Recovered Sounds
One phonautogram, created on April 9, 1860, was revealed to be a 20-second recording of the French folk song "Au clair de la lune". While it was initially believed to be the voice of a woman or adolescent, further research in 2009 suggested the playback speed had been too high and that it was actually the voice of Scott himself, singing the song very slowly. Also recovered were two 1860 recordings of "Vole, petite abeille" ("Fly, Little Bee"), a lively song from a comic opera. Previously, the earliest known recording of vocal music was an 1888 Edison wax cylinder phonograph recording of a Handel choral concert.
A phonautogram containing the opening lines of Torquato Tasso's pastoral drama Aminta has also been found. Probably recorded in April or May 1860, this phonautogram is the earliest known recording of intelligible spoken words to be played back, predating Frank Lambert's 1878 talking clock recording. Earlier recordings, made in 1857, also contain Scott's voice but are unintelligible because of their low quality, brevity and irregularity of speed.
Although these brief, crude, muffled recordings are very difficult to understand, even for native speakers of the languages used, they are remarkable as echoes of sounds now more than 150 years old.
Read more about this topic: Phonautograph
Famous quotes containing the words recovered and/or sounds:
“Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)