The Pattison Waltz (1889)

[wks1978]

If you slow the speed down about 10% I think the tempo of the piece sounds more correct also. Bear in mind their pitch was probably lower than the A=440 of today.

[wks1978]

The link to the sheet music no longer works. Does anyone have it saved?

[chrisz78]

I've just noticed that the transfer is one half-tone sharp compared to the sheet music - does she really sing it in D (instead of the original D-flat), or is the cylinder running fast? The announcer certainly sounds more relaxed and natural at the slower speed.

[d60944]

@chrisz78 PS - super find with the sheet music! As to the speed, I have no idea - this is an "official" recording of the cylinder..... do we trust them to get it right?

[chrisz78]

@d60944 No, we can trust them to use quartz-controlled 120rpm (or whatever the accepted standard speed for this type of media was) without bothering for one moment what "D-major" means. Someone with knowledge of music might have noticed the skips in the first verse as well!! The old machines had freely adjustable rpm, but no device for precisely measuring the actual speed, so the "nominal standards" must be taken with a large grain of salt (+/- 10% or more than a half-tone tolerance).

[chrisz78]

She does sing the (Italian!) words, although most consonants are rendered inaudible by the dull recording. You can read along with the sheet music found at hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1877.0­9628 . The announcer sound like Gouraud to me (cf. his introductions of Sullivan or Gladstone). It isn't possible at any rate that the announcer is the pianist, as the time between his last word and the first piano note is much too short for him to walk away from the horn and sit down at the piano!

[karlsalz]

which was the voice at the beginning?

[d60944]

@karlsalz It might be Wangermann (the pianist), who was one of Edison's technicians and recording people. That is the normal assumption. Then again, it might be someone else....

[aaronchocolateface]

Sounds like she's trying to sing with a mouth full of mashed potatoes..

[mademoisellecora19]

increible!! a sond from 1889!!! o.O

[theguyof1900]

I mett mr. edison years ago in 1884 when I was a lad of 15 years old he was a swell guy indeed I also strarted playing piano that year however when I was a lad of 7 in 1876 I would hope on my grandmothers piano here & there I was in quiere by 1875 so i started singing & much later in 1887 i my voice would be on the phonograph I recorded music from 1887-1951 again 1974-1978 then i died & now im alive agian hahhhhaa.

[Neurozumim]

I'm looking for any of these songs from 1889. Any exist on record?

"Four Little Curly Headed Coons" James W. Wheeler

"My Darling's Face" Stephen Massett

"The Song I'll Ne'er Forget (My Mother's Lullaby)" Julian Jordan

"What A Wounderful World It Would Be" J. S. G. Paul Dresser [Dreiser]

[transformingArt]

Now you can compare the voice of Wangemann with the introduction announcement in the Brahms Cylinder.

It is so sure that the person introducing Brahms is NOT Wangemann.

I have already have a copy - much cleaner copy than this transfer - but I won't post it because you already did.

[d60944]

I don't believe it was ever normal for the performer to introduce themslves on these rolls though. All the other Gouraud and Block cylinders awith spoken intros are introduced by someone other than the performer (with a few notable and rare exceptions). I think it must have been something to do with being able to watch the recorder closely to make sure it was running up to full speed and the roll had begun - which the performer could not see as easily as someone standing over the machine,.

[chrisz78]

@d60944 Many SINGERS introduce their own recordings, which is logical as they were already standing in the proper position. A pianist or conductor however would have been sitting/standing in the completely wrong place for the task, seconds before he was supposed to start his performance, so in these cases it was usually left to the studio staff to speak the introduction. The recording engineer OTOH stood behind the machine so he wouldn't have been able to talk directly into the horn either.

[d60944]

@chrisz78 I'm afraid the assumption you're making is wrong, though it makes good sense! The almost-contemporary Block cyclinders (same technology) include Sandra Droucker saying "Oh, I forgot to say that I am Sandra Droucker" with her rendition of Chopin Prelude op.28 no.8 in 1898, and Anna Essipova saying "I Anna Nikoleayevna Esspiova played at the apartment of Julius Ivanovich Block" on her performance of Godard Gavotte op.81 no.2. in 1898. These have no appreciable gap between voice and piano

[d60944]

@chrisz78 Also, at this time it was normal to have only one technician present. We know the pianist is Wangemann, and we know he was an Edison tecnician.... so the assumption is that it is Wangerman who acted as technician for this recording. This *could* be wrong, but unlikely. Whoever it is, it can't be Gouraud: he was Edison's agent in London from at least 1879 onward, and was not in New York. Edison sent his phograph to Gouraud in London in 1888.

[d60944]

@chrisz78 in any event, I have been led to understand the cylinder itself states both the pianist and the recording engineer were both Theo Wangemann.... if someone else was there to speak into the recorder, that would be very odd.

[chrisz78]

@d60944 Thanks for the update on the whereabouts of Gouraud, so he's out of the question. Still, it was more usual for the technician to stand by the singer's side and "direct" her movements in front of the horn - you will know the anecdote told by Gaisberg about grabbing the shoulders of some diva because she refused to keep the proper distance to the recording horn (closer for soft, low notes, further back for loud, high notes) on her own.

[chrisz78]

@d60944 Also, Wangemann's notebook (really the first extant "recording ledger") survives and has been published, listing all the commercial recordings he made as a technician in the late 1880s and early 1890s. On these, he NEVER is listed as a pianist himself; instead, Messrs. Franklin, Giesemann, and others are regularly listed as accompanists. If it had been so easy to do both jobs, why would Edison have engaged these pianists for Wangemann's recordings?

[d60944]

@chrisz78 That sounds convincing then! Perhaps not Wangemann on the piano then, but someone else. But still most likely to be Wangemann's voice as engineer...

[chrisz78]

@d60944 True, I forgot these! I was thinking of the usual setup for a singer with piano accompaniment: The horn in front of the singer's face, the upright piano behind the singer (preferably lifted onto a podium so that the center of the resonating board was level with the singer's head) and the pianist sitting behind the piano, so he'd have to walk around the piano, climb two or three stairs up the podium and sit down at the piano stool between talking and playing.

[pianopera]

How do you know that the introduction here is spoken by Wangemann?

[wks1978]

@transformingArt The accent of the introducer on this recording sounds American.

As Wangemann was preparing to play at this time, I tend to think it was not Wangemann introducing the recording.

[themfromspace]

It's a shame Edison had such horrible taste in music. It would be nice if there were more recordings from the calibur of Brahms and (to my knowledge destroyed) von Bulow.

[d60944]

The Bülow is not definitively known to be destroyed. The cylinder(s) could still turn up I guess.

[aewanko300]

Wow, high sound quality from a cylinder. Thanks.

[snaaptaker]

You're sure this is not Florence Foster Jenkins? :))

[sisterspure]

I'm quite sure it is not Florence Foster Jenkins.

Poor old Flo could never have performed as well as this!

[AngelicaTross]

Too bad the sound quality of the Brahms cylinder is not as good as this, and too bad Liszt did not live another three years.

[kasyapa]

the world needs more nyiregyhazi, though.