Leon Scott's COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY 1853 - 1860

The complete audible discography of Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville, the world's first recording artist, and French inventor of the Phonautograph. Although it's believed Scott made hundreds of recording experiments, only 50 survive today, and of those, the following have been educed for listening. Pictures of most of these accompany the sounds you will hear. Special thanks to the researchers at FirstSounds.Org for the sounds and images and their great research !
0:00 Notes played on guitar by Adolphe Giacomelli (1853 or 1854)
Plays 2 times !
0:06 First ever voice recording captured from the air (1853 or 1854)
Plays 3 times !
The above two recordings are Scott's first experiments, a proof of concept made before his device was completely built.
0:11 Phonautography of the voice at a distance (March 1857)
0:17 Song of the voice, changes in tone (July 1857)
1:25 Song at a distance ("The Echoes") (August 17, 1857)
1:43 Ashen Pipe (Aug - Oct. 1857)
2:15 Stylus of Bristle (Aug - Oct. 1857)
3:10 The Sound of a Deep Voice (October 1857)
3:26 The Lord's Prayer (October 1857)
3:50 Study of the Timber of the Voice (November 1857)
4:20 The Timber of the Cornet (December 1857)
All the above recordings were made with no timecode listed by Scott, so we can only guess at a proper playback speed. All are believed to feature the voice of Leon Scott except the 1853 guitar solo, the "Song at a Distance", with a possible young girl guest vocalist, and "The Timber of the Cornet" with an unidentified cornet performer.
4:32 Tuning Fork Vibrating at 435 Hz (Late 1859)
At This point, Scott was using a tuning fork timecode for his recordings, so proper intelligble playback is possible.
4:39 Au Clair de la Lune (at 2 speeds, in 2 different takes.) (April 9 & 20, 1860)
5:11 Shakespeare : Othello excerp (2 takes) (April 17 & 18 1860)
5:50 R, I, RI, R, A, RA, RIRA (Will Laugh) (April 18, 1860)
6:08 Racine : Phedre (excerp) (April 19, 1860)
6:30 Tasso : Aminta (excerp) (April - May 1860)
6:45 Vocal Scale (May 17, 1860)
7:04 Cherubini : Et Incarnatus Est (Sept 1, 1860)
7:21 Masse : Fly, Little Bee (September 1860, or later)
Update : Visit my channel to hear the 1857 cornet recording in restored condition, with it's pitches corrected to a proper playback performance.

[@orionsuniversepart2932]

Fun fact: Did you know that those primitive sound recordings were never intended for playback? The sounds were just imprinted on stoveblack paper. When scientists discovered those ancient sounds, they analyzed the soundwaves imprinted onto computer and reproduced it into sound that we can hear. (For those who didn’t know)

[@ohmygoshitscole]

That’s crazy. Back then he just drew a picture of the sound, and now we can turn the drawing back into a voice

[@GetOutsideYourself]

He was a stenographer, looking for a more efficient way to quickly transcribe. It didn't occur to him to include playback.

[@SatellaNNW]

6:46 Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Doooo!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!

[@ryangray2846]

He's telling the future to listen to his mixtape.

[@Leukefilms]

My laughing chimney is a creepy guy

[@alexanderstiefelmann5982]

The pre-1859 recordings are completely unintelligible - no wonder many consider the first "true" audio to be "Au Clair de la Lune".

[@slayerfiend]

the cornet is intelligible

[@ferociousgumby]

I believe that may well be an elaborate form of autotune. You hear what you want to hear.This made a HUGE splash when it came to light, then sort of petered out. The web site hasn't been updated in 15 years.

[@xxfalconarasxx5659]

That's because he didn't start putting timecodes in his recordings until 1859, so it is difficult to discern what the proper playback speed would be, and trying to correct the playback speed is a nightmare to do, because the playback speed of his recordings would constantly fluctuate, depending on the speed in which Leon rotated the hand crank. The Tuning Fork recording he made in 1859 was a major breakthrough, as it was the first time he was able to implement timecodes for calibration. The only pre-1859 recording that has been properly reconstructed is his Cornet Recording from 1857, which isn't in this video (but a link is in the description). I would assume scientists were able to make sense of this one because of the simplicity of the sound, being merely a scale recording. Hopefully more of his uncalibrated recordings will be deciphered in the future. Unfortunately, the pre-1857 recordings might never be fully deciphered, not just because of the lack of timecodes, but because they were recorded using an unfinished prototype of his phonautograph, which could only record in brief snippets, and filled the recordings with artifacts.

[@hamburgerhamburger4064]

The 1857 is partially understandable but not to many

[@hamburgerhamburger4064]

Not all of them, jut one in specific

[@zlymaciek]

Still better quality than voicechat kids mics on CSGO

[@TravisaInc]

agreed

[@OL_WUZ_HEER]

Yep

[@miguelreynoso8437]

3:27 hardstyle from 1800s!!

[@Pnjenny-ix7rx]

TRUE LMAO

[@TomokoAbe_]

Ghostly sounds from the past centuries old--truly amazing and gives me chills listening to these sounds long gone and dead.

[@JacksonTheEpic]

It’s so weird to think that I’m hearing shit from almost 200 years ago

[@Silligk]

i wonder if he has any living family, imagine how weird it must be to hear you great-great-great-great-father on recording

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

Edouard's great-grandson, Laurent Scott de Martinville, made an appearance with the FirstSounds group at the 200th birthday celebration of Edouard in 2017 ; this video is available on KZbin.

[@danielcarneiro5483]

he has a great grandson and he made a speech

[@deliusamat7705]

it's quite the experience listening to these recordings while reading horror stories

[@ultimatethwallbrkr]

6:30 his real voice

[@-yeme-]

I wonder how he improved his device, like what was his process, considering he had no means of replaying his recordings to see how good or bad they were. but theres a clear progression in quality from the first attempts which really just registered that a noise had been made rather than accurately transcribing any of its characteristics, to more or less audible human speech

[@Miakhano]

Leon Scott added tone correction signal to his recordings so we now can correct uneven speed of playback. That's why his works are much more audible since 1860.

[@jimmyjudha8424]

Let's read his paper. I also wonder with the same question. He might visually see the wave amplitude like today electrical engineer see oscilloscope. Or he might try different of his recoding device to get bigger wave amplitude and has better frequency response by seeing how waveform appear. Or just see how sound wave look like and compare with others device. At that time they can change sound to water wave and other device that shows sound wave is already exit.

[@godstroke]

Fly little bee literally sounds like a bee though.

[@SouthwesternEagle]

The first track was a real guitar solo? Holy crap! That's 1853 rock! xP

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

What sounds like a 4 note guitar solo is really 4 different recordings, each a snippet of a guitar performance. In 1853, Scott's phonautograph was still in it's proof-of-concept stage, and could only record very brief recordings.

[@Night-qs4co]

+Joe Orbin I thought that the first sound recording was made in 1859 to the year rather than in 1853 and it was. Because Leon Scott de Martnevill filed a patent application for his invention in 1857 th. And for the first time his voice is imprinted in the 1860th , and not in 1853 - ohm guitar and even more such celebrities as Adolf Giacomelli . As if he would give up everything and come running up to him and start to play the guitar . Since he is not having phonoautograph imprinted sound? And why on this audio recording no documentary evidence?

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

+Вася Пупкин For more information on the first experiments of Scott de Martinville, go to the First Sounds web site, firstsounds.org, and check out Patrick Feaster's Discography of Scott de Martinville link, pages 49 - 50. You can get there under the Quick Links section of their main page, under Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville. First Sounds remains the experts of Scott's work.

[@Night-qs4co]

thank you very much!!!

[@jadewarrior6665]

ikr 1850's music is so good I'm only 14 years old and i listen to Leon Scott i wish kids nowaday knew about 1850s music i was so born in the wrong generation

[@radhwangothic]

When you are in the car and it is your turn to take the AUX.

[@Alex-yy5wo]

This is my party, we’re listening to my 1850s mixtape

[@joshj8597]

I was born in the wrong generation! This is the music of my generation!

[@daMacadamBlob]

Seuls les enfants des années 1850 se souviendront de ça

[@starrequiem6053]

LMAOOOO

[@michaeltoner1993]

I'm 18 and don't like the music any of my friends listen to, Leon Scott's is where it's at!

[@thetriumphofthethrill2457]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing. And all the while I thought Edison's discovery was the oldest. One can witness the progress of the invention as the recording unfolds.

[@Sarah.Riedel]

The Triumph of the Thrill honestly Edison's true great talent was plagarism. He ripped off just about every one of his so-called "inventions." Really awful dude tbh.

[@KK-pq6lu]

Edison’s discovery was and is brilliant, and stunned everyone at the time. No one had any idea how to play back any recording or even thought of playing back - the goal at the time was to train people to read the squiggles! Edison figured out to impress the audio wave up and down into the foil - not sideways - which allowed him to reproduce the sound. The ability to pick up the grooves sideways was a decades later invention.

[@defanserb]

@@KK-pq6lu edison is a fraud

[@michaelcoder9119]

@Reidel Your agenda is flawed in the way that invention isn't only creation, but Improvement.

[@furbabies11]

I bet he didn't think his hottest album of the 19th century would be trending on KZbin still.

[@Relevance334]

adults : historical sound recording teens : science projects kids : sound of a mosquito flying

[@jeffbogue5022]

If we would have lived back then we would have been in awe of this new awesome invention

[@CoolCademMAnimates-fz1ui]

Actually Scott was hardly recognized and until 2008 when his recordings were found, Thomas Edison & the Phonograph took all the credit.

[@doctorhamburger1346]

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting and annotating it.

[@kickassdragonwarrior3346]

Omg this is creepy, but magical at the same time...

[@gabriella280659]

Thank you very much for this sharing!

[@AtlasCalavera69]

Very cool Knowing That Originally The First Recordings With The Phonautograph Only Could Record 1 Second, and the recordings in 1857 could record more than one minute, Im a fan Of this Channel!

[@zzascha5512]

Try listening to this and looking at Daguerreotypes. The creepiness will be completely amped up.

[@BSNFabricating]

I still want to hear that long-lost recording of Lincoln's voice. I know somebody has it hidden in their attic.

[@japanfanatic1415]

doesn't exist

[@xxfalconarasxx5659]

There is no recording of Lincoln's voice. There are a lot of rumours on the internet that he recorded Lincoln's voice in 1863, but in reality, Leon abandoned his project in 1860, due to financial problems, and donated most of his work to science academies. This was before Lincoln even became president.

[@jameshaley7665]

I don't think Leon even knew or was interested in Lincoln. Even if he wanted to record Lincoln's voice, he wouldn't be able to due to the US going through a Civil War during Lincoln's presidency.

[@CoolCademMAnimates-fz1ui]

There are no Abraham Lincoln recordings. Scott only made 1 phonautograph for his own personal use, usually at home in France. And his machine never left France.

[@noellemcclain]

We can only assume what he sounded like with dialect accounts

[@colinmontgomery5492]

Wow. Absolutely amazing. Thanks for sharing.

[@BigHushAffiliate]

Awesome Album cant wait for part 2!

[@JohnDoe-zh4li]

So primitive... it seems our modern technology dwarfs, if not obliterates, these 150-something-year-old recordings. Still, revolutionary at the time!

[@daMacadamBlob]

We will never have music like this ever again

[@Kemns_Art]

6:46 "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do". (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, G)

[@garyfletcher3630]

The last note is not G but C 1 octave higher.

[@garyfletcher3630]

Ti, not Si

[@Kemns_Art]

Gary Fletcher Not in Spanish.

[@nolaverveine7198]

the guy is french so its "si"

[@zzascha5512]

Actually, it's in D major.

[@Chubachus]

Very fascinating.

[@maniaque37]

why people have to post stupid comments... better say nothing than this! this is so great to hear those weird sounds... its how it all begun and theres nothing to joke about. your jokes aint funny at all.

[@gamerzooh1081]

wow what a funny comment ever ill like

[@gamerzooh1081]

this is the most great joke ive heard

[@xemy1010]

Absolutely fascinating!

[@rayman17578]

I wish he made more

[@esperamosendios3602]

Fantástico Me ha trasladado a una época memorable y lo he disfrutado

[@Aqua.man045]

0:00-0:03 first guitar riff.

[@Aqua.man045]

Also at 0:11 is him shooting a gun. Trying to see what it sound like in a recording.

[@duff06]

A LAZER GUN, at that! First recording of a PEWW PEWWW

[@WaffleAbuser]

First *recorded* guitar riff, you mean.

[@Lottistari]

0:01 what a bop

[@disgruntledunicorn007]

From 4.40 it's like you've hopped out of the Delorean, it's raining so you find shelter in a dark building and while you lean your back against a wall to rest, you hear a guy trying to record himself.

[@lodke1697]

0:00 Thrashiest guitar riff in the history of thrash metal

[@LaurentJames]

Né le 25 avril 1817, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville a été le premier chanteur de l'histoire à avoir enregistré sa voix, grâce à son phonautographe (antérieur de vingt ans au phonographe d'Edison). Scott de Martinville habitait en 1870 au 9 de la rue Vivienne, alors que Lautréamont habitait au numéro 15 !!! Dénichera-t-on un jour l'enregistrement de la voix d'Isidore Ducasse ?

[@williampryor4306]

This is so old.

[@randomvideos8722]

0:00 Only 1853 kids will remember.

[@faithisaenergy5519]

"When your great great great great grandfsther sends you his mixtape"

[@erikchavarin6085]

I was constipated once and had a moment similar to 3:10 and I could visibly see my stomach deflate.

[@mazz-grasradiowatchco.4763]

Ha!

[@mazz-grasradiowatchco.4763]

The next recording is of you TRYING to go.

[@clementeabyss8953]

Merzbow new album is on 🔥

[@Mr.Obongo]

3:26 dropping some dope ass beats

[@frantisekhabrda4586]

Total the most great. Only the waves on the piece on paper. He couldn't know, that nowadays the scientsts make it through, to give his voice into the audio format. Great!!

[@alexhippie2]

I wonder if one could EQ and fix the sound to isolate the voices etc

[@Ericaobviouslyx3]

They have tried but unfortunately this is truly the best they can get. The way they were recorded made the sound waves extremely inconsistent so today's technology had to piece it together the best it could.

[@zzascha5512]

@alexhippie2 Actually, they have fixed the sound with one, that being the 1857 phonautogram of the cornet.

[@filthylucreonyoutube]

As I write this in January of 2021, I can upload a B&W photo to a website that uses AI to colorize that photo. What will machine learning bring to these sonograms? I predict these will be rendered to the natural speaking voice of this man very soon. HiFi cylinder recordings? Get ready!

[@IPlayWithFire135]

@@filthylucreonyoutube We could easily use machine learning to create a crystal clear audio, but it would be only based on the recording. It still might be faithful to how it should sound.

[@ferociousgumby]

I won't sleep tonight.

[@MrPaevo]

So much warmer than CDs....

[@jamesatwellchannel]

sounds like he had a great case of the runs that day and left the phonautograph on...

[@DanneoYT]

Well done sir, you've won the internet for today

[@nathanbigsby8604]

That's what I was thinking, this guys farts ripped a hole in the space time continuum.

[@Absolutely_puck_fakestine]

I'm 10 years old and i like this !

[@RetroFan]

I'm going to try enhancing these in audacity.

[@Ant-mf1ru]

ha ha, I was thinking about doin' the same :) did you get anything interesting ?

[@sdasda4654]

@Libertatem Veritas 3 months later, this comment made my night. Thank you

[@seannaniganss]

Thanks for posting these! I've been looking for these! Where did you find them?

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

UltraCake Many of these came from Patrick Feaster's book "Pictures of Sound". If you are interested in old sound, this book is highly recommended. A few other Scott recordings, namely the 1853 experiments and the cornet solo, were played by the First Sounds group at their live presentations, and are not featured on their web site.

[@jonbowifdashoez]

UltraCakePlay hell

[@godspeed6096]

When our grandparents were young and listened to oldies, their grandparents were saying: "you young folks know nothing about music.We had the best music, not that oldies crap"

[@mazz-grasradiowatchco.4763]

But when it was new, it was called new, top-40 pop. Like music is now.

[@LoganL2008]

these are some serious bangers

[@hdkdhdodhdnddjfkfjfofkfofo1453]

At the "Ashen Pipe" recording, the date was wroten as: "octobre 1857". So it means that the "Ashen Pipe" recording was from October 1857.

[@jimmyjudha8424]

This is storage oscilloscope in 1800. I am very appreciated what his demonstration.

[@scott6_]

I was born in the wrong generation. THIS is real audio!

[@atomlightstone]

Tbh this guy has better sound recording equipment than I do

[@kargaroc386]

and this was an entire lifetime before most people had record players.

[@martink5186]

incredible

[@zebif2911]

merci pour cet ajout à la communauté

[@CoolCademMAnimates-fz1ui]

Still better than my mic

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

best thx

[@exaprima8]

I'm proud to be french.

[@sikkuburo5267]

That guitar at the beginning sounds almost exactly like the walking sound from Donkey Kong

[@DoomKid]

Woah.. it does!

[@azathoth0820]

first ever playlist

[@Finti-jg1jj]

Still waiting for the next album

[@b0ltun0]

HOW did they even manage to record soundwaves? its kinda fascinating

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

A horn with a membrane, and a pig's bristle for a stylus, scratching onto a moving piece of paper blackened by soot from an oil lamp. Yea, kinda fascinating.

[@anniarog777]

Its the first tekno-music too

[@andrewdemetrius8090]

Can't wait for the 2023 8 CD remastered boxed set, with outtakes and rehearsals........

[@memiest1119]

These Beats Slap Tho

[@Daxiloft]

ATTENTION 1853 HAD THE ATARI 2600

[@sheisbrit17]

Idk what I thought I was going to hear from well over 100 year old recordings. I really came here expecting to understand the noises.😂🤦‍♀️

[@nspcrazy1122]

What kind of music do you like? 50's music. Do you like Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker, the Big Bopper? No, 1850's music. Like The Echoes, by Leon Scott.

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

How about Strauss, Liszt, and Wagner?

[@nspcrazy1122]

@@JimPigMuseumOfSound There are phonautograms of them? I'd love to hear them.

[@itsallgood3210]

AT 1:35, Sounds like Curly from the Three Stooges

[@IceCreamMeatballs]

Please come to Brazil

[@LB-vb3jq]

And Harsh Noise Wall was officially invented.

[@williampalenik7306]

We had to start somewhere to start and record sound music etc.

[@Nick-kc6bt]

As argentinian i most say the first sound recorded in 1853 is as old as the constitution of my country.

[@xaviergutierrez278]

yeah!! this is real music

[@Mirkoyanque]

Still better than Justin Bieber

[@QueenElsa1845]

Mirkoyanque XD

[@mylesmccloud8746]

+Mirkoyanque Given the choice, I'd rather listen to a French inventor from the 19th Century sing horribly than listen to that no-talent Justin Bieber.

[@jamesgibby4018]

+McLeod Enterprises (Myles McLeod) he did not sing horribly it's the system that he made

[@jamesgibby4018]

+McLeod Enterprises (Myles McLeod) he did not sing horribly it's the system that he made

[@bornana269]

@@mylesmccloud8746 lmao i remember being 9 and hating justin just because everyone else did for no reason

[@garyfletcher3630]

Early jamming

[@th-bt6fn]

I can't believe living in the 19th century sounded like this!

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

when he gonna drop new album? streamings? gig at all?

[@iamdamosuzuki_]

So Harsh Noise is actually the oldest type of recorded music?

[@opalyasu7159]

The sound of a man zipping his long coat

[@525Lines]

Radio and cartoons have a precursor in France as well.

[@JimPigMuseumOfSound]

By cartoons do you mean the work of Emile Raynaud ? He was a brilliant pioneer in the work of motion pictures.

[@525Lines]

Joe Orbin Charles-Émile Reynaud, yup. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2Wpo4tpYr2ImLs

[@sir_dark_humor8673]

1:32 sounds like high pitched/ distorted farts

[@Wind-nj5xz]

Me: *trying to sleep* Some random mosquito for no reason:

[@jawwwp428]

Can you do “complete discography of Joseph niepce”

[@dogsareawesome9197]

0:22 first sound recording of a fart

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

this is real Merzbow, first noise artist at all

[@JohnPaulBuce]

new album when 😳

[@sei-core]

Good night

[@gustavoceballos5327]

5:50: Earlist recording of the Chant that we should all do

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

Also I don't get these, were they just making random vibrations to see if they could recreate a random sound?

[@isaacbruner65]

They were proving a sound could be recorded in visual format on a sooty piece of paper by the vibration of a stylus made out of a boar bristle with a bit of feather stuck on the end ;) Considering that, the results were spectacular.