Researchers have found a song recorded before Edison’s phonograph.
A Frenchman used a phonautograph [a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back] on April 9, 1860. The song is 10 seconds of a crooner singing “Au Clair de la Lune.” Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville went to his grave convinced that Edison had usurped his aural breakthroughs. Using computers, an American team was able to play the recording of a anonymous vocalist singing over a “lilting 11-note melody.”
Interpretating sound in a different unusual way is also the subject matter of documentary Touch the Sound. German documentarian Thomas Riedelsheimer focuses upon the nearly-deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie and her perceptions of sound. Evelyn teaches that sound is about touch. A bonus of the feature is an improvisational recording with the musician Fred Frith. By confronting our assumptions of the deaf, the viewer can reach a deeper awareness of a world of sounds. ~ David P.
Leave a Comment