can hear the purity in their voices.

[@arekhautaluoma4276]

Ah yes, the old nostalgia as history.

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

This 3-part recording ranks with my favorite recordings of all time. Close your eyes and your ears are in audience with Queen Victoria, William Gladstone, and thousands of others, hearing Handel's Masterwork "Isreal in Egypt". Every year on June 29, I play this for the wife and kids as we look at pictures of the Crystal Palace. LIsten to this with headphones on and you can hear the tenors and sopranos exchanging lines, the orchestra, and the organ. It's an incredible trip back in time !

[@zzascha5512]

Do you happen to have the restored Webrarian version? Much of the cylinders were digitally cleaned up, and one could even hear the words "Thrown into the sea" at the very end of the oratorio.

[@Fuzileer]

This should be the most viewed video on youtube. Its so important to listen to and... Just is very wonderful.

[@BlazeMaster]

Wow, hearing an actual concert from 1888, now that's a gift even if it's just these few cylinders.

[@Ryan-on5on]

Hearing this early recording and others of a similarly great antique age is an eerie and profoundly revelatory exercise in humility, akin to witnessing the haunting apparitions of an era long-passed and long-forgotten. It makes one realize how ephemeral and cruelly brief in duration our own lives are in the great cosmic picture of things.

[@metteholm4833]

If only the noise could be removed...yes it sounds almost creepy, like an after-life thing - and yet it is so moving.

[@BlackFlagHeathen]

I wish I had some sort of time machine so I could be there and hear what this sounded like in person.

[@TravisaInc]

agreed

[@worldsno1drwhofan]

Being able to listen to this is an incredibly emotional and moving experience. To be able to sit and hear a living snapshot of people 120 years ago is just mindblowing.

[@theo4248]

this is haunting

[@QueenElsa1845]

Theo Veakins You've got to remember, this was very new technology, back in those days. Anna said it sounded very much like what we heard.

[@zzascha5512]

+Queen Elsa (Snow Queen) You mean you listened to this when Edison was alive?

[@QueenElsa1845]

Xx_FaZe_ZZASCHA _MLG_Xx Yes, I was.

[@zzascha5512]

Queen Elsa What?

[@zzascha5512]

Queen Elsa​ How can you live for that long?

[@ferociousgumby]

Ethereal, other-worldly, yet recognizably Handel. There were supposedly thousands of singers up there.

[@BlackFlagHeathen]

It’s actually kind of cool that this sounds like a bunch of ghosts, since these people have all been dead for decades and decades. It’s hauntingly beautiful.

[@TravisaInc]

agreed

[@ewanodoherty2545]

The opening 3 mins or so comprise the first two movements of Part II of 'Israel' : No 17, ' Moses, and the Children of Israel' and 18, 'I Will Sing Unto the Lord', because our choir are rehearsing it for performance in June(!). When I can identify the remaining movements on this 1888 recording I will post them, obviously more than one cylinder's worth of recording was carried out. To be able to hear something like this recorded 125 years ago is incredible , enjoy

[@musgrave68]

goosebumps!! 122-year-old voices singing handel in unison! haunting...for lack of a better word...

[@njlillycline]

If you increase the speed 2x, it makes it easier to interpret as what we’re accustomed to with Handel. As another commenter pointed out, this was performed in a slower tempo rather than a quicker baroque

[@aechtrob4775]

As the anniversary of this concert passes recently again this year, I ponder that it won't be awfully long until this performance is closer in time to the premier of the oratorio in 1739 than it is to the time of someone listening online.

[@RedSox4JC]

When you put it into perspective, it really isn't that long ago that this was recorded. My great Grandfather was born two years after this recording and he only died 24 years ago at the age of 100 when I was 13 years old.

[@YokozunaNumber1]

+Mike Bales From 1986-1989, I had a substitute school teacher who was a Victorian, Mrs. Webb, a kind and proper elderly woman, who still had blonde hair and always wore a peach ruffled shirt. I'm only 34. It is possible that she, in her earliest years, was in direct contact with 1700's people. Time moves too fast. One day people will look back on this period and say, "Wow! That was a really long time ago."

[@danielcarneiro5483]

@@YokozunaNumber1 that's cool! how old was she??

[@RedSox4JC]

​@MuggleSnuggles that sub was either lying to you or she was well over 100 years old because the last person to die who was born in the 1700s died in 1908.

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

@@YokozunaNumber1 that’s a complete lie fact the oldest revolutionary war soldiers died somewhere around the 1850s around Civil War time or somewhere around the 1820s so your teacher would’ve been over well over 100 around her hundred30s to 180s to talk to people who were in the 1700s so that’s extremely unlikely

[@RavenclawEspioXV]

It may not be considered the oldest recording in the world, but this is for sure, bar-none, priceless.

[@danielcarneiro5483]

the oldest is from 1860 but this might be in the top 10 oldest

[@windows7professionalgamex480]

i keep having nightmares of me being in this abandoned house and then randomly hearing this music play.

[@zzascha5512]

We are listening to the voices of a different age. Their clothes were different, the technology was primitive, and during this period, the death rate was higher than it is now. In fact, the Crystal Palace, where this cylinder was recorded, would burn down 48 years later.

[@bryant7542]

I wouldn't say primitive technology. It just seems stone age compared to what we have now.

[@bryant7542]

I prefer the clothing of back then. People looked so much more upright in a way, gentlemen dapper and ladies proper. Like it should be.

[@bryant7542]

Beau Howard Yea true but people weren't fatasses back then so I doubt it was too much of a strain. People just didn't throw on a t shirt and jeans then run outside back then. I'm sure they had clothing more suited for the summer but people apparently smelled weird back then, I doubt there was much in store for hygiene options. I think people should let this come back but also wear free flowing things that are comfy. I'd rather the flowing clothes of the Renaissance over this crap now.

[@zzascha5512]

Well, those corsets caused many a woman to faint.

[@thenorthamericanphonograph1039]

@@beauhoward5258 I used to do civil war re-enacting and wore wool clothing, surprisingly it insulates you from the heat some. I used to march in 100F parades and not have too much problem.

[@triky808]

Wow, this is amazing! I did not know there were two other parts to this performance that were recorded and exist! I can't believe how clear the sound is even though this whole thing was recorded back in 1888 and never imagined I would get the chance to hear this at all!

[@habdman]

I love the tape sound and the compression it has

[@jordanlorts]

no u dont u just think that'll make u sound cool

[@dedion-boutonondemand]

It’s not tape. That was recorded on wax cylinder, the first recording format. It’s not as much compressed as it is recorded on very outdated tech (a horn and wax).

[@and2409]

Love 80s music

[@cefinau]

🤣

[@ericjc4979]

So this is from 1888. Here we are in 2015. Yes. It's obvious that everyone that was alive at the time of this recording are long gone. But if u think about it really, this was not made an extremely, super duper, enormously a long time ago. Just about 20 years, there will still living people that were alive when this was recorded. Edit: I should have edited this 3 years ago. But oh well. I meant to say 20 years ago.

[@zzascha5512]

NinjaTheBaptist ! He means the year 1995, genius.

[@eduardof7322]

How are you aware of something yo commented fours years ago?

[@RedSox4JC]

My Great Grandfather was born 2 years after this was recorded and he died when I was 13 and he was 100. I'm now 42 years old. So it really isn't that long ago. And to think that there are two living men whose Grandfather, not Great Grandfather, but GRANDfather was President Tyler, the 10th U.S. president born in 1790.

[@imbored-sv4ro]

I refuse to believe that 2015 was already 8 years ago wtf

[@BSNFabricating]

This is fascinating! The recording may not be in great shape, but this is where it all started...all the improvements since then have been engineering, based on what Edison and others discovered at the beginning. The fact that they could play back what had been recorded must have been like magic...

[@joegalvan3838]

This recording was made before scholars had more or less rediscovered that Baroque time was quicker than conventional Classical (the Early Music revival was in its infancy in the late 19th century) so this choir is actually singing Händel's music 2x slower than it was intended to be performed. The sheer length of this concert must have been extraordinary, but its spiritual and artistic influence would have been deeply appreciated, especially for those lucky enough to have attended this concert.

[@jeffbaker7236]

Damn! This thing is in dire need of remastering!

[@shawnchi]

The oldest recording of a human voice was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1860. He recorded himself singing a French song "Au Clair de la Lune". The quality, however, is incredibly poor.

[@m134mr]

the second cylinder is really clearer! just amazing :)

[@SuperAndrew418]

FUN FACT: This recording is older than Nintendo, 86 days apart.

[@zzascha5512]

Actually, Nintendo was founded in 1889.

[@SuperAndrew418]

@@zzascha5512 You're right, my mistake.

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

@@zzascha5512 I thought it was in 1980

[@rubber4532]

Very creepy, like wailing of ghosts.

[@trixzitailz4151]

This is one of oldest live recordings in existence. Back then every recording was live in a sense because there was no practical way to duplicate them. Edison invented wax cylinders in 1888 so there very few recordings older than this. It's like you have your ear to the door inside the crystal palace where they were made.

[@RedSox4JC]

This is the oldest recording of a concert. The older recordings are of individual people singing.

[@MUSICALLAN]

Absolutely amazing!! Thank you for posting!!

[@tacetmusic]

Awesome. Came by this via the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast, all about the stories behind sound and sound recording, highly recommend!

[@agwrr71productions79]

Sure, Edouard Leon Scott's phonautograms are decades older, but these are the earliest airborne sounds, recorded at a consistent tempo that could be played more than once, AND without the use of modern technology.

[@TravisaInc]

agreed

[@Long_island_2017]

Listening to this is so cool but very spooky/ghostly.

[@dxroadduke]

Amazing! As someone had said earlier, this old recording truly is mindblowing!

[@stevenledbetter9997]

The Earth shed its skin since that time, all a memory, but art lives on.

[@mr.vintage4889]

131 years ago...Jesus Christ.

[@KylieRos3]

Tell me about it. It's amazing how far we've come with technology and such.

[@themilkman1334]

This is literally my jam

[@iduedz]

"All one big ant hill."

[@PriceRight89]

Who would have thought we'd be connected more than 300 years through the internet. Amazing.

[@Slidies]

U still alive?

[@imbored-sv4ro]

@PriceRight89 You alive?

[@1234-z8x]

Haunting, ghostly, but beautiful

[@TravisaInc]

agreed

[@BlackFlagHeathen]

Wow, this entire thing is a relic. The recording is from 1888, this video was uploaded to KZbin in 2008.

[@williamtown4058]

I wonder if August Manns, choir, musicians or audience knew if they were being recorded during the entire time?

[@zzascha5512]

I'm sure there was a note beforehand.

[@williamtown4058]

Xx_FaZe_ZZASCHA _MLG_Xx Ah

[@BobKlass]

I'll bet they had no concept of "a recording."

[@williamtown4058]

@@BobKlass Probably not.

[@ddsteller]

Garrison Keillor wrote about this recording in his Writer's Almanac today - June 29, 2010 - See the link under today's date on the Writer's Almanac website. Thank you so much for posting this. The photo really brings it to life! Amazing stuff.

[@waderaney7]

We can still hear this from 131 years ago😀👋

[@johnkiunke5617]

I'm usually not affected as much by things like this, but my heart starting pounding while listening to this.

[@bryant7542]

Why was your heart pounding?

[@johnkiunke5617]

I don't know, it's kind of like I'm not supposed to be listening to it or something.

[@bryant7542]

John Kiunke It is long before our time so it's strange to our ears. In that way I agree, we aren't supposed to hear ancient people.

[@safetychoice]

indeed fascinating. I might just suggest that with modern audio editing software, the scratch can be taken out and the sound greatly improved. Might be interesting.

[@d60944]

It is interesting, but realy Schonberg cannot have been correct, and I am surprised he perpetrated this. I have checked up Bell and Tainter's dates for their gramophone (which prompted Edison to construct his own), but they also did not create a proper working model until 1887 ('invented' 1885, patented in 1886). All of this was in the US, well away from Liszt in any case. The myth of a Liszt recording was also given another airing by Kenneth Hamilton in his book on the B min Sonata by the way.

[@GreatWestern175]

Haunting enough that this was recorded in 1888 the year of the Jack the Ripper murders

[@WarfareRidge]

These new Minecraft ambient sounds are kinda interesting

[@gertiethebus]

Lol

[@diarioemisordigital1380]

Believe it or not, listening to this reproduction transports me to the past, just as I would have lived that time.

[@VinylToVideo]

@StarSupernova The picture is from the 1926 Crystal Palace Handel Festival.

[@top20fanatico]

Still better than Skrillex

[@zzascha5512]

Damn it, KZbin.

[@shockedmusic1]

@@trogon4503 this ''shit''? what the fuck kind of tastes do you have?

[@Karlfalcon]

After some heavy filtering and hard listening it sounds like the first band on Cylinder 2 my be the end of "The Depths Have Covered Them" (...the bottom as a stone) which is an extremely quiet movement and would explain why only the barest of chords are audible.

[@Mae4Ever]

What's the weird "chugga chugga chugga" sound in the beginning?

[@scp7802]

The Cylinder it was recorded on was damaged.

[@noveltybobel]

Does anyone know which part of Israel in Egypt this is? I'm trying to find a modern day performance of it to compare.

[@marcxopoco]

Thanks for posting. Incredible.

[@paulhease1007]

Do we know who the soloists are?? I read in Kilvert's Diary of a visit he took to this concert in 1874 and he mentions sopranos Otto Alvsleben & Lemmens Sherrington, bass singers Santley & Foli. I wonder if they are here too?

[@Likes_Trains]

Only '80s kids remember this

[@ptownfreddy]

Gorgeous and CREEPY!

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

I’ve noticed the recording gets quieter and a little bit more static as it goes, just a little thing

[@TheOneAndOnlyZeno]

The score for reference - Cylinder 1 - page 127, bar 2: conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/4/4b/IMSLP18795-PMLP44449-HG_Band_16.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0OU1VykhmM91pkEA5BTRN597RpBqBfHOWZJfZSp518ouG4pTJZGSCRx60

[@GeorgeVreelandHill]

We think that the technology changes of today is amazing, but it pales in comparison to the advances of years ago. Another thing to remember is that while we get better with things, they started it all. For instance, the 1860's to the 1960's was quite a time. Think of all the advances. Man has been to the moon. We can't seem to get that far today. Anyway, thank you for posting this gem. It is a piece of history. George Vreeland Hill

[@youcanlearnalotfromlydia]

This is very interesting but the description isn't quite accurate: this isn't the oldest music recording; there is an 1860 recording of Clair de Lune which is playable and by Leon Scott on his phonautograph. Edison used Scott's phonautograph himself in the 1870s but perfected the ability to readily play back music with his phonograph.

[@d60944]

I think it's fair that the phonoautographs are not "deliberate recordings of music"" as anyone would reasonably understand that expression! They were scientific studies into visual representations of audio waveforms.

[@youcanlearnalotfromlydia]

@@d60944 But they were pieces of music and they were recorded deliberately, i.e. on purpose and not by accident. They were designed for businessmen and it was thought that they would become a form of technology that we today would probably describe as speech to text software, e.g. for transcribing minutes in meetings. It's true that Scott didn't predict the demand of audio technology for entertainment but he did deliberately record music with a view to further experimenting with and developing his technology.

[@youcanlearnalotfromlydia]

@@d60944 Your description says "These are the earliest deliberate recordings of music known to exist (earlier recordings from the 1870s are considered lost)." I don't think that's quite accurate because early recordings were not accidental, they were deliberate and exist. Somebody contacted me today with your link and his understanding was this is the oldest recording of music ever. Hence I suggested clarifying, because Clair de Lune in 1860 is a viable, playable recording and was certainly no accident!

[@d60944]

@@youcanlearnalotfromlydia It's a matter of opinion on definitions really. There are several phonoautograph traces from the same period, not just the one the media obsessed about. The phonoautograph was an experiment to see what waveforms looked like - there was never any intention to be able to play the sound back whatsoever and it never crossed anyone's mind that that was even something that was conceptually possible. It had to wait until 1877 before someone even thought of reconverting the trace back to sound, but no-one put this into practice until 2008 - as such it is up for discussion on what we mean by a "deliberate recording" in the sense of what we are talking about. While the phonoautographs represent the ability to reconstruct sound, and represent a kind of "recording" I suppose, I struggle to interpret them as "deliberate recordings of music" in the everyday sense of those words, without a lot of reading-backwards of intentions. They are not very different in some ways from actual notation when you think about it. Tomaytoes tomahtoes.

[@PatriciaCoberly]

I wonder what would have happened if these cylinders could have been ordered back then. Imagine the work needed to produce so many of these recordings, which would have been done immediately at the source!

[@brazencoronet17]

I don't even find it remotely creepy, rather somewhat relaxing and philosophical. What's really interesting as the choir is the only part intact though I think there was an orchestra as well.

[@dgpiercer]

Thank you so much.

[@j.ag.3537]

check the restoration archive channel, they did some improvements on the accoustics of one of the cillinders

[@jancatperson8329]

This recording is crap - but every now and then the beautiful voices rise above the noise and I realize we’re listening to our however-many-times great grandparents or their contemporaries, people whose names many of us don’t know and who never knew about any of us, but there they are. It’s why I will keep coming back to listen again and again for the rest of my life.

[@gamerawesome64dd91]

The music I can hear the Angel's sound

[@anavader9019]

This is just amazing. Yeah, the tempo is way toooo slow!!!, was this originally recorded with this slow cadence? did it sounded like this when the cylinders were played back then, or has it been degraded?

[@agwrr71productions79]

This is how it was recorded. The reason why it's slow is because people at the time were afraid that if they performed at the original tempo, the Crystal Palace would shatter.

[@d60944]

No - I believe you are mistaken. Please check your Schonberg source! Edison came up with the phonograph idea in 1877, but between 1878 and 1888 he did NO work with it whatsoever (he was otehrwise engaged with lightbulbs and radio).. He did not construct his first proper phonograph until 1888, in response to patent issues being compromised (in 1885 by Bell and Tainter). Before then there were no phonograph machines around to record with in Europe. However, Liszt had died in 1886.

[@thenorthamericanphonograph1039]

Thomas Edison started going back to the phonograph in mid 1887. Some scholars try to say a lab book dated Jan 1, 1887 was Jan 1888, but I think 1887 is correct. Two phonographs pre-date the June 16th Edison leaning over the perfected phonograph photo. The earlier Edison machine from 1887 has a wooden base, and open on and off lever, it has not closed box type base, although the phonograph fits in a mahogany box, the whole machine. It runs on 2volt wet cell DC battery) The motor was exposed, It has a spectacle, like the 1888 machine, however the motor runs the rim of the cylinder mandrel, instead of belt driven like the class M and the Perfected 1888 phonograph. I made display cylinders for this phonograph.

[@d60944]

@anavader9019 This is the tempo of the actual performance. THe pitch of the Crystal Palace organ is known accurately, and these playbacks give the correct pitch (therefore they are at the right tempo) No doubt the cylinders when fresh would have captured more sound..... but then again this was experimental, and we know that Gouraud had a hard time getting far enough away from the music to get a distortion-free recording at all.

[@leegraham3473]

It's hard to make out what there were singing

[@marwwa56]

I cant describe my feelings while listening to 19th century recordings ... ☺💔

[@imbored-sv4ro]

The 80s, what a time to be alive!

[@luislaplume8261]

1888 was the year my late mother's father emigrated to Cuba where she and her brothers were born.

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

How old are you?

[@luislaplume8261]

@@JosephSlater-tf9ji I am 68 years old. Came to New York City with my late parents and my uncle's family on August 2, 1956 when I was a 2 month old baby. I consider myself as a New Yorker since I grew up there and I am a naturalized American citizen. By the way I am old enough to remember the New York International Auto Show of 1962! 😊

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

@@luislaplume8261 nice☺️☺️💯

[@JosephSlater-tf9ji]

@@luislaplume8261 hello again