Early Music Industry: The Rise of Recording

Materials and other resources

Presentation:

Link to Presentation

The Web:

Archives and General Information

• Archive.org – Digital library of cultural artifacts including Web sites, print, images, sound, video, and so on. 78 RPM Records digitized by George Blood, L.P is worth a listen.

• Google Patents – Ever want to look up a patent filing? All you need is the patent number.
• Library of Congress – A good place to start for information about aspects of American life, culture and history. the History of the Cylinder Phonograph is very interesting. Or try “Inventing Entertainment: Articles and Essays.” Everything Edison.
• picryl.com – Public Domain media search engine. Requires establishing an account, but very useful for finding PD images.
• Wikipedia.org – The Free Encyclopedia. It is always surprising what I find in this amazing resource. Try Timeline of the Music of the United States

Early Recording Technology

• Berliner – The Gramophone – LOC
• Telephone, phonograph, Graphophone, gramophone, historical accounts – LOC

Reproducing Piano

• The Player Piano Program – Stanford.edu
  • Piano Roll Archive  – A part of  exhibits.stanford.edu with many other collections
  • Links to other Player Piano sites
• The Reproducing Piano – The Pianola Institute

• Player Piano Rebirth – Terry Smythe.ca. Brief history of player pianos and an archive of MIDI converted Reproducing Piano files
• Pianola.co.nz – Saving the Music of Yesterday – Brief history of player pianos and a searchable archive of MIDI converted piano rolls

Recording Artists

• Top 36 Pop Song Chart for 1900 – Searchable by year starting in 1900
• Music Played in the 1920’s Music Styles, Bands And Artists during From the 20s

• The Sousa Band: A Discography – LOC
• Paul Whiteman –
  • Archive.org search of 78’s recorded from 1920-1929
  • Archive.org search of 78’s recorded from 1920-1929, George Gershwin – This is where you’ll find the Rhapsody in Blue most easily
• The Original Carter Family Trio – PBS American Experience
  • Discography, Bristol, TN sessions – 1927-1942
    • Wildwood Flower
    • Flatt & Scruggs cover

Recording Industry Topics

• The Stokowski Legacy – Stokowski.org – excellent site detailing the history of this important conductor
  • Acoustic Recordings 1917-1924 – there are other recordings listed, be sure to look at the drop-down menus
  • 1925 First Electrical Recording
• The American Epic Sessions – is a documentary film in which an engineer restores the fabled long-lost first electrical sound recording system from 1925, and twenty contemporary artists pay tribute to the momentous machine by attempting to record songs on it for the first time in 80 years.
  • Restoring a vintage 1920’s recording system for ‘American Epic’
  • Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard

• • Elton John, Jack White
  • Third Man Records – was launched by Jack White in Detroit, MI opened its current Nashville, TN location, which houses a record store, novelties lounge (featuring the Third Man Record Booth), label offices and distribution center, photo studio, and the world’s only live venue with direct-to-acetate recording capabilities.