Genres on cylinder records

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GoCOOGS!
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Genres on cylinder records

Post by GoCOOGS! »

What genre of music would you typically find on Edison (or any other brand) cylinder records? I love cylinder Phonographs and how they look but honestly I just don’t like the music from the late 1800s pre 1920s. I LOVE 1920s big band and jazz but I haven’t really been able to find any on cylinders, I’d say because that’s when 78s were becoming popular.

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Wolfe
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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by Wolfe »

Cylinders were fading as jazz was coming in, not a whole lot of jazz on cylinders, no big band at all. Minimal country music, no blues. Any other kind of fare that you may find on discs pre-1920 is on cylinder.

lioret
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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by lioret »

Part of the fun listening to cylinders is opening your ears to music genres that no longer exist. Since you're interested in jazz, the late dance band material Edison Blue Amberols is a good access point. Cylinders of bands like the Golden Gate Orchestra are very listenable, and you will find some very tasty solo work on them too. From there, you can work your way back chronologically into more challenging genres. Some of the comic songs remain extremely funny (even risqué) by today's standards. The descriptive selections with their combination of music, story and primitive sound effects are quite entertaining. Imagine people in their Victorian parlors listening to Steamboats at the Wharf, the Capture of Santiago or the Destruction of San Francisco (by the earthquake). Another area to explore are the earlier dance cylinders like quadrilles, lanciers and schottisches. All of these are adaptations of European country dances. They are quite bouncy, and it's easy to imagine people in their parlors tapping their feet or dancing.

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Chuck
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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by Chuck »

Marching bands are one of my favorites on cylinders.

Civil war and World war 1 tunes are excellent.
Blue Amberol "Medley of war songs" is a fine example.

Then there are coon songs, those are always hilarious
entertainment. Blue Amberol "Darky School Days"
is one of the best of those.

Then there are the many Edison "street scenes"
and ethnic sketches such as "Auction sale of
a musical instrument store", "Night trip to Buffalo",
etc.

How about barbershop quartets? Black wax Amberol #110
is (in my opinion) the finest of that genre ever made.

All of those genres are very well represented
on cylinders.
"Sustained success depends on searching
for, and gaining, fundamental understanding"

-Bell System Credo

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edisonphonoworks
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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by edisonphonoworks »

Marches, Religious music, Opera, comic, and popular music,Ragtime, Minstrel music, rural comedy, coonsongs until about 1917 were king, and for a long time after that. Jazz was added to the catalogs in 1917 with "The Original Dixieland Jass band. The Buddy Bolden cylinder would be considered the first Jass recording, and was only recorded once in 1907, By Oscar Zahn, a grocer in New Orleans. The shed with the cylinders was torn down in the 1960's however the phonograph still exists It is a little lie by the collector community that Jazz and blues were no. 1 to the buying public, in reality it was considered wild, and shunned by most people especially in the country. Edison said that Jazz music was "for the Nuts!". Some fox trots, and band records in the late 20's and Yes later in the game some Jazz and country, minstrel records, comic records, coon songs (not politically correct, using term of that era.) Cylinders were king from 1890- about 1910, and both machines sold in both the country and city, but not after about 1912, as discs were promoted more for the city, and cylinders for rural areas. You see Cylinders and Discs came out roughly at the same time, Cylinders about 1889-1890 for the first COMMERCIAL metallic soap cylinders. Discs Berliner discs, as early as 1887, and produced on a small scale, as a toy. Early discs sounded pretty poor due to the process of making early disc masters, by beeswax treated with petrol-ether, and coated on a polished zinc disc. The zinc disc cut by a sewing needle stylus and then treated with chromic acid in water, so that the exposed zinc was etched into the zinc master. Cylinders were made by direct recording on aluminum soap with a soft moisture repellent wax such as paraffin, or ceresin wax. The recording stylus of sapphire and a fine glass recording and reproducing diaphragms. The clarity and articulation of the cylinder, and higher recording speed (120-160) compared to the about 70-78rpm of the early disc record, made the cylinder able to record higher frequencies than the discs and be more intelligible, than the early disc record . The discs would be considered a little louder than the cylinders, and the frequency response of the disc not going as high, about 3,000cps, while cylinders at time could achieve 8, or even 10K on the high end, with 6k on average for the HF limit . Things started to change when E.R. Johnson improved the disc record by using a metallic soap master record, and jeweled cutter (He might have even melted down Edison brown wax to make early "wax" disc masters.) This started to make the disc a serious competition to the cylinder, especially the fact discs were able to be duplicated easier, and more disc records fit in a given space.

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Wolfe
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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by Wolfe »

For the benefit of the OP, I don't think the Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band ever made any cylinders. Yes, they recorded disc records for Columbia and then Victor starting in 1917, first issued by Victor.

The Buddy Bolden cylinder is lost. Various dates have beeen bandied about for it's recording date. Some as early as 1903.

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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by Victrolacollector »

How about a copy of the Tiger Rag which was recently recorded in 2017.

http://www.berlinphonographworks.com/

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edisonphonoworks
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Re: Genres on cylinder records

Post by edisonphonoworks »

I am still waiting for the Buddy Bolden movie to come out. I was called out twice for movie in Wilmington N.C. The original recording was done with an Edison Standard B, that is in the Zahn family (would make the 1907 date more feasible.) We used the Edison Triumph with studio recorder for the movie, and an Edison Standard to play it back. The new Berlin Phono works cylinder is a good lively tune for a cylinder phonograph.

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