wax cylinder recordings digitised

[Flosshilde]

"The University of California at Santa Barbara library has undertaken an heroic digitization effort for its world-class archive of 19th and early 20th century wax cylinder recordings, and has placed over 10,000 songs online for anyone to download, stream and re-use."

Recordings include operatic arias, as well as more popular & esoteric stuff. Haven't looked at the site, so don't know how you search or find things. It might help in the 'do singers of the past sound better than singers of the present' discussion. Doesn't go quite far enough back to settle the 'baroque speed' argument, though

http://boingboing.net/2015/11/08/10000-wax-cylinders-digititze.html

[pastoralguy]

Fantastic! Thank you for that.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[Flay]

It might help in the 'do singers of the past sound better than singers of the present' discussion.

Yes I think it does help. The stuff of nightmares

It's fun to browse through, but I don't think I'll be rushing to download any for future relaxing listening!

[edit] I've listened to more and there is some good singing. It must have been very difficult to perform into the funnel.

[gradus]

I can't get anything to play, is there a routine to follow?

[Flay]

I can't get anything to play, is there a routine to follow?

Try this:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/browse.php

Then select the category you want e.g. "Operas"

Not everything listed is avaible yet.