I was wondering, what are some of the very earliest existing recordings of Irish trad, when do they date from and are any of them still available in any form?
Thanks.
–James
There are recordings from the late 1890s in existence, what survives of the Feis Cheoil recordings probably represents the main body of the very earliest recordings
Yes, Dinny Delaney,Gem Byrne, George McCartney et al are there.
In true victorian fashion the music was only recorded so that the tunes could later be notated on paper (the wax cylinder recordings were a means to an end, not the end itself).
The Donnellan cylinders are another early source:
http://www.ucd.ie/folklore/english_html/waxcylinders.htm
Also, the Henebry cylinders in Cork.
Regards,
Harry.
Ross’s Music Page has some of these archaic recordings.
Our absent friend WillO’Ban did an article on O’Neill, and I think that he had info on some old cylinders related to O’Neill. I’ll see if I can find any of that …
O’Neill’s collection of cylinder recordings was long thought lost in a fire. A few years ago they turned up however in Milwaukee. The Library of Congress is raising money to digitise them. A thread about this: here.
Nicholas Carolan’s A harvest saved is probably the best reading material on O’Neill readily available.
It would be nice if they had a list of what’s to go through. I’d sponsor at least one transcription/digitization.
Kevin Krell
Yes, that’s the story… and what a treasure! I’ll have to check out the book too.
I haven’t had a chance to explore this archive in detail, but UC Santa Barbara recently made available the products of its Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. There are some recordings under the subject heading Irish. The URL is:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu
This sounds like a winner:
32
Charles Daab, xylophone solo.
Irish and Scotch melodies
498: Edison Amberol
[1910]
Yes, that is a catchy tune isn’t it. Kind of like Irish trad played by Alvin and the Chipmunks!