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Edison Sound Recordings - (War Songs) Audio CD | | | Military music from the beginning of audio history....
There is actually no reason why the phonograph could not have been invented earlier. When Thomas Edison placed his prototype before an amazed world, there was no evidence of anything new by ways of actual hardware - only parts well known to amateur scientists and mechanics. It had a rotating drum, a short screw-thread, a vibrating diaphragm, and a sharp stylus. However, no one found the combination obvious. |
Once it became clear that sound history was firmly in the making, a number of musical disciplines scrambled to get their act together. Here was the means of actually immortalizing their efforts - these efforts, therefore, had to be brushed up and perfected. However, one area of melody that has remained curiously constant and unchanging in many ways is martial or war music. This is based on the fact that the sentiments that war songs and marches express are themselves timeless in their basis. Their purpose is to inspire troops and flagging public support for the most senseless and wasteful manifestation of the human condition - the waging of war. Thomas Edison, of course, was not concerned with these philosophical aspects - his purpose was to record. And record he did...
Edison Sound Recordings - (War Songs) Audio CD from the A2ZCDS series proves that martial music has been an inspiration throughout history. Probably no other form of communication has filled flagging spirits with more patriotism than the songs, medleys and blood-pounding marches that soldiers have sung since before Alexander, Attila and Napoleon.
'There's A Long, Long Trail' is a war song first created and published by Edison in 1916 and is faithfully reproduced here in its first recorded avatar. The performed, George Wilton Ballard, would have been gratified to know that his version lives on to the present day. 'Madelon - I'll Be True To The Whole Regiment', performed by Arthur Fields, is a moving war eulogy rendered in scintillating baritone to orchestral accompaniment. In the same patriotic vein, 'Till The Boys Come Home', sung by Frederick Wheeler, is a timeless tribute the fighting men that was produced in 1916.
But it is track "Let us not forget" that is perhaps the most momentous - a live recording of Thomas Alva Edison's voice, exhorting the American people 'not to forget' the selfless sacrifices made by Allied soldiers on WWII fronts across the world. This is the great inventor himself - modest to the point of seclusion, but with a message that you will not forget because of who has given it.
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