I wrote this piece in 2002 on the behest of a fellow who was doing a book on Diamond Disc Records. The book had very limited sales and was read very little. Therefore I thought I would put the piece I wrote for the book here so others could enjoy much of what is not talked about when it comes to Edison and his role with the Diamond Disc Record.
In this piece I included much of my research and studying of Edison's private notes on singers, artists, composers, musicians in general. It is a very interesting glimpse into the private world of Thomas Edison and what he thought and felt about music, singers, instrumentalists and more. I had put this out with hundreds of his comments. many listed for the first time. This article was the result of many years of research and going though hundreds of his private books and using notes from them.
In this you will also see his bias on many of the recordings made by Victor. This is a large chapter to a book and will take many reads to get it all down. I hope you enjoy it.
JFS
Thomas
Edison while in many ways providing the greatest help and was also almost
single-handedly the greatest detriment to the diamond disc record and the
recording activities of the Edison Company. He was a perfectionist when it came
to sound production (as he heard it). This is the major decisive factor which drove the diamond disc to stretch the
limits of sound production in the early days of the 20th century.
Edison’s hearing
has been a matter of debate for years often leaving historians wondering
exactly what he heard, and what brought about some of the decisions he
consequently made. His hearing was bad, this is very true, but there were times
he heard much more than we actually give him credit. When Edison got
involved in the “ recording biz” as he used to call it, he was in his early
sixties. He was always somewhat involved in the recording industry, but not to
the extent he was when he lead the charge onto the battlefield called “disc
recording”. Edison had always been involved in this part of the business but by
the time the disc record was first commercially developed he devotes nearly all
of his energy to this cause.(The rest of his research went toward cement, storage
batteries, business machines and motion pictures).
This chapter was
compiled from the notes of Thomas Edison. Edison’s notes are everywhere. He
wrote thousands of letters as well as comments on letters sent to him. He would
write notes on newspapers and journals of the day. Comments would be written in
his employee’s notebooks. No scrap of paper was safe. Marginalia would be
inscribed on the pages of novels as well as books on history, religion, music,
and science. Even encyclopedias and dictionaries were open season for his
pencil. His output was incredible and covered every subject imaginable. No
subject was taboo to him. He would make these notations for his own reference
and pleasure. These were his thoughts and not for the public to see. Here Edison
said exactly what he thought and was often very blunt; in many ways the very
opposite of how he was perceived by the public. He seemed to always have a
pencil in his hand.
It is sad to see newsreels of Edison from the last few years
of his life. We don’t get to see him as others did. We see a very old man not in the best of health and deaf as a post.
That was Edison in 1930, but not the Edison who spearheaded diamond disc
recording twenty years earlier. His work on the diamond disc occurred at the peak
of his popularity, he was still healthy and he was far more inclined to speak
his mind than he had been in his earlier days. The Edison of 1910 was not the
Edison of the good old days of Menlo Park either. He had in a sense become a
bit of a caricature of himself. In this
period of his life he also had the time to write more. We find that a good deal
of his documentation dates from the 1910-1930 period, with the bulk of it
dating from the mid-1920’s, when he
spent a good deal of time at home.
I had the opportunity to study Edison from several rare
perspectives. First, his youngest son Theodore Edison (1898-1992) helped me
tremendously with countless hours of interviews (often by phone at odd hours)
over an 8-year period. Additionally, I was able to spend years studying his
writings not only in his lab notebooks, but, in his own private library. It was in these books at his home called
Glenmont, (part of the Edison National historic site), that Thomas Edison really
comes alive. He does not mince words and you can also feel a little of his
inner struggle to merge his personal tastes and views with those commonly held
at the time. He wonders why he feels different from others in his views and
likes. What follows is a combination of his comments and thoughts from lab
notes and his own personal notes much of which has never before been put into
print. I have taken the liberty of filling in the blanks in Edison’s writing.
He would, depending on his mood write in many different ways. He would
sometimes curse up a storm in his writings, listing the various Damns and
Hell’s. Sometimes he would only write D--- or
H--- (or other words). To make the reading easier I have filled in the
blanks (my additions in parentheses). This makes the 40% of the time he wrote
D---, easier to understand.
This is only one chapter and just the tip of the iceberg.
The Edison Papers project at Rutgers University will eventually list many more
of these. But they are now releasing Edison’s much earlier works and
writings. When they release his later
documents, it will be an entertaining read. So we may call this a teaser of
what is yet to come. Enjoy… and remember that we all are human, and yes we all
make mistakes. Thomas Edison had his views as we all do. We must not look upon
these writings with scorn, but rather with an understanding of what made a man
tick and what made this very special man do and say what he did.
Edison’s favorite
form of recording was the cylinder as it was a constant speed recording from
start to finish. He felt that the disc was inferior to the cylinder. He was very aware that the disc was
slowing down as the needle worked its way to the center as the size of the
record itself was changing. Therefore he believed that the cylinder was better
and that he would avoid all contact with a disc record. The consistently shaped grooves of the
cylinder had no such problem. However
the public was not as concerned with the fact that cylinders played at a
constant speed; they were concerned with ease of operation and storage. There
really was no way to solve the storage problem inherent with cylinders but
discs were a far simpler matter in that regard.
By 1910 the state of affairs in the cylinder world was starting to
crumble. Research on disc recording was
conducted in secret at the Edison Laboratory without Edison’s knowledge. There
was even a weak attempt to gain a controlling share in the Columbia Graphophone
Company. Columbia was at the time the only company that was producing discs and
cylinders in the United States. It could
have been the best of both worlds, but Edison never moved to absorb their
concern. By 1912 Columbia had even given up on the cylinder and announced that
the disc was king. Edison was not in a
hurry to change from the cylinder format but was unusually agreeable once he
discovered that work on a disc record was progressing in secret and, much to
the alarm of some, he encouraged and spearheaded the project.
This work started a
remarkable product that would change everything about the art of acoustics and
tonal range. The Diamond Disc record and
phonograph were in many respects Thomas Edison’s re-invention of the phonograph
and recording. It differed in many ways from any other system yet developed and
was also so technologically superior that its quality today is still something
to marvel at. The main thing Edison
wanted with his recording system was an over engineered product that would
outperform any other talking machine of the time. In this he was successful,
and through his guidance the record and machine became the miracle of the age.
Sadly, after working with his team he decided to become the
phonograph’s guardian. He felt that he had the sense and the musicianship to
understand the public’s entertainment wants and needs in the recorded field. It
was he and no other save for certain circumstances that dealt the final blow to
a song that did not meet his criteria. He was also very fond of certain songs
and styles of music. He would go out of
his way to see that a song that caught his fancy soon made its way to the
recording studio. He felt that there were many melodies that had not been
discovered. This led to many bizarre experiments in backwards recording, but as
far as we know, no new tunes of merit were discovered.
Edison listened
critically to the cylinder recordings released by his company in the years
prior to the disc and found that many of them did not meet with his
approval. This was a moot point however
as the recordings had long since been released. He felt that they were quite
often harsh and not at all mellow. The cylinders were made to have a bright
sound which was something Edison did not care for and refused to allow on his
new disc. He also had very little praise for the recordings made by the Victor
Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey. He would spend days listening to
Victor records and write notes about them. He used in this process a special
cardboard square that he cut out to put over his good ear and he marked it the
“Victor Ear Tickle”.
He felt that the
Victor Company went out of its way to create a false quality to the sound of
the records. He was right as the Victor Company worked hard to get room
resonance in the recording to create a “ringing” quality. It was a sound that
drove Edison crazy and he often told his recording engineers that the last
thing he wanted was a record that sounded like a Victor! When they produced records that were
“Victor-like” to Edison he made sure they knew it. He would reject the
recording and send notes that would be peppered with quotes like this:
“REJECTED: Sharp, brassy, coarse. Like old wax cylinder
stuff. This don’t go on the disc and don’t want any more of this combination
instruments. The Victor can have the monopoly”.
“Victor is sharp,
ours should be mellow. The public continually speaks of this, it’s our selling
point and I want it”.
“Explosive and where explosive very sharp-has a Victor ear
drum tickle”.
“Sharp, rotten, squeaks, rejected for disc and cylinder.
Victor type of recording!”.
Many of his days were
taken by listening to singers on a Victor disc machine. He would listen to
hundreds of Victor, Columbia and Fonotipia recordings. He often would comment
on how many of these recordings should be soaked in lime to get rid of them!
He also found that
Victor machines were exacting a heavy toll on the records themselves. He
conducted tests to see how long it took to reach a breakdown in the records
made by Columbia and Victor. He found that after 30 plays there was significant
wear to the grooves of the records. He also believed that they were scratchy
sounding.
While looking for new tunes for his records he also
critiqued the victor records he was listening to. Here are a few of his
comments:
La Boheme 96002 Quartet Act 3
“Only fair”.
“Farrar should not be permitted to sing on a phono, she will
jump out (of) any record”.
Victor 95209 Alda, Jacoby, Caruso, Journet.
“Ridiculous noise”.
Victor 95210 same artists
“Caruso is getting big tremolo, Tune N.G., All N.G.”.
Victor 74294 Fritz
Kreisler
“Absurd, they don’t appear to be able to record and
reproduce violin. No overtones of violin are reproduced. All fundamentals”.
Victor 17058 Harry MacDonough and Amer. Quartet
“His chattering tremolo is getting worse and also his clothes
pin on nose is getting tighter”.
Victor 74296 McCormack
“Voice or tune not good”.
Victor 17075A Al
Jolson
“Coney Island beer saloon singer. Not for us”.
The process used in the recording studios at the time helped
create the sound Edison wanted, or at least the sound the recording department
thought that Edison wanted. There were great clashes between Edison and his
weary recording department. There were
many recordings made that were thought of as wonderful by not only the
recording department, but the recording artists themselves, that were rejected
by Edison for some reason or another.
Edison would pick the tune and then he would listen to the
final result as the test returned from New York. Many times the song that he
liked on the test was not much like the recording that came from the N.Y.
Studio Here is an example.
If thou didst love me not
Mary Carson 2659C
1/19/14
“Hold This. As this is a ROTTEN tune as I hear it and I once
passed tune as a GOOD tune. I(t) must be BUTCHERED. Don’t use this type of
instruments for accompanying. Try this song but at least 2 other singers. I
want to experiment and find out why with piano and our girl here I pronounce a
tune good and when I get it back from N.Y. on disc with a professional and a
band to accompany that it sounds rotten. I wouldn’t for an instant pass if it
sounded this way when I originally heard it. Apparently no leader or this is
not a song for Carson”.
Things that caused
Edison to reject a record could be one or more of the following.
Room resonance
Instrument valve noise (such as flutes, clarinets etc.)
Piano pedal noise
Vibrato
No chorus
Too much accompaniment
Not on the list of tunes.
Bad tune
Bad singer/s
In bad taste (By the sea, by the beautiful sea, e.g.)
Not to his liking
Edison made it his business to listen to nearly every test
recording. He made a decision regarding
each and every artist. He was truly the
jury, judge, and at times executioner. What he could hear was most remarkable.
He would complain of hearing the thump of the pedal on the piano, or the clicks
of the valves of a flute. He once said in his notes that he couldn’t hear a
whistler… but could hear the lips!
Edison was at times the proud father of the phonograph and
he seemed to be very careful of what he put onto his “baby”. He felt that
certain songs were of a bad nature and suggestive and he refused to put them on
his records. He felt that other songs were simply not worthy of being recorded.
There were times his notes indicate that he would not record a number even if
he could “sell a million of them”. There were many great songs that Edison
rejected only to have his rivals issue them with great success. He would also not allow tunes that were not
in the ”tune book”, save for a few rare exceptions. He would form a preconception of what a
singer should sound like in a part or role, and often expected any singer that
he hired to follow that style.
His rule was
virtually complete save for a few notes like “Hold, wife likes it”.
He listened to some
songs and operatic pieces, which he called tunes as well and made decisions on
them like this note on the Lucia Sextet.
Lucia Sextet June 15, 1912
“Tune good – splendid
Voices interfere. We can beat this and must in time make
this our star. We do not need so many voices”.
(I gather Edison was
convinced after writing this that the Sextet should continue to have the
required 6 singers.)
He felt that all
people heard music the same way. He
wrote this note in a music book that contained the phrase Music and Melody, “
We have Slavs, Chinese, Japanese, and Greeks here at the lab. They all in a
test pick out the same fine melody. Every American is made the same way, and
all like the same kind of music and dislike critic’s music”.
We can plainly see through Edison’s naïve commentary that he
in no way comprehended the market that he should have been catering to. He
understood many parts of it, but there were a great many holes in his
understanding. This would have a devastating effect on the “Biz”.
There were many
recordings that he favored and would write things like.
This will be a star
Congratulate him on his performance
This is real music
Great
Accepted (this was something that barely passed)
Passed (this was better)
Passed but oh..(Not at all to his liking)
OK
Passed-Hurry (this meant he liked the song very much)
Excellent!
Passed-Rush (this meant that the record needed to be on the
shelves of dealers now)
Edison also would send little notes to recording artists
through the recording labs in New York telling them that they should come and
see him. This was so they could receive training and advice on how to
sing/play/speak and make good records. Here is a comment on the
pianist/composer Rudolf Friml’s test record.
“Won’t sell, every note is 50% fret noise and 50% music. If
Friml has time he might come over and I’ll give him some pointers”.
The recording studios were well designed to produce what we
would call today a dead studio. This was the opposite of all the other
companies and was part of Edison idea of sound reproduction. He was far ahead
of the pack in his concepts as an engineer and designer. He left little to
chance and investigated each and every aspect of sound. The recording horns
were numbered as to their size and material. This was the same with all the
other recording companies as well.
His work on acoustics was methodical as he worked on one
style horn after another, testing hundreds. The work was incredible as he
pushed his staff along on his quest towards recording perfection. They designed
horns of various sizes from those the size of a thin pole to the largest, which
was 125 feet in length and over six feet at its bell! This monster of a horn
was made of brass and was constructed in the West Orange Laboratories machine
shop. The large horn was installed in the Columbia Street Recording Studio in
West Orange and it was here that Edison’s ideas about the long horn were tried
out. He found that the long horn had a deeper mellower sound and this pleased
him.
However, the beginnings of the 125-foot horn were anything
but mellow. There were echoes to deal with and it was found that the horn was
terribly directional. It was also interesting that the piano recorded so well
with the horn (in fact the only things that were ever recorded and released by
the company using the monster horn were piano solos and small groups). These
recordings were often done with Lauder pianos from Newark, New Jersey. The
pianos had to be changed often as Edison said they had lost their sound from
being pounded by jazz musicians. He
often got upset with his private pianist Ernest Stevens for playing jazz on one
of the sacred pianos from the studio. At least Stevens didn’t pound on the
keys, saving him from further wrath.
There was never a release of any orchestral recordings made with the
125’ horn. There were experiments
putting things in the horn such as storage batteries and Ice. Edison did this
to see if there was a difference in the sound quality. There were no
improvements in the recordings. It was
also the sad duty of the recording department’s Will Hayes to clean out the
horn after the recording experimentation was done.
The 125’ horn and remodeled studio were put together between 1923 and 1924. There are
notes in the studio logbooks of the alterations of the studio on Feb. 17, 1923.
The studio floor was set up in squares as well. The squares put in on Feb. 19,
1923 We find in a note from Feb. 26, 1923 Studio floor being blocked off and
numbered in one foot squares #1 to #868. We find that on November 12, 1923
carpenters started lining part of the shed covering bell of large horn. We also
see that on January 16, 1924 carpenters working on coverings of cow hair for
the studio. The experiments on the long horn started in 1923 and continued till
1925.
This was preceded by work on 30, 32, 35, and 40-foot horns
used at the studio. In fact, there was research going on with horns of many
various lengths. However the only other long horn recordings released were with
the 40-foot horn in the 1922-23 period. Theodore Edison commented that his
father was going through many books on sound and acoustics as he came to the
theory of the long horn. He mentioned that it was in many ways like the work
that Bell Labs was doing with the folded horn or matched impedance. This would
be for Edison a last hurrah in the field of recording. He would detach himself
further from recording as the decade reached its mid point. By 1926 Edison moved to another front… Goldenrod rubber
research. By the late 1920’s the music room was filled with goldenrod plants,
evidence that Edison’s work on recording was finished by that time. The
phonograph division struggled on for a short time and finally goes under in
October of 1929.
There was much experimental work done at the Columbia Street
Studio. There were experiments on transcribing records, cylinder dubbing from
disc, cylinder to disc dubbing and later long play and sample records. It was a
major area of acoustic research for the Edison Company till the late 1920’s. It
was there that the “Greetings from the bunch at Orange” was recorded on
November 25, 1925. It states in the recording log that it was done with a short
horn.
In 1912 Edison wrote up his 11 commandments as to recording
policy. Some of the rules were very good some were truly strange and baffling.
Edison was trying to have a strong measure of quality control over the tunes
and the artists.
There was the “tune book”, in which all approved tunes were
listed. i.e. tunes that Edison liked. If there had been a recording test done
without an approved tune, Edison would explode and write a note like this one:
William Beck baritone
6/5/16
“Holy Christ! Have you no memory, are you a bunch of
degenerates in New York. How many times have I asked to have tests made with
tunes we have, such as Evening Star for a baritone. I’m getting damn sick of
this.”
In the many rules and
regulations that Edison set up perhaps the idea that no record would list the
name of the artist causes one to wonder what was really going on in his
head. This rule was due to his mistaken
belief that people did not buy a record because of the singer, but because of
the tune. This led to a tremendous amount of confusion, not only among the
buyers but also the workers at the Edison Company. They had to make special
marks on the matrices to know who was on what. There were many of these early
records with all kinds of marks at 12:00 sector on the label. This marking
system made it easier to tell one matrix from the next. As time went on, this policy
had to be changed.
The last rule was the most important having much to do with
the artists and the tunes -Edison became Director of Artists and
Repertoire. Some of the greatest minds
never know when they are standing on shifting sand and in this case Edison was
totally oblivious to the fact. The most successful company in the nineteen
teens and twenties was the Victor Talking Machine Company. One of the reasons
for this was that they had a Director of Artists and Repertoire who understood
what the public wanted.
This was where Edison
went off the beaten trail. He didn’t know what was good and what wasn’t with
the public. He had no understanding of some types of music and rejected them
totally out of ignorance. Certain songs and styles of music that annoyed Edison
were often dealt a heavy hand.
Here is the complete list of rules devised by Edison on May
11, 1912.
POLICY THOMAS
A.EDISON
1st..We care nothing for the reputation of the
artist, singer, or instrumentalist. Except in a few rare instances where the
person has established an unique and isolated position.
2nd. All that we desire is that the voice shall
be as perfect as possible, free of conspicuous tremolo, clear without ragged
sustained notes, free of subsidiary and false waves on these notes. Singers who
can sustain their pitch so as to be used in concerted work, who have sufficient
overtones to produce mellow and not sharp mechanical tones. Singers whose
volume changes are violent and ill judged, so it makes it difficult to record are
not wanted.
3rd. When good voices are bound to exclusive
contract. 1 or 2 years with the option to extend, pay a regular salary for a
determined and known portion of their daily time. Taking in view their other
engagements.
4th. To discover these good voices that we can
build up a body of good singers. Bassos, Baritones, Tenors, and corresponding
female voices so we can have a soloist for any tune or concert any time or part
of an opera. Also special voices for comic work.
5th. To have recording man who will travel the
countries, make trials of voices at singing schools, local opera houses etc…and
submit the voice to Edison for a while until the system is established, and to
keep up this hunt constantly.
6th. All tunes which are to be used on the phonograph
except the local topical songs which are fleeting are to be entered in the Tune
book. Each tune to be rated as to its desirability from others used.
7th. Where artists are engaged to execute a
definite number of pieces, they are to submit their repertory and we must judge
as to the tunes we want. If we cannot find enough in their repertory, then we
submit our list of tunes to see if any of these can be executed by the artist,
if not we do not want him or her.
8th. Any new tune that is published which is
melodious and which seems to have merit enough and is of such a character that
gives a promise of sustained popularity over a long period should be sent to
Granger to be judged to see if it worthy to be put in the tune book.
9th. No engagements of any kind is to be entered
into with artists whose voice has not been sent to Orange and judged.
10th. It is not our intention to feature artists
or sell the record by using the artists name. We shall use no artists names
except in a few instances. We intend to rely entirely on the tune and the high
quality of the voices and not on the names of the artists.
11th. With a regular corps of singers we will be
enabled to rehearse, change the voices and style of accompaniments and make
several duplicates of the tune and thus adopt the most perfect one. A couple of
the best types of the tune as executed can be sent to Orange and masters made
from these. The most satisfactory one can be selected. We will not object to
making these extra masters providing we can get higher quality of execution.
There has often been
the belief that Edison kept Jazz out of his record listing, but this is not
true. Even though Edison said that Jazz
was for “degenerates and nuts”, the genre received fair representation. In fact he wrote of jazz saying that, “jazz
is good when the tune and playing is OK”.
I have listed a few of his comments on jazz recordings.
Jimmy fox trot
8357
Club De Vingt Orch.
Flash to be released April 1, 1922
Edison. “passed a-1 flash.
“Good base and snap tune not
very good”.
Every night I cry myself to sleep over you 9235A
Flash #2
“Don’t think much of this poor tune. Rhythm poor and sax
player pretty poor. I mean the one playing the melody also weak”.
Where’s my sweetie hiding fox trot. 9805A
The merry sparklers
“Good Loud-Flappers will by this”.
Toodles 9867
Charleston 7
“No tune, Miserable cornet gives performance”.
Bluing the blues 7099c
Lopez and Hamilton’s King of Harmony
“Poorest jazz I have yet heard only good to people who are
utterly without a sense of music. Jazz is good when tune and playing is
OK”.
Canary Cottage One Step.
Frisco “Jas” Band 5/24/17
Jas bands are very popular at present-though not the
country. They play for dancing with a lot of “Pep. Edison writes “This is OK”
Johnson “Jas” blues
Frisco “Jas” Band 5/24/17
“Only fair. The high instrument supposedly a violin is very
wheezy and spoils all. If violin played lower key it would be OK”.
Those longing for you blues, Atlantic Dance Orch. 8527
“Crazy thing, has lots of novelties, can’t see how one can
dance to this, it’s confused. Should say singer was poor. I didn’t understand a
word he said. Should say best thing is to put this on order”.
Edison had many comments on band music. Here are a few comments
on some of the band recordings he liked and those he didn’t.
Globe Fox Trot
Orch 9/10/15
“Passed, some snap to
these dance tunes now keep it up. This is what I have been after for a long
time, the swings are sharp and clear cut”.
Isle d’amore Hesitation waltz
Orch. 3/1914
“Passed, to be
compelled to put this damn stuff on gives me a pain in the ass”.
Medley of War songs
Band 3073C
7/8/14
“Sounds as if about 5 instruments, why didn’t you have
something besides brass. It sounds damn cheap and common. Rejected, rotten,
sharp. Want lots of instruments and softer as well as louder. The patriotic
band records are very poor you are sending”.
Maritana Overture part 2 Band 3071C
7/10/14
“Passed, good type of band”.
Opera and classical
music suffered more at the hands of Edison than perhaps any other form of
music. The voice and various instruments were something that Edison thought he
understood. He instructed the singers to
sing in a half voice and not sing as they would in a theater or opera house
since this would show the defects (vibrato) in their voices. He had a good
point here. Read this note he wrote about a singer and how she should be
recorded by the staff.
Miss Herma Dalossy Dramatic Soprano 11/28/1913 (Tosi-Milan)
“Poorly recorded She was put to far away from the funnel to
prevent blasting. This gives echoes-room sounds and makes very hard to judge
voice. What should have been done is to request that she sing ½ volume or
rehearsal voice, then she could have come close to the funnel and not blast and
it would stop echoes and room sound. If you give them a hint to sing it softly
just as if she was singing at home to her little daughter. I find that when
they are close to funnel and sing, it blasts and I let them hear it and explain
they should tone down the stage volume of their strong high notes to ½. Then
they do it all right and we get a good record, which you should have done”.
He would be for many singers a critic who could never be
satisfied. He considered himself well versed enough to give pointers on how to
play the piano and how to sing. He tried to design on paper a violin that would
have magnets on the neck so there would be no movement of the fingers, which
would, of course, remove vibration. (This never materialized). He had
many comments to make on singers, composers and instrumentalists. Here are a
few quotes that Edison wrote down in his lab books and his own private library.
On operatic voices he wrote
“95% of all voices have the tremolo. The great singers as a
rule have none. Now 1920 there is not in the operatic or concert world more
than 10 great singers who have no tremolo”.
He wrote further on this subject saying,
“98% of all singers trial on phono have tremolo, and the
strange thing is that they are unaware of it and are always astonished when
they hear it in the record of their voice. Hence it is not under brain control.
The rate varies from 3 to 12 a second.
Some only have it on one note, some only on low others on high and some
on every note. The effect is at times very disagreeable. Singers who have
become very popular in most cases have but little tremolo”.
He studied many singers and did a major study on Elizabeth
Spencer. She was one of Edison’s favorite sopranos, and he had doctors study
her head to see why she sounded so nice to him. He also commented on the
overtones of her voice. She was used in many experiments in the Columbia Street
studios, and also for experiments with the long horn. When Edison was asked as
an old man who was the best singer he ever recorded he responded, “Elizabeth
Spencer when she was young”.
Edison also would completely lose his cool when a pianist
would play as an equal partner to a solo violinist or vocalist. This was most
evident when he was judging the merit of a performer to see if they met with
his criteria. This meant that he was checking to see if they were
playing/singing with a strong tremolo. The playing of a piano would make the
judgment a hard one for him, as he would struggle to sort out the vibrations of
each instrument. This comment was sent to the recording department, which was
often the victim of Edison’s wrath!
Miss Amy Neil
violinist Jan 7, 1921
“As far as I can
untangle the violinist from the damn piano she is a very good violinist. Why
does the pianist start play loud when violinist goes on E string. I don’t want
to hear the DAMN PIANO. It is only to assist the violinist. I do not want to
hear it at all. Just where I wanted to study the double notes and E string it
starts pounding. Some people have no sense or judgment. 278th REQUEST, to keep piano just
loud enough to assist artist. I don’t need to hear it at all”.
He often had lots to say on other violinists. Here are a few
of his comments:
Fred Mac Murray Violin
6-3-18
“First class. He don’t vibrate his fingers and spoil the
music. It looks to me as if you had got a fine violinist here. Would also like
to have heard something also with high notes”.
David Mannes Violin
11-25-16
“This is the worst “Ave Maria” I ever yet heard, his violin
strings are rotten. He vibrates fingers incessantly. He is weak in volume. His
volume varies badly where it should not vary”.
Martha de la Torre
violinist 10-1-20
“First class Violinist. Can you make contract”?
Evelyn Starr Violin
3-13-16
“She does not pull a steady bow, she exaggerates the
infernal tremolo making it too conspicuous. How can any person judge of the
capacity of a violinist by making a trial with a tune like this. I am going to
make a damn strong kick if the lobster who is responsible don’t use what little
brains he has in the future in these trials”.
He had considerable commentary about singers. Here are a few comments on
tenors, (of which he had quite a bit to say).
Quartet from Rigoletto 5629 Verlet, Alcock, Ciccolini,
Middleton
7/19/17
“Pretty fair but unmusical at places where all sing due to
the sharpness of Ciccolini’s voice. Had
his voice been mellow at this point it would have been good. Passed”.
Amore O grillo Madame Butterfly Ciccolini and Chalmers
8/10/17
“Passed but this is not music. Ciccolini is getting so sharp
that he drops every overtone and only emits fundamentals. Because he is
straining his voice for an opera house and not for a quiet little room in a
home. I have about made up my mind that EVERY Italian tenor is an all around
general damn fool”.
Tosca E luccian le stele,Fontana
12/30/15
“Pretty good. The
S.O.B. has got Caruso skinned”.
Oh so pure Martha 1283-3
Orville Harrold
“The tune saves him.
One note tenor-accepted.
The next time they get any of our money before I hear the
goods. It will be a cold day in Hell”!
In one of his books at home, a dictionary of musical terms
he wrote out a list of what may have been ideas for the name of his Disc
phonograph. The notes are of the period 1910-1915 since there are other
comments on people with dates from that period. Here is the list. Sonatola,
Harmonola, Imperola, Impressio, Legotalo, (ola perhaps) Leiderphone,
Cantophone, Lyrograph, Lyrophone, Maestrola, Mignon, Musiola, Pandola, Orchestrion,
Sonorola, Symphinola, Troubadour, Tandola, Trovatore, and Virtuoso.
Also when going through dictionaries of music he would
always look to see if the phonograph was listed. He would often write in these
books “Where’s the phonograph?”
Here are some of Edison comments from his private writings
at home:
GERMAN ART LOVERS
“They have loved art in the German way by letting their
composers starve to death”.
ORGAN MUSIC
“The organ music, the graveyard behind the church. The
sexton’s sign, who has the address of the undertaker the solemn preacher and
all makes one love organ music? Most people have so hard a time in this world
that a little Rossini, Bellini or Verdi is appreciated, but it isn’t very
classic”.
HANS VON BULOW
“Von B. came to the lab when in America and I recorded his
piano playing. My asst. a good pianist
called Von B’s attention to the fact he struck a wrong note. Impossible sued
Von B! But upon hearing it reproduced he fainted away and I poured a jar of
cold water on him and sent him to East Orange. HE’S A CRANK”!
GEORGE F. HANDEL
“How German like. Funny any real music came from such a
man”.
FRANZ LISZT
“Musical mathematical genius”.
MOZART
“There is something
wrong with Mozart’s melody, something unnatural. I cannot make it out yet”.
“It has been calculated that 2/3’s of all the tunes Mozart
writes for the violin lie on the E – string. That is why Mozart is so
unmelodious”.
“The mechanics of the ear have been called hideous stuff. It
would be contrary to the structure of man and physical law, hence when this
Mozart has made it to reform. To change bad music to damn bad music”!
The greatness of Don Giovanni. “To me it is the opposite of this. I wonder
what is wrong with my ear”?
SCHUBERT
“Schubert’s eyes were so bright as to at once to attract
attention. This is an absolute indication of ability, the great reflective
power of the eye”
.” Schubert did not get a good musical education. He struck
luck in not getting this damn education”!
BEETHOVEN
“He escaped being a Prussian. He never used TNT music”.
“The music of his operas, 3 good, one not so good. As I have
heard on the piano, this is real stuff”!
BACH
“His head was level”.
BRAHMS
“Looks like a Prussian”.
“Musical Machanic”.
THE MUSIC OF BRAHMS IS OFTEN BETTER THAN IT SOUNDS
“This is the limit, noise would probably be the best music
of all. Then educated critics could straighten out the discordance and defy the
crowd”.
JOHN McCORMACK
“Fine voice marred by a terrible tremolo. I turned him down
for I couldn’t stand it”.
ROSSINI
“Wrote real music and its good today”.
“ Practical man had common sense”.
“ Made natural man’s music”.
“A genius, wrote real music. Only a few inspired, but even
the composed music is generally musical”.
TCHAIKOVSKIY
“Can music come from such a crank”!
WAGNER
“Wagner’s musical
dramas, no form, acquired taste. Not natural like chewing tobacco. But he could pull some beautiful things out
of the air”.
“ Wagner could have been a great man, his instrumental music
is beautiful. He could beat them all probably in this line, but he was a crank
and wouldn’t do it”.
“Wagner should have
left the music out and launched his operas as plain speaking dramas”.
GLUCK
“Gluck’s music is in
contrast to the laws of acoustics and psychology. Gluck and Mozart are birds of
a feather. They have to learn this is not music”!
CHOPIN
“There is no music in Chopin so bad as Mona Lisa is to
painting”.
“The worst thing Chopin ever composed was better than
anything in Don Giovanni”.
“The funeral March is grand, the Funeral march of
Beethoven’s is also good when played on violin with viola to take the very low
notes”.
R. STRAUSS
“Won’t be appreciated in this century. But in the next
century God will have remade and improved man’s hearing apparatus, then Strauss
will be appreciated”.
PADEREWSKI
“1914 still a pounder! Paderewski’s playing goes beyond the
mechanical limits and throws on the strings and all other parts of the
mechanism the most horrible discords”.
VERDI
“An original inventor of abnormally new combinations of
melody”.
“Verdi is the greatest of all composers. He has more
original invention, more themes that are original than any other composer. In
his later years he was driven to discord by Teutonic musical degenerates.
Howling for discord which is now called art. The music that will live
forever….etc..etc..”.
LUIGI ARDITI
“Get all of his published music, he is a star”.
VIBRATO:
“A glass of cold
water will stop it generally in Sopranos for 3 or 4 minutes”.
“ Tremolo of the voice is unpleasant, and to me it is”.
DISCORD
“N.G. except to a
German brain where discord is resolved into melody”.
BEAUTIFUL FOLK SONGS
” Would like to find some, horrible music as far as I have
heard”.
TANGOS
“Get some they are
good”!
MUSIC CRITICS
“The reputation of music depends upon critics, who couldn’t
compose a discord in most cases”.
What is absolute music? “It is music nobody likes but music
critics”.
Here is a list of comments that Edison made about singers.
You will notice that Edison has quite a sense of humor at times. He was also
very much influenced by the events of the time and his humor shows it. What
follows is Edison at his best as he has a little fun with some of the new songs
and talent. He has fun with one in late April 1912. This is a week or two after
the sinking of the Titanic. He hears
what he calls a “Bull baritone” and writes that “He should be put on the front
of ocean liners to scare icebergs away”.
In 1915 Edison listens to a voice trial of Gertrude Cugut.
He is in a playful mood as he writes to Mr. Judas, one of his musical directors
who must have had the misfortune to have suggested this singer.
Edison writes, “This is nearly the limit, congratulate Judas
on his fine appreciation of interpretation and elegant wobbling voice. ROTTEN”.
He then listens to the voice of another candidate named Mrs.
Rosetta Stephenson, soprano. Edison writes,
“I withdraw Cugat and
decide Mrs. Stephenson shall have the prize. If anything would make the Germans
quit their trenches it would be this, My God This Is Awful-Has intelligence
fled from our planet. Is this a Judas
star”.
Edison listens to a young man named Master Richard Heeley,
counter tenor.
Edison writes,
“Sounds like a broken down Italian soprano. No timber, Oakland is 1000%
better”.
He listens to Masonic trial record of one of their hymns and
writes.
“Passed but Rotten
I will never join an organization that has such rotten stupid stuff as
this”.
Sam Ash- tenor 1/29/1915
“No interpretation-no brains to submit a sample as a tune
like this, recording dept. to send a tune like this. Has a tremolo, should he make sustained note,
the only sustained note he gave shows tremolo- has sharp tinge, cabaret tinge a
la Murray in his voice. Couldn’t sing a sentimental song that would be
effective to save his life. Let Columbia
have him”.
Florence Crosby-contralto 10/20/12
“It’s too bad this
woman has tremolo and a cat sound-She has such a deep fine contralto voice. I
wonder if she could not get rid of it. Another defect she has, is a sudden
change of volume. Who ever taught her should be placed over a wheelbarrow and
whipped with a board. Can’t use her”.
Emma Van Holstein Soprano 10-7-24
“This type of soprano is useless to use-she sings in places
so weak that (I) hardly hear, then she let’s out a yell like a wild Indian.
Such interpretation is not dramatic its idiotic”.
At 10 o clock at night Farrington 7/01/15
“Rejected too silly”.
William R. Searproff
tenor 4-30-19
“Oh, no. Sounds like a Jewish cantor discharged for in
competency”.
Mr. Tom Burke, Irish tenor
“The John McCormack of Europe”
“If he is the McCormack of Europe, Europe is in far worse
condition than the papers make out. Not Wanted”.
5010 Mr. Leonard Brown Yiddish tenor
“No tune. Is there no melody in Jewish music. If they enjoy
this they would enjoy small pox”.
Edison was happy to give great praise to someone if he felt
they deserved it. Here are a few:
Light cavalry overture
Xylophone solo
G.Green
11/25/16
Green is “some Xylophonist
OKEH Laughing record
“Walter, get two they are good. Our (laughing) record
couldn’t be given away its altogether rotten. The Okeh has many kinds of
laughing and few words. It’s a great novelty”.
9799B Victor Rosales
“This man has the finest voice that I have ever heard. When
we have good tunes that fit his voice by all means use him freely. Am delighted
with this voice “.
Edison listened to his music differently than almost anyone
else, at another speed than he proscribed. Edison usually listened to Diamond
Disc records at the speed of about 70-72 RPM’s.
He wrote about this and said,
“ PITCH While the
corti rods in the ear are not fully grown in young people they like high pitch.
When 25 years they like present French pitch. There after the rods get loaded
and the older you get the lower the pitch. Old people run 80RPM phonographs to
70-72 RPM’s”.
Edison’s personal phonograph in his home in Glenmont was set
to play at about 70 RPM’s. He listened to the recordings at a speed that was
comfortable to him. I would like to take a story and correct it here. Yes there
does exist a phonograph with teeth marks in it, but this machine was from the
last days of Edison’s involvement. He was near 80 and very deaf. But to think
of Edison in the early days of the Diamond Disc biting into a phonograph to
test the records is absurd. I can imagine that there were times that he may
have done it to experiment with his hearing. He could still hear well enough to
listen to the recordings with his naked ear or with a horn. He often commented
that certain recordings were so loud that they “near split open my ear”. Edison
heard far more than we give him credit for. He also misled us into thinking
that he heard nearly nothing. Edison heard what he wanted to hear. He seemed to
hear very well when you were talking about him and amazingly deaf when he
wanted to be. Of course as he aged his hearing got worse. There were also a few
operations performed on his ear that harmed his hearing more than it helped it.
His hearing was correctable as proved by his son Theodore. He took his father
to Bell Labs and had a curve made of T.A.E.’s hearing. Then he constructed a
hearing aid to compensate for the hearing loss. This monstrosity as he called
it worked very well. But it was a large box with vacuum tubes, a
stethoscope-like headset and a microphone to speak into. He said his father put
his head into the headset and someone spoke into the microphone he heard the
high-pitched sounds that he had never heard before. In fact, Theodore said his
father “heard pretty good through it”. But the thing weighed a lot and was
“tremendous” in size. So we can see where Edison’s hearing loss centered. He
had very few highs in his hearing and he would often lose the hissing sibilant.
He could hear lower tones rather well and I believe this is what led him to
push for a very mellow sound with low tones. It was a pleasing and comfortable
sound for him.
Edison had his taste and feelings toward music like anyone.
To his credit there was quite a bit of decent recording going on. His mania for
perfect sound reproduction forced his company and staff to reach for a quality
that many only dreamed of. The diamond
disc was the result of research and development and the strange but determined
work of a man who could hardly hear as others did. The notes that we have
peppered through this short piece just open a door a little so you can see the
real Edison. He was in so many ways bigger than life and in other ways so very
human. Whether you like Edison or not,
you have to respect the amazing result of his and his team’s work. The Diamond
Disc Phonograph and Record.
