The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

There are a number of forum members with pre-1900 records, some with significant numbers of them (cylinder and disc). Here's a post of almost a decade ago discussing and illustrating Berliner discs:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... iner#p4962

Brown wax cylinders are a bit trickier to date as being pre-1900 since they were offered until 1902/03 by the major companies. Still, well-informed collectors can often date such cylinders through several characteristics.

Some of us have recordings from the 1880s! Now that's a mind-blower...

George P.

I have a recording of the recording of the Johannes Brahms cylinder made in 1888 or so.

I have several hundred 1890's Berliners and brown wax cylinders. I've always enjoyed them as they provide us with an audible snapshot of what was popular in a very important decade in American history. I regard them as the closest we can get to a time machine. I also enjoy early silent films but many of those are a little later!

Victrolacollector wrote:As we move further into the 21st Century we find the early Pre-1900 recordings seem so distant in time and becoming scarce. How many of the forum members own early pre-1900 recordings? What are your favorite titles?

I only have the Vulcan Reproduction Cylinder recordings in brown color.

Trip to Chinatown
Sleigh Ride Party
I Tiddy I Ti
Why Should I keep from Whistling?

My favorite is Sleigh Ride Party

Just the opposite. With the internet.....far more very early pre-1900 records (disc & cylinder) have surfaced....where have you been hiding.... .

jmad7474 wrote: It is mind-blowing to think though, that when that record was released, Terrell's voice potentially amused an entire population of about 1.5 billion people on this planet, of whom NONE are still around!

What I think is actually mind blowing is that more than a hundred years after his death, Terrell has a much wider audience via the internet. Talk about immortality: our grandchildren and great grandchildren will still be listening to and talking about Terrell.

GW Johnson's "Laughing Song"
"Zizzy Zee Zum Zum" (already mentioned) is a really fun one
"Morning on the Farm " or "A Little Girls Composition on Eggs" are just bizarre.
"Georgia Camp Meeting" and "Hot time in the Old Town" are both dancy but imporrsiblento find clean.
The 5" Berliner #44 (a Prussian march) is both peppy and well recorded.
"Hot Stuff" Cakewalk on 2 minute cylinder (I'd kill for a decent copy)
"Eli Green's Cakewalk" and "Gayest Manhattan" are both great banjo solos.

Thos are some of my favorites in my ~150 mold library.

The earliest record I have is a 7-inch 1900 American etched label Zonophone of the delightful Cuban soprano Rosalia Chalia. She's one of the earliest, if not the first, really fine opera singer to make an extensive amount of recordings. Several years back, Ward Marston released a CD of all her extant recordings. This one is from Meyerbeer's opera "Star of the North" and Chalia's marvellous coloratura singing is on full display. She had a sweet voice that recorded quite well even on such primitive equipment. I believe there is a posting of this and other of her recordings on YouTube.
I'm fortunate to have a really nice clean copy with no needle wear or damage. I only play it on modern equipment with a 3.0 mil elliptical truncated stylus--and it plays in correct pitch at around 60 rpm haha!

Steven

I only collect celluloid, and not wax cylinders.

That being said, one of my favorite early celluloid records is Pink Lambert #918 Good Old Summertime.
I believe that this was recorded in 1902, the same year it was written.

Cheers, Bob S.[youtubehq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfs36JwtJx4[/youtubehq]

bfinan11 wrote:I've also never seen anything before 1901 in the wild - there probably just weren't that many made (combined with people not being as likely to hold onto the old formats of 7" discs and brown wax cylinders). All I've got is two Berliners that I bought from another member of this forum, "Rocked In The Cradle Of The Deep" from 1896 and "Zizzy Ze Zum Zum" from 1898-99.

Not that many made? In 1898 The Gramophone Company was still importing it's merchandise from the USA. Just one order comprised 3,000 machines and 150,000 records. These were significant quantities at the time, but probably a fraction of what was being made and sold in the USA's home market.

I'm fortunate to have joined the pre-1900 record crowd (Group? Crew? Mob? Congregation?) just last fall - with a generous gift from George Paul; the February 4, 1898 Berliner record "Kaiser March" by The Banda Rossa. Although I have 1 or maybe 3 pre-1900 brown wax cylinders, there's no way for me to be sure - and it doesn't really matter because they're really just trash because of the surface degradation anyway. To be honest, I've only recently (the last year or so) begun to appreciate the recordings associated with the hobby, and started watching, learning and acquiring a few pre-1910 discs.

-Fran