It Came Upon the Midnight Clear -- The Carol Singers

This is a recording of "The Carol Singers" performing the classic Christmas carol "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," as recorded for Edison Records in 1915. This is an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder record, catalogue #2769, and it is being played on my Edison Amberola 50 phonograph. (The audio level is rather low, so turn your speakers up.)

Note: For some reason the cylinder skips in several places, most notably in the first line of the opening stanza, and then briefly in the second stanza (during the line "Still through the cloven skies...") and again for a brief moment towards the end of the cylinder. I do not know if it is the fault of my player or if there are just some scratches on the cylinder; in any event, these skips aside, it plays well.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• It
• Came
• Upon
• the
• Midnight
• Clear
• The
• Carol
• Singers
• Christmas
• 1915
• Edison
• Blue
• Amberol
• Cylinder
• Record
• 2769
• Amberola
• 50

[Casathious]

@Lucius1958 I don't think it is the fault of the machine; I had two copies of this particular cylinder, and only this one would skip when it played, so I'm guessing there were scratches on the cylinder itself. Thank you for the advice, though!

[Lucius1958]

Have you had any restoration done on the machine? A thorough cleaning and re-oiling of the mechanism is always a good thing.....

If the cylinder is not badly scratched, skipping and repeating can sometimes be caused by the floating weight on the reproducer being too stiff on its hinge; some careful adjustment and lubrication might help. You might also check whether the horn is causing any drag on the carriage; if so, adjusting or replacing the spring might help.....