There will be a lot of coverage here of the early part of the first world war, as there are so many fantastic resources available. The BBC in particular launched into the project of making something new about these years with such a degree of creative enthusiasm that it set vastly unrealistic expectations for the …
A blog post about our trip to an awards ceremony yesterday. If this is not of interest, please check almost every other page on the site for much less self-indulgent content. Yesterday I went along with V (my long-suffering non-podcasting other half) to The British Podcast Awards in London. The show had been nominated for …
We are very pleased to announce that Centuries of Sound has been nominated for the Bullseye Award (which “honours the podcasts that are producing exceptional listening experiences for niche audiences and those underrepresented in other British media”) at The 2019 British Podcast Awards. Bullseye Award supported by Podiant Probably True – @unlikelylad@nincompoopspodCenturies of Sound@sh_studios@farmerama__BBC Somerset's …
1911 is an exciting time for literature, but I would venture that the most important event of the year was not Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s launch of the Futurist Manifestito, nor the publication of the first of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown novels, and not even Virginia Stephen, Leonard Woolf, Adrian Stephen, John Maynard Keynes and …
Robert Tressell – The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists Read More »
Civic disasters in the pre-regulation days of the early 20th century are on a scale I find hard to comprehend, but the thing that shocks the most isn’t the loss of human life, it’s the careless way it was thrown away. The 145 lives lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York were largely …
The CoS Tapes are a series of CD-sized compilations available to Centuries of Sounds Members. A donation $5 per month will give you access to these compilations and other member benefits. Join here. Trailblazing artists are usually better-remembered than Vess L. Ossman. The first musician to make a ragtime record, the ‘King of the Banjo’, …
The CoS Tapes #1 – Vess L. Ossman “A Bunch of Rags” Read More »
Centuries of Sound is two years old now. I have made mixtapes / soundscapes for the years 1859 to 1909, plus 2016 and 2017. All of these will remain freely accessible without any advertising. But from the first of next month there will be a huge amount of other material available for anyone who becomes …
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, …
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.
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 …
