Two Sarah Bernhardt recordings - (fwd)

[Alan Sondheim]

Sarah Bernhardt


http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/2000/2302/cusb-cyl2302d.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/2000/2352/cusb-cyl2352d.mp3


>From the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. Bernhardt has
always been an inspiration and influence; I'd heard Phedre (also available
at the site) a number of times - but not these - which sound so much like
Noh for example; I was completely unprepared for them. A while ago I put
up a mechanical pump organ from the mid-1800s; this was a music box with
reeds working on the same principles as the parlor organ. And again I was
surprised. It's rare to be able to hear voices across a century and more,
and rarer to be exposed to their power. These recordings are some of the
most interesting works I've come across in a while, even though I can only
understand part of the text.

Best yet, we can use any of the cylinders for our own work - I can hear
Sarah B. in Los Angeles now -

- Alan