Audio messages in home recordings on wax cylinder. Three study cases (1898-1905)

Abstract

Phonograph cylinders contain the most antique sounds treasured by Spanish sound libraries. Almost all of them are commercial music recordings that keep record of the early development of the phonographic industry, but we also find some personal recordings, made in a family or private environment without any kind of artistic intention.

Family and private recordings contain, in many cases, interesting messages whose current meaning transcends by far the original banal (ordinary?) intention that motivated the recording of voices. The shortage of these wax cylinders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make the messages they contain important documents for the study of customs, language and, in general, the communication and society at a moment in history.

These assets stand for an important cultural heritage that must be conserved, valued and disseminated, because they contain oral tradition, regional songs and records of historical events. A methodology is proposed for the analysis of that records. The conclusions of the study of three original wax cylinder collections between 1898 and 1905 that include some domestic cylinders with interesting sound content are summarized.