The Phonograph, 1877

Sound was captured and replayed for the first time, creating records, labels and stars.

Romantic Record Label Mechanical License Copyright

In 1877 Edison made a machine speak Mary had a little lamb. For the first time a sound left the person who made it, was cut into tin foil and played back to another pair of ears at another moment.

Time and place

Menlo Park, New Jersey, 1877. Edison's phonograph recorded vibrations on a tin-foil cylinder; Berliner's gramophone moved to discs in 1887, and the record industry took shape in the 1890s.

What happened

The phonograph turned sound waves into the movement of a needle and cut them into foil or wax. It was first promoted as an office dictation machine, with music as a by-product. Discs could be copied, pressed and slipped into paper sleeves; once prices fell, parlours, bars and fairgrounds began to play music. Sousa's brass marches, Joplin's ragtime and Berlin's popular songs became the first mass-market sound goods.

What changed

Listening no longer required a musician in the room. Recording made a copy of a performance and also made stars, record companies, royalties and charts. Singers adjusted volume and tone for the machine, song length was limited by disc capacity, and popular songwriting changed with it. Recording also preserved performing traditions, so later researchers could hear the voices and bands of the late nineteenth century.

Listen for the turn

The library has no historical discs, only MIDI realisations of these pieces. Begin with The Stars and Stripes Forever, then Maple Leaf Rag, then Alexander's Ragtime Band. Follow the brass, the syncopation and the dance step, and imagine them coming out of a cylinder with a rough and narrow sound.

This turn belongs to Romantic and connects Record Label, Mechanical License and Copyright.

Listen in the library

The Stars and Stripes ForeverC13:32《星条旗永不落》，苏萨乐队是早期唱片最卖座的铜管进行曲Detailsmaple leaf ragC12:09《枫叶拉格》，1899年的谱面畅销曲，唱片工业早期的热门曲目DetailsberlinAlexandersRagtimeC12:08《亚历山大的拉格泰姆乐队》，1911年的流行热曲，留声机把舞曲带进客厅Details

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Recording" — dates and technology checked, not quoted
Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music (Oxford University Press) — narrative checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.

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