Fun_People Archive
15 Apr
Oldest audio recording found!!


Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 09:34:24 GMT-0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: Oldest audio recording found!!

#### Forwarded from the Mostly MIDI mailing list (midi@blink.att.com)
From: mtqua!dad (D Decourcelle +1 908 957 3631)
Subject:  Oldest audio recording found!!

Music News  F L A S H ....

While doing construction work in France, the workers dug up an old
metal box.  Inside the box they found a near faded letter and a glass cylinder.
Not knowing what they had found, they turned it over to a local historian
who was able to make out the writing.  What he discovered was

                THE FIRST KNOW AUDIO RECORDING !!

The letter was written by one Hippolyte Sot, resident of the area in
the 1840s.  The letter described the techniques he had devised to
record audio sounds using a glass cylinder.  It went on to say
that despite his efforts he was unable to obtain any interest nor
recognition for his work.  He therefore buried the details of this invention
in the metal box along with one sample recording.  The recording was
none other than

         FREDERICK CHOPIN playing his own Waltz in D flat major!

The magazine says that the recording was made about 20 years earlier
the those created by Leon Scott, the person normally attributed with
the invention of audio recording.  It also gives additional detail
about the inventor and how the information was retrieved from the glass
cylinder. And whats particularly interesting is that H. Sot had NOT
invented a playback technique, and it took 20th century technology to
recover the audio information recorded on the cylinder.

To get all the details, get a copy of the latest issue of CLASSIC CD
magazine.  And yes, the CD included with the magazine includes the
recording.  Its the only recording of Frederich Chopin, and he displays
some pretty fantastic playing ability.

Spectacular!

    -Don





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