Finding Lost Recording From the 1880s

An anonymous reader writes "The NY Times recently ran a story on the discovery of a cache of wax cylinder records, recorded in Europe in the 1880s, of Otto von Bismarck, Helmuth von Moltke, and various musicians. 'In June 1889, Edison sent Wangemann to Europe, initially to ensure that the phonograph at the Paris World’s Fair remained in working order. After Paris, Wangemann toured his native Germany, recording musical artists and often visiting the homes of prominent members of society who were fascinated with the talking machine. Until now, the only available recording from Wangemann’s European trip has been a well-known and well-worn cylinder of Brahms playing an excerpt from his first Hungarian Dance. That recording is so damaged "that many listeners can scarcely discern the sound of a piano, which has in turn tarnished the reputations of both Wangemann and the Edison phonograph of the late 1880s," Dr. Feaster said. "These newly unearthed examples vindicate both."'"

Comments

Bismarck Copyright Term Extension Act

[Anonymous Coward]

Quick! Adopt the BCTEA! 2012-1880+50 = 182 years of protection! What if everyone is going to copy this wax cylinder?!!

Re:Bismarck Copyright Term Extension Act

[davester666]

Nobody knows Bismark anymore.

And it can't sound totally ridiculous, like "The Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act" [which is what the last one was, but was named the Sonny Bono act to be slightly less ridiculous].

This time, it'll be something like "The Lady Gaga Copyright Enhancement Act" [using the work enhancement so any attempt to send an email concerning it will automatically be flagged as spam].

And copyright will be extended to 50 years after every copy of the IP ceases to exist in any form, including thoughts and memories.

Re:Bismarck Copyright Term Extension Act

[Swampash]

I would dare say that anyone who can be considered to have even passing knowledge of Western history would know who Bismarck is, and why he is famous.

So no Americans then?

Re:Bismarck Copyright Term Extension Act

[ShakaUVM]

>>So no Americans then?

Uh, Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota.

He also runs a killer Chicken and Biscuit restaurant in between forays into the Atlantic to do some quality commerce raiding.

Checkmate, Europeans.

Re:Bismarck Copyright Term Extension Act

[formfeed]

anyone who can be considered to have even passing knowledge of Western history would know who Bismarck is, and why he is famous.

The tasty cream filling. Duh.

Don't forget the Berliners.

The Berliner are the same as the Polish Paczki, and in the US some call them Bismarck. Which in Germany is a pickled fish.
Confusing, I know. The only thing I get out of this is that Bismarck must have been some kind of chef - like Julius Cesar, who invented the salad dressing.

Handle them carefully

[Anonymous Coward]

Immediately made me think of this old TechTV segment on one of these cylinders being destroyed on camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnsizkVjGm8

Re:Copyright from the past

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Wonder what Brahms would make of the insanity that passes for copyright today.

Dunno about Brahms, but we all know what happened when Bismark found out about Franz Ferdinand's bootleg copies of his hit song "eis eis baby".

Re:MP3 of recordings

[gnasher719]

They are offering the mp3's for free... Did someone tell Birsmarck about all the money he's losing?

The fact that he is getting no money will totally discourage him and all his contemporaries from making any new recordings.

Re:MP3 of recordings

[Fnord666]

They are offering the mp3's for free... Did someone tell Birsmarck about all the money he's losing?

Might as well use mp3s since you're going to digitize it anyway. I'm telling you, there's no way digital interpretation of the medium can faithfully reproduce the warm, rich feel that you get from the original analog recordings.

Dont worry

[jopsen]

Every digital recording of the wax cylinder is probably copyrighted from date of the digital recording :)