January 1 — Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the Nimrod, for Antarctica. January 13 — A fire at the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 170 February 1 — King Carlos I of Portugal and Infante Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon. February 12 — The first around-the-world car race, …
MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack I’ve lived through a couple of decades of recorded sound now — perhaps you have too — and as a result the world of 1908 seems almost entirely alien from the perspective of 1888. Recording technology has improved a great deal of …
Gustav Klimt – Danaë Pablo Picasso — Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Jacek Malczewski – Death of Ellenai Vardges Sureniants — Salome Lyonel Feininger — Der weiße Mann Ivan Grohar — The Sower Félix Vallotton – Andromède debout et Persée Mikalojus Konstantinas ÄŒiurlionis – Sonata of the Sun Robert Delaunay — Paysage au disque Gustaf Fjæstad — …
That Fatal Sneeze The Red Spectre Tunneling the Channel The Policemen’s Little Run The Golden Beetle The Dancing Pig The Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and Moon The Race For The Sausage Ride through Victoria and Vancouver, Canada Laughing Gas Premier Prix de violoncelle / First Prize for Cello The Lion Hunt Ben-Hur
I was interviewed last week for the United States WW1 Centennial Commission’s weekly ‘Centennial News’ podcast, and had the chance to discuss the musical trends of the era. The episode can be downloaded or streamed here – my part is 36 minutes in.
“This time James and Sean take a trip back to the 80s – the 1880s that is. Aside from the original music we have celebrity appearances from Arthur Sullivan, Johannes Brahms, William Ewart Gladstone and Queen Victoria herself (possibly) – plus some very drunk old Englishmen (not us)”
For UK readers, BBC4 are now re-showing the 2015 series Sound of Song. If you are interested in the history of sound recording and the ways in which changes in technology led to vast changes in popular music in the 20th century (and, as you are reading this, I’m guessing you are interested) then it’s …
Centuries of Sound’s radio show on Cambridge 105 is now available for listening at your convenience. Rather than simply present a mix of sounds from the year, here I discuss their recording and the world they were made in with my co-host Sean. This is our first ever show (sort of) so thanks for your …
Centuries of Sound on Cambridge 105 Radio – Episode 1 (1853-1885) Read More »
Not even close to being the first sound film, and not particularly advanced technologically (being simply a mime to a pre-recorded disc), it’s still something of a marvel to see this performance 20 years before ‘The Jazz Singer’ and a few years before even silent shorts started coming out of Hollywood. Three minutes of your …
An odd book, but not one I’m particularly fond of, The Wind in The Willows is a mix of Edwardian rapture at frolicking in the splendors of nature, the high-church volksgeist mysticism that was in vogue at the time and classic anthropomorphic children’s moral tales. It does sort of hang together, and there are many …
