Guitar recording from 1907

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Ramon Amira

Posts: 1025
Joined: Oct. 14 2009
From: New York City

Guitar recording from 1907

I never knew there were sound recordings over a hundred years ago, but someone on Delcamp posted this. It's a guitar recording. Imagine if somebody somewhere has some flamenco guitar recordings from that era.

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr%201=21&query=Guitar&num=1&start=5&sortBy=&sortOrder=ia

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Classical and flamenco guitars from Spain Ramon Amira Guitars

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 16 2010 2:46:57

Guest

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Ramon Amira)

thanks for the link

always thought those old barrios recordings were the among the first guitar recordings

appreciate the info

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 16 2010 4:49:22

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Ramon Amira)

Interesting. But when were the first recording "machines" invented? And how did they work? Thats equally interesting..^^

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 16 2010 14:04:05

Ramon Amira

Posts: 1025
Joined: Oct. 14 2009
From: New York City

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Doitsujin)

quote:

Interesting. But when were the first recording "machines" invented? And how did they work? Thats equally interesting..^^

After I posted this, I got to wondering that very same thing myself. Incredibly, it turns out that Edison made his first recording device in 1877!

By the 1880s lots of recordings were being made. I seriously doubt that any flamenco guitarist of the time was recorded, but it's at least extremely remotely possible. Imagine if there exists somewhere recordings of some of the legendary flamenco guitarists of the nineteenth century that we have all read about. It's mind boggling to think of actually hearing some of them play. And singers too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder

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Classical and flamenco guitars from Spain Ramon Amira Guitars

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 16 2010 15:41:58

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Doitsujin)

Doit,

It's also on the site..

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history.php

The first streaming audio..

Streaming off the cylinder, through the horn and right into your earhole...

I like how at the beginning only a very small amount of cylinders could be made from the original performance, so the artist had to stay all day doing it again and again for each small batch.

Now THAT would make Paco, Tomatito et al really WORK for their money eh?

(BTW: they couldn't get the cylinder to spin fast enough to record video.
Edison came pretty close, but recorded only half a second on a standard cylinder. So he increased the length to 20 metres when the thing went on fire and burned the whole building down.)

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 16 2010 16:09:20

Estevan

Posts: 1936
Joined: Dec. 20 2006
From: Torontolucía

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Ramon Amira)

quote:

By the 1880s lots of recordings were being made. I seriously doubt that any flamenco guitarist of the time was recorded, but it's at least extremely remotely possible.

There are flamenco recordings from that era. The earliest available recordings of Manuel Torre are from 1909, and of Pastora Pavon from 1910, for example. There are flamenco recordings extant from as early as 1895, though they may not feature the big names you have in mind.

http://www.flamenco-world.com/magazine/about/cante_antiguo/ecant25022004-1.htm

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 16 2010 16:21:09

Ramon Amira

Posts: 1025
Joined: Oct. 14 2009
From: New York City

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Estevan)

Amazing. I have heard the Manuel Torres recording before, and I have a couple of Nina de los Peines also, but I didn't realize the recordings went back that far.

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Classical and flamenco guitars from Spain Ramon Amira Guitars

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 17 2010 3:36:43

Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Doitsujin)

quote:

But when were the first recording "machines" invented?

There were recording devices before Edison Prom.

Harold told me about recording onto paper rolls way before metal cylinders were comercially available.
The idea of storing sound on cylinders came from music boxes, self playing pianos, barrel organs, fairground rides etc where a tune could be stored by positioning spikes on a large rotating barrel. This idea is over 500 years old. It was this idea that Edison developed to record sound onto. Before Edison people discovered sound could be stored on paper rolls like a graph. Unfortunately there was no machine to play them back. Recently computors have been used to translate those sound rolls and make a digital recording. However sound could be recorded into soot on paper and played back again nearly 20 years before Edison.

The first sound recording of a voice was made in 1860. You can hear it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_recording_and_reproduction

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 20 2010 14:01:54

Ramon Amira

Posts: 1025
Joined: Oct. 14 2009
From: New York City

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Pimientito)

Thanks Pim –
It's unbelievable. 1860. I never dreamed that sound recording went back that far. I do have records made from player piano performances, but that came later. Most of the great pianists of the early twentieth century recorded them. The rolls were able to reproduce not just the notes but dynamics and pedaling as well. I have a recording of the Bach Chaconne played by Busoni.

Too bad someone didn't invent an analogous device for guitar, though I don't know how you could do it. Today if you have a player piano and rolls you can hear someone like Rachmaninoff play almost like it was live. Imagine if we had a "Player Guitar." I keep fantasizing about actually hearing some of the great guitarists of the long distant past, but alas, it's not to be.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 20 2010 15:44:53

Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

RE: Guitar recording from 1907 (in reply to Ramon Amira)

Not to worry. The guitar is a modern instrument. Torres was making modern guitars from the mid 1850s so we have most of the archive recorded now. Thats 120 years of guitar history available. I doubt there is another instrument that has so much (as a percentage) of its musical history recorded. Amazingly there is still a wealth of material in the archive from Barrios, Arcas, Llobet, etc. unavailable as digital recording...still lots of work out there for the classical players to catch up on!!!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 21 2010 8:46:37