Early European Edison Phonograph Recordings Released
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:27 am
Copied from Phonolst on Yahoo Groups
Thomas Edison NHP News Release
For Release: Monday January 30, 2012
Contact: Jerry Fabris
Phone: 973-736-0550 x48
Early European Edison Phonograph Recordings Released
WEST ORANGE, NJ – Today the National Park Service announces the first-time
release of 12
historic sound recordings made by Thomas Edison’s recording engineer Theo
Wangemann on
wax cylinders during 1889-1890 in Germany, Austria, Prussia, and France. The
recordings
include the voices of eminent German historical figures Otto von Bismarck and
Helmuth
von Moltke, and several performances by important musicians of the period.
The sounds
are available on-line in MP3-format at:
http://www.nps.gov/edis/photosmultimedi ... pean-recor\
dings.htm
On Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:00 noon, historian Patrick Feaster, will
present a
one-hour program about the recordings, titled Theo Wangemann: The Man Who
Made the
Phonograph Musical. This presentation will explore the life and career of
Theo
Wangemann, who was arguably the world’s first professional recording
engineer. Also at
the program, collector Stuart H. Miller, M.D. will exhibit the phonograph
used by
Wangemann in Europe during 1889-1890. The program will be held in the
Laboratory Complex
at Thomas Edison National Historical Park, 211 Main Street. The entrance fee
to the park
is $7.00, children under 16 are free. Seating is limited and reservations
are required.
Reservations can be made by calling 973-736-0550, ext. 89.
Museum Curators first cataloged the damaged wooden box containing the wax
cylinders in
1957, found in the library of the Edison Laboratory. In 2005, the National
Park Service
completed a multi-year project to individually catalog every historic sound
recording in
the museum collection. Curators noted that the box contained 17 brown wax
cylinders in
fair and poor condition, several broken with large pieces missing. No title
list or
other identification survived in the box with the recordings, so the
recordings could
not be identified until they were heard. In 2011, the park's Curator of
Sound
Recordings digitized 12 of Wangemann's 17 cylinders using a French-made
Archeophone
cylinder playback machine, saving the audio as Broadcast Wave Format files.
(Five of the
cylinders could not be digitized due to their condition.) Once the audio
could be
heard, historians Stephan Puille and Patrick Feaster identified the sounds
and wrote two
scholarly essays, which are included with the recordings on the Thomas Edison
National
Historical Park website.
Entrusted by Thomas Edison with the task of applying the newly developed wax
cylinder
phonograph to music, Theo Wangemann oversaw the first regular production of
pre-recorded
cylinders at the Edison Laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey in 1888-89,
ushering in
the beginnings of the American musical recording industry. Then, in 1889-90,
Wangemann
played a prominent role in introducing Edison’s invention to continental
Europe.
---------------------------
Stephan Puille is a conservator of archaeological finds and technical
employee at the
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW Berlin) - University of
Applied
Sciences. For more than ten years he studies the history of sound recording
from the
beginning up to 1914, holds lectures and writes articles on the subject. In
addition, he
is a phonograph and phonogram collector who concentrates on early and
historically
significant items. Contact: Stephan Puille, Hochschule für Technik und
Wirtschaft
Berlin, Wilhelminenhofstraße 75A, 12459 Berlin, Germany. E-mail:
Stephan.Puille@...
Patrick Feaster (pfeaster@..., 812-331-0047) is a researcher and
educator
specializing in the history and culture of sound media. A co-founder of
FirstSounds.org
and two-time Grammy nominee, he received his doctorate in Folklore and
Ethnomusicology
in 2007 from Indiana University Bloomington, where he is currently a lecturer
in the
Department of Communication and Culture, a member of the Media Preservation
Initiative,
and an instructor for the School of Continuing Studies.
Thomas Edison National Historical Park is a National Park Service site
dedicated to
promoting an international understanding and appreciation of the life and
extraordinary
achievements of Thomas Alva Edison by preserving, protecting, and
interpreting the
Park’s extensive historic artifact and archive collections at the Edison
Laboratory
Complex and Glenmont, the Edison family estate. The Visitor Center is
located at 211
Main Street in West Orange, New Jersey. The Laboratory Complex is open
Wednesday
through Sunday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. For more information or directions
please call
973-736-0550 ext. 11 or visit our website at http://www.nps.gov/edis .
-NPS-
Thomas Edison NHP News Release
For Release: Monday January 30, 2012
Contact: Jerry Fabris
Phone: 973-736-0550 x48
Early European Edison Phonograph Recordings Released
WEST ORANGE, NJ – Today the National Park Service announces the first-time
release of 12
historic sound recordings made by Thomas Edison’s recording engineer Theo
Wangemann on
wax cylinders during 1889-1890 in Germany, Austria, Prussia, and France. The
recordings
include the voices of eminent German historical figures Otto von Bismarck and
Helmuth
von Moltke, and several performances by important musicians of the period.
The sounds
are available on-line in MP3-format at:
http://www.nps.gov/edis/photosmultimedi ... pean-recor\
dings.htm
On Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:00 noon, historian Patrick Feaster, will
present a
one-hour program about the recordings, titled Theo Wangemann: The Man Who
Made the
Phonograph Musical. This presentation will explore the life and career of
Theo
Wangemann, who was arguably the world’s first professional recording
engineer. Also at
the program, collector Stuart H. Miller, M.D. will exhibit the phonograph
used by
Wangemann in Europe during 1889-1890. The program will be held in the
Laboratory Complex
at Thomas Edison National Historical Park, 211 Main Street. The entrance fee
to the park
is $7.00, children under 16 are free. Seating is limited and reservations
are required.
Reservations can be made by calling 973-736-0550, ext. 89.
Museum Curators first cataloged the damaged wooden box containing the wax
cylinders in
1957, found in the library of the Edison Laboratory. In 2005, the National
Park Service
completed a multi-year project to individually catalog every historic sound
recording in
the museum collection. Curators noted that the box contained 17 brown wax
cylinders in
fair and poor condition, several broken with large pieces missing. No title
list or
other identification survived in the box with the recordings, so the
recordings could
not be identified until they were heard. In 2011, the park's Curator of
Sound
Recordings digitized 12 of Wangemann's 17 cylinders using a French-made
Archeophone
cylinder playback machine, saving the audio as Broadcast Wave Format files.
(Five of the
cylinders could not be digitized due to their condition.) Once the audio
could be
heard, historians Stephan Puille and Patrick Feaster identified the sounds
and wrote two
scholarly essays, which are included with the recordings on the Thomas Edison
National
Historical Park website.
Entrusted by Thomas Edison with the task of applying the newly developed wax
cylinder
phonograph to music, Theo Wangemann oversaw the first regular production of
pre-recorded
cylinders at the Edison Laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey in 1888-89,
ushering in
the beginnings of the American musical recording industry. Then, in 1889-90,
Wangemann
played a prominent role in introducing Edison’s invention to continental
Europe.
---------------------------
Stephan Puille is a conservator of archaeological finds and technical
employee at the
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW Berlin) - University of
Applied
Sciences. For more than ten years he studies the history of sound recording
from the
beginning up to 1914, holds lectures and writes articles on the subject. In
addition, he
is a phonograph and phonogram collector who concentrates on early and
historically
significant items. Contact: Stephan Puille, Hochschule für Technik und
Wirtschaft
Berlin, Wilhelminenhofstraße 75A, 12459 Berlin, Germany. E-mail:
Stephan.Puille@...
Patrick Feaster (pfeaster@..., 812-331-0047) is a researcher and
educator
specializing in the history and culture of sound media. A co-founder of
FirstSounds.org
and two-time Grammy nominee, he received his doctorate in Folklore and
Ethnomusicology
in 2007 from Indiana University Bloomington, where he is currently a lecturer
in the
Department of Communication and Culture, a member of the Media Preservation
Initiative,
and an instructor for the School of Continuing Studies.
Thomas Edison National Historical Park is a National Park Service site
dedicated to
promoting an international understanding and appreciation of the life and
extraordinary
achievements of Thomas Alva Edison by preserving, protecting, and
interpreting the
Park’s extensive historic artifact and archive collections at the Edison
Laboratory
Complex and Glenmont, the Edison family estate. The Visitor Center is
located at 211
Main Street in West Orange, New Jersey. The Laboratory Complex is open
Wednesday
through Sunday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. For more information or directions
please call
973-736-0550 ext. 11 or visit our website at http://www.nps.gov/edis .
-NPS-