Hi, Jerry,

I can't get the link to work.  I'm trying to viewthe notes. 

Steve Smolian


-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gerald Fabris
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 8:21 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Early European Edison Phonograph Recordings Released


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/photosmultimedia/theo-wangemann-1889-1890-european-r
ecordings.ht  
 

   m.

 

 

 

   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:

   [log in to unmask]

 

   Patrick Feaster ([log in to unmask], 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 www.nps.gov/edis .

 

                                            -NPS-