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Where I Was Then
In case the video dipsopeers it’s the Roller Speed Skating Championships in Sesto San Giovani, Milan.
He Has His Lucid Intervals
After dinner toast at Little Menlo
Spoken by: Arthur Sullivan, composer
Introduction by: Col. George Gouraud
Record format: Edison yellow paraffin cylinder
Recording date: October 5, 1888
Location: Little Menlo, London, England
ENHS object catalog number: E-2439-7
George Gouraud:
From Gouraud to Edison, continuation of introduction of friends. Now listen to the voice of Sir Arthur Sullivan.
Arthur Sullivan:
Dear Mr. Edison,
If my friend, Edmund Yates has been a little incoherent, it is in consequence of the excellent dinner, and good wine which he has drunk. Therefore, I beg you would excuse him. He has his lucid intervals.
For myself, I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening’s experiment — astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever. But all the same, I think it is the most wonderful thing that I have ever experienced, and I congratulate you with all my heart on this wonderful discovery. Arthur Sullivan.
Technology Is Killing Music
This eternal piano-playing is too much to bear! … These shrill tinkle-tones with no natural resonance, these heartless whirring-tones, this arch-prosaic rumbling and hacking — the fortepiano is killing all our thoughts and feelings, and we are becoming stupid, dull, imbecilic. This prevalence of piano playing, not to speak of the triumphal march of the piano virtuosos, is characteristic of our time and truly bears witness to the victory of machine over spirit. Technical proficiency, the precision of an automaton, the identification with strung wood, the sonic instrumentalization of human beings, is now hailed and celebrated as the highest good.”
Heinrich Heine, Paris 1843