This week we leave our usual format for an exciting look at the changing History of Recorded
Sound and a sound based medical break through which eradicates cancer without side effects.
Guiding us on this journey are David Giovannoni, Second Thought, James D’angelo,
The Team at You Are Creators & Anthony Holland.
Join Us (Today) Monday At 12 Noon (Melbourne Australian Time)...
Streaming Worldwide From http://rppfm.com.au/stream
Replayed Sunday At 9pm...
Videos From Today's Show Will Be Available From,
The Soul 2 Soul Facebook Page,
https://www.facebook.com/Soul2Soulrppfm/
& The Soul 2 Soul You Tube Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/Soul2SoulOnAir
Hear Soul 2 Soul Podcasts Here,
http://www.soul2soulonline.com/podcasts
www.soul2soulonline.com
The history of sound recording begins here.
"Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented sound recording
when he conceived of a machine that would do for the ear what
the camera did for the eye. His "phonautograph" inscribed
airborne sounds onto paper, over time, to be studied visually.
He called his recordings "phonautograms". Collections of his
work lay silent and forgotten in venerable French institutions
for 150 years—their provenance indisputable and their chain of
custody uninterrupted. Following leads offered by First Sounds
researcher Patrick Feaster and tips gleaned on the trail, David
Giovannoni located six collections containing several dozen
sound recordings made in Paris between c.1853 and 1860.
Neither Scott de Martinville nor his contemporaries conceived
of playing back his recordings; however, First Sounds—Patrick
Feaster in particular—has coaxed nearly 20 to speak and sing
to date.
Scott de Martinville first imagined an apparatus to gather and fix airborne
sounds, patterned after the human ear, while editing Professor Longet’s
Traité de Physiologie. In 1853 or 1854 (he cites both years) he began
work on “le problème de la parole s'écrivant elle-même” [“the problem of
speech writing itself”]. By the end of 1857, with support from the Société
d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, his phonautograph was
recording sounds with sufficient precision to be adopted by the scientific
community. As a laboratory instrument it contributed for decades to the
nascent science of acoustics.
His vision was as much aesthetic as scientific, and he was captivated by
his invention's power to register the ephemeral onto paper: “Pourra-t-on
conserver à la génération future quelques traits de la diction d’un de ces
acteurs éminents, éminents, de ces grands artistes qui meurent sans
laisser après eux la plus faible trace de leur génie?” [“Will one be able to
preserve for the future generation some features of the diction of one of
those eminent actors, those grand artists who die without leaving behind
them the faintest trace of their genius?”] He imagined many uses for
sound recordings. But what he didn’t imagine was a day when recorded
voices might be heard again. Nor did anyone else until, with notable
synchronicity in mid-1877, Charles Cros sketched the idea of his
paléophone in France and Thomas Edison began work on the phonograph
in the United States.
Scott de Martinville's meticulously documented experiments were logged
upon receipt by three venerable French institutions and reported in
contemporaneous publications. In addition, an album of phonautograms
presented to Henri Victor Regnault has been in the possession of the
Institute of France since its accession of Regnault’s papers upon his death
in 1878.
In 2008 First Sounds located and played back a Scott de Martinville
recording made 17 years before Edison invented the phonograph. The
editors of The New York Times considered this development (and sound)
so significant that they broke the story ahead of its embargo on the
paper’s front page. Within hours it was international headline news: in
1860 a forgotten inventor sent a voice into the future and researchers had
just recovered it. Granted, inscribed in a haze of smoke it had not pierced
the veil of time unscathed. Like all of his surviving recordings, it is crude
by today’s standards of fidelity. Nonetheless it is aurally interpretable, and
it retains the indisputable distinction of being among the earliest
recoverable sound recordings.
In recognition of the technological and cultural significance of Scott de
Martinville's recordings, the Library of Congress inducted all of them into
its National Recording Registry in 2011. UNESCO followed in 2015 with
their inscription onto its Memory of the World Register. These are
humanity’s first recordings of its own voice—each seminal and
unique—the first vocalizations captured from the air by machine, inscribed
onto a permanent medium, disembodied from their speakers, and sent
into the future to be heard more than a century after their speaker's
death.
Resources
The ARSC Journal has published Patrick Feaster's definitive annotated
Discography of Scott de Martinville Phonautograms. Feaster has
also prepared The Phonautographic Manuscripts of Édouard-Léon
Scott de Martinville in which he offers transcriptions of the texts in both
the original French (annotated to show textual variants) and a strict
French-to-English translation.
David Giovannoni has assembled a facsimile of each Scott de Martinville
dossier held in Parisian archives. These facsimiles offer immediate visual
access to source materials. Derived from our high definition scans of
handwritten documents or reprinted from long unavailable texts, the
facsimiles trace the invention and development of airborne sound
recording in Scott de Martinville's own words (with commentary by his
contemporaries). They also contain an image of each phonautogram.
Principes de Phonautographie (1857)
Here Scott de Martinville gives his first account of the phonautograph and
offers as documentation his very first experiments.
Brevet d’Invention (1857) and Certificat d’Addition (1859)
Scott de Martinville's only drawings of his phonautographs survive in
these patent documents.
Graphie du Son (1857)
Scott de Martinville tells of his invention’s progress six months after
Principes de Phonautographie.
M. Scott’s Procedures for the Graphic Fixation of the Voice
(1857); Jules Lissajous’ Report to the Society (1858);
Phonautographe et fixation graphique de la voix (1859)
This is the complete Scott de Martinville dossier preserved by the Société
d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale—the society of prominent men
who worked with him in 1857 to develop his invention. We have also
included the society's formal assessment of the phonautograph's
capabilities and an influential 1859 edition of Scott de Martinville's
'Fixation Graphique de la Voix.'
Fixation et Transcription du Chant (1860)
Scott de Martinville presented this album of phonautograms made in
March and April 1860 to Professor Henri Victor Regnault from “his devoted
and grateful servant and student”.
Inscription automatique des sons de l’air au moyen d’une oreille
artificielle (1861)
Scott de Martinville presented these materials to the Académie des
sciences de l’Institut de France to document his ongoing work in
phonautography. This deposit and Regnault’s album contain his most
technically-adept recordings.
Le problème de la parole s’écrivant elle-même (1878)
Near the end of his life, Scott de Martinville self-published an anthology
that documented his work on the “problem of self-recording speech.” He
led off with an essay conosidering the significance of his work in light of
Edison’s newly-invented phonograph. This is his concerted and final effort
to set the record straight for future generations. Facsimile in French, with
English preface."
Reproduced From First Sounds.org with Thanks
Sound and a sound based medical break through which eradicates cancer without side effects.
Guiding us on this journey are David Giovannoni, Second Thought, James D’angelo,
The Team at You Are Creators & Anthony Holland.
Join Us (Today) Monday At 12 Noon (Melbourne Australian Time)...
Streaming Worldwide From http://rppfm.com.au/stream
Replayed Sunday At 9pm...
Videos From Today's Show Will Be Available From,
The Soul 2 Soul Facebook Page,
https://www.facebook.com/Soul2Soulrppfm/
& The Soul 2 Soul You Tube Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/user/Soul2SoulOnAir
Hear Soul 2 Soul Podcasts Here,
http://www.soul2soulonline.com/podcasts
www.soul2soulonline.com
The history of sound recording begins here.
"Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented sound recording
when he conceived of a machine that would do for the ear what
the camera did for the eye. His "phonautograph" inscribed
airborne sounds onto paper, over time, to be studied visually.
He called his recordings "phonautograms". Collections of his
work lay silent and forgotten in venerable French institutions
for 150 years—their provenance indisputable and their chain of
custody uninterrupted. Following leads offered by First Sounds
researcher Patrick Feaster and tips gleaned on the trail, David
Giovannoni located six collections containing several dozen
sound recordings made in Paris between c.1853 and 1860.
Neither Scott de Martinville nor his contemporaries conceived
of playing back his recordings; however, First Sounds—Patrick
Feaster in particular—has coaxed nearly 20 to speak and sing
to date.
Scott de Martinville first imagined an apparatus to gather and fix airborne
sounds, patterned after the human ear, while editing Professor Longet’s
Traité de Physiologie. In 1853 or 1854 (he cites both years) he began
work on “le problème de la parole s'écrivant elle-même” [“the problem of
speech writing itself”]. By the end of 1857, with support from the Société
d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, his phonautograph was
recording sounds with sufficient precision to be adopted by the scientific
community. As a laboratory instrument it contributed for decades to the
nascent science of acoustics.
His vision was as much aesthetic as scientific, and he was captivated by
his invention's power to register the ephemeral onto paper: “Pourra-t-on
conserver à la génération future quelques traits de la diction d’un de ces
acteurs éminents, éminents, de ces grands artistes qui meurent sans
laisser après eux la plus faible trace de leur génie?” [“Will one be able to
preserve for the future generation some features of the diction of one of
those eminent actors, those grand artists who die without leaving behind
them the faintest trace of their genius?”] He imagined many uses for
sound recordings. But what he didn’t imagine was a day when recorded
voices might be heard again. Nor did anyone else until, with notable
synchronicity in mid-1877, Charles Cros sketched the idea of his
paléophone in France and Thomas Edison began work on the phonograph
in the United States.
Scott de Martinville's meticulously documented experiments were logged
upon receipt by three venerable French institutions and reported in
contemporaneous publications. In addition, an album of phonautograms
presented to Henri Victor Regnault has been in the possession of the
Institute of France since its accession of Regnault’s papers upon his death
in 1878.
In 2008 First Sounds located and played back a Scott de Martinville
recording made 17 years before Edison invented the phonograph. The
editors of The New York Times considered this development (and sound)
so significant that they broke the story ahead of its embargo on the
paper’s front page. Within hours it was international headline news: in
1860 a forgotten inventor sent a voice into the future and researchers had
just recovered it. Granted, inscribed in a haze of smoke it had not pierced
the veil of time unscathed. Like all of his surviving recordings, it is crude
by today’s standards of fidelity. Nonetheless it is aurally interpretable, and
it retains the indisputable distinction of being among the earliest
recoverable sound recordings.
In recognition of the technological and cultural significance of Scott de
Martinville's recordings, the Library of Congress inducted all of them into
its National Recording Registry in 2011. UNESCO followed in 2015 with
their inscription onto its Memory of the World Register. These are
humanity’s first recordings of its own voice—each seminal and
unique—the first vocalizations captured from the air by machine, inscribed
onto a permanent medium, disembodied from their speakers, and sent
into the future to be heard more than a century after their speaker's
death.
Resources
The ARSC Journal has published Patrick Feaster's definitive annotated
Discography of Scott de Martinville Phonautograms. Feaster has
also prepared The Phonautographic Manuscripts of Édouard-Léon
Scott de Martinville in which he offers transcriptions of the texts in both
the original French (annotated to show textual variants) and a strict
French-to-English translation.
David Giovannoni has assembled a facsimile of each Scott de Martinville
dossier held in Parisian archives. These facsimiles offer immediate visual
access to source materials. Derived from our high definition scans of
handwritten documents or reprinted from long unavailable texts, the
facsimiles trace the invention and development of airborne sound
recording in Scott de Martinville's own words (with commentary by his
contemporaries). They also contain an image of each phonautogram.
Principes de Phonautographie (1857)
Here Scott de Martinville gives his first account of the phonautograph and
offers as documentation his very first experiments.
Brevet d’Invention (1857) and Certificat d’Addition (1859)
Scott de Martinville's only drawings of his phonautographs survive in
these patent documents.
Graphie du Son (1857)
Scott de Martinville tells of his invention’s progress six months after
Principes de Phonautographie.
M. Scott’s Procedures for the Graphic Fixation of the Voice
(1857); Jules Lissajous’ Report to the Society (1858);
Phonautographe et fixation graphique de la voix (1859)
This is the complete Scott de Martinville dossier preserved by the Société
d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale—the society of prominent men
who worked with him in 1857 to develop his invention. We have also
included the society's formal assessment of the phonautograph's
capabilities and an influential 1859 edition of Scott de Martinville's
'Fixation Graphique de la Voix.'
Fixation et Transcription du Chant (1860)
Scott de Martinville presented this album of phonautograms made in
March and April 1860 to Professor Henri Victor Regnault from “his devoted
and grateful servant and student”.
Inscription automatique des sons de l’air au moyen d’une oreille
artificielle (1861)
Scott de Martinville presented these materials to the Académie des
sciences de l’Institut de France to document his ongoing work in
phonautography. This deposit and Regnault’s album contain his most
technically-adept recordings.
Le problème de la parole s’écrivant elle-même (1878)
Near the end of his life, Scott de Martinville self-published an anthology
that documented his work on the “problem of self-recording speech.” He
led off with an essay conosidering the significance of his work in light of
Edison’s newly-invented phonograph. This is his concerted and final effort
to set the record straight for future generations. Facsimile in French, with
English preface."
Reproduced From First Sounds.org with Thanks
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