Into lecture for sound workshop,
james beckett march 2004
Edison’s first formal invention was the voting machine, dismissed at the time as the last thing the government would want and hence useless. The machine held the structural basics for what was later to be the tin foil reproducer, or sound reproducer through the medium of tin foil. Effectively concentrating a large surface area of sound into the pressure point of a needle, the first designs were crude yet effective. It was understood prior to its application that sound is basically difference in air pressure, and, in the process of indenting a paper or malleable surface such as tinfoil, one could register sound. In running a playing needle again over the same indented groove one could reproduce (with relative quality) the original sound produced.
Cap: Seen here is a diamond playing head running through the groove of a record, basically a flat version of the original cylinder. Sound, in this case, is registered in the vinyl vertically (referred to as a ‘Hill and Dale’ incision) and produces tone created by the number of cycles or difference in playing surface per second. A groove written with a 440cycle rate will produce the equivalent of the note ‘A’ in a twelve-tone instrument, this can be referred to as the notes frequency.
In 1877 the reproducing instrument was patented as the phonograph, one of approximately 600 later patents claimed by Edison. In following lines of commercial viability, Edison had left his invention for a period, in order to explore the more lucrative directions of incandescent lighting. The reproducer was however taken through several stages of improvement by Alexander Graham Bell, namely by the use of a hard wax to replace the foil recording surface and sapphire recording needles giving the incision a greater deal of accuracy.
Capt. Marked ‘a’ in this illustration from 1890, Tinfoil proved to be a poor surface material for recording into as it could only be dented, hence unable to carry sufficient detail. The later use of wax as a recording surface would prove much more efficient as it could be cut into and easily reproduced as a casting material.
Bell was also formally termed the inventor of the telephone, a system building much like the phonograph had upon an evolution of preceding ideas. Having quite a good understanding of both sound and electricity, Bell was able to realise in practice what had been around in theory for several decades. Before having formalised ‘his’ invention in reality, he had claimed through a registration office that he would attempt certain technical lines to achieve such result. This patent registration had been filed just hours before that of a similar idea of another inventor, Elisa Gray. Bell had supposedly followed a path more accurate to Gray's filed patent, thus arriving at a functioning model able to conduct speech well in advance. This patent had been filed in 1876, one year preceding the invention of the foil phonograph.
Like the phonograph, the telephone receives difference in air pressure through a vibrating membrane of sorts. The phonograph would then register the vibration as inscription where the membrane of the phone would translate the difference in air pressure to difference in electrical current, thus enabling sound to be conveyed live over great distances. The electrical current would then be translated back to acoustic sound via another membrane vibrating in a second headset.
The economic and creative climate was at the time geared toward practical invention and the likes of unprofitable entertainment were secondary. Despite such influence, Gray had opted out from his usual development and patent registration to perform live telephonic concerts. Although the instrument allowed only one note to be played at a time with no function for additional expression, people where sufficiently amazed to attend recitals, marking the potential for a new means of listening to music.
The instrument was to be named the Telharmonium and incorporating the related infrastructure would be referred to as: “The Art of and Apparatus for Generating and Distributing Music Electrically” The instrument had proven difficult to patent as a result of its complex technical makeup. A labyrinth of explanation and correspondence with the patent officials of Washington D.C. had seemingly doomed Cahill to reside in the shadows of patents filed by Gray. With a degree in law he was able to hold his own and persisted in his registrations. Finally able to verify various degrees of uniqueness in his invention, Cahill set about constructing the 200 tonne instrument. With the backing of distinguished Washington Capitalist Oscar T Crosby, he raised enough funds to realise a version of his original design for the instrument. The income raised from the infrastructure was principally to come from the rental of each diaphragm.
“$50 per year on each diaphragm used in the parlours, dining rooms, bar rooms, billiard rooms, porches or other rooms of any hotel, restaurant, café, saloon, billiard room, lodge, club, store, depot, or other public place, in towns of more than 100,000 inhabitants.”
For commercial interests, the instrument had been moved to Manhattan in New York, practically in the central business district. Various sources accounting for the destruction of the Telharmonium differ although it is clear that it was popular consensus of the district that the instrument should be dismantled on account of its’ interference with phone calls in proximity. Consequently the telephone company had refused to defend the system and had annulled the contract, discontinuing use of their lines, thus deeming the invention redundant.
In the shared use of an infrastructure, that of the telephone lines, the Telharmonium had prematurely fallen from its utopian notch, leaving the Cahill company bankrupt.
To trace back around twenty years, Edison had now begun refining the phonograph incorporating the improvements made by Bell, the sapphire recording knife and hard wax. Like most of his peer inventor-entrepreneurs, it was his intention to mass-produce in order to generate great profit. Upon its first commercial arrival the phonograph had not found much popularity, as even the typewriter was still quite a novelty in the workplace. The expense of such a machine had not warranted the purchase by individuals and companies and was accordingly rented for a given period to suit the need of the consumer. The machines had taken quite some time to enter into their intended practice of the recording and storage of important messages, or for the recreational playback of pre-recorded music. The apparatus had encountered quite some resistance, in particular in the U.K. where stenographers where objecting to the presence of the machines as a threat to their jobs.
By the time the phonograph had found acceptance, Edison had marketed the
invention claiming he wanted to see one in every American home. In forming
his own studio-recording band, suitably named the Thomas Edison band,
he had holistically begun the production of his own cylinders creating
a full package fit for popular consumption. This allowed him to capitalise
on all aspects of the inventions applications.
A typical recording studio would line up its musicians with an instruments
proximity to the horn relating to its volume. (loudest at the back, softest
at the front). Seen here is a horn being taped tightly so as to avoid
its own vibration entering the recording. Loud instruments such as the
saxophone would record well.
This image shows a horn spread wide across a piano at such an angle that
it would probably have reflected more sound than it would have captured.
Edison’s creative expansion of the invention would bring much additional profit. Evident in his pursuit of all potential avenues in exploiting the money-spinner was his speaking doll which contained a tiny playback cylinder of a pre-recorded message.
The phonograph is combined here with a crude form of image reproduction utilizing running scrolls. In a significant combination, the entry into motion picture by Edison was later to become the source of much wealth and controversy.
Edison was later to found The Edison Film Manufacturing Company, which, as an established leader in the field, had merged with other leaders to form a trust, - the Motion Picture Company. As a dominating force with Edison as a leading figure, they had applied regulations across the industry from the producer and supplier of material, right through to the theatre owner screening film. Licensing fees as well as patents filed across the full spectrum of film, cameras and projectors had ensured that no unlicensed producer or screener could pass in the practice without paying royalties to the company. This had effectively created a monopoly, repressing any activity of independent production.
Even small scale and highly secretive underground imports of stock were detected and erased drawing the independent producers into a practically dysfunctional minority. In 1915, just 7 years after the formation of the Motion Picture Company, an independent producer, William Fox, took the Patent Company responsible for the condoning of the operations to court, deeming them illegal. The court found in favour of Foxes accusations hence bringing an end to the monopoly of an industry, a significant victory in the face of the money hounding patents.
Quite ironically, these independent filmmakers would unite and move west to Hollywood to realise their own film utopia. Around the same time several landmark attempts at ridiculous patent attempts help mark the end of gold rush patenting.
This picture shows the introduction of the double-sided record. Up until this moment the record had been only one-sided. When it had occurred to a man that both sides could be used thus doubling the potential playing surface he had made the attempt to register the concept as his own, making himself beneficiary to future royalties. This resulted in a court case whereby the claim was dismissed as an inevitable evolution and hence ridiculous.
Along
with an apparent disease of cash-lust circulating the likes of the Menlo
Park neighbourhood, it is also quite remarkable that Edison had become
quite deaf relatively early in his carrier.
In this photo from 1888, while proofing the phonograph before being sent
to production, Edison is using rubber tubes which had to been inserted
quite deep into the ear. Another horn can be seen lying on the table,
probably used for a similar purpose of amplification. As his hearing had
become worse, Edison would still be able to hear by conducting vibration
through a piece of wood held fast in his rear teeth. This was a technique
Beethoven had also resorted to in his loss of hearing.
As sound is basically the difference in air pressure, a body creating
vibrations to produce sound through air, can also be directly conductive
of sound. It is also notable in this sense that one experiences sounds
differently when interpreted through the body as in comparison with the
ear alone. For example ones own voice shocks when heard in a recording
as it is removed from ones body, when speaking you hear your voice not
only acoustically but also physically, mostly through the bones vibrating
in anywhere between your throat and your ears. Although the higher frequencies
are mostly filtered out, when feeling sound, ones body is most sensitive
to lower frequencies.
Other than the use of a stick, it is not until recently that the idea
of sound being conducted through bone been incorporated into a device
as a means by which to hear. Since January of this year, the Japanese
company Sanyo began sales of the first cranio-mandibular audio transmission
(or bone conduction) telephone. This technology uses the skull to conduct
vibration directly to the cochlea or inner ear, effectively bypassing
the eardrum. The practical purpose of such a technology is in the use
of mobile phones in noisy areas. What one does is press the small sonic
vibrator of the phone to the forehead, cheekbone, jaw or back of the head
then speak as usual. The microphone presumably works in a similar fashion.
What exactly this means for the deaf and the potential of sound to be
heard without the fully functional ear is not yet clear. What is an apparent
concern of the invention however, is its potentially high levels of radiation.
Perhaps it can also be said that a person more sensitive to sound can produce constructive and beautiful sound as a result of their specific experience of them. Muhammad Dilbeg Ruzadarov is a resident of the mountainous regions of Badakhshan, making a traditional sung religious poetry,
Muhammad is blind.
For
a background I quote the Dutch musical anthropologists Gabrielle van den
Berg and Jan Belle.
“This poetry is connected with the Isma-ili religion of the people
of this area. Isma is one of the branches of Shiite Islam which is characterised
by a strong reference for Ali, the son in law of the prophet Muhammad,
and his offspring. They lay strong emphasis on the inner meaning of the
doctrines of Islam, represented first and foremost in the Qur’an.
The importance of this inner meaning behind the exterior appearance is
expressed in a great part of the religious poetry performed in Badakhshan.
Other general themes of the religious poetry of the Ismailis of Badakhshan
are the description of the life of Ali, praise on the imams and pand,
or good advice to believers.” 1
The music is characterised in particular, through changes from a slow
to quick tempo and a repetitive pattern and regular rhythm. The voice
plays an important role in the culture as the narrative praise is sung
in order to preserve the culture through generations. Not only through
words but expression in tone and duration make the music quite unique.
This could be described as the improvisational part of the narrator, conveying
the texts by gesture of his own passions. In most cases the lyric, being
that of religious narrative, is learnt aurally and is traditionally not
a written exchange. A position which is restricted to men, the narrating
musician could often make a mistake during recital and would hence follow
in time with the apology, ‘ya ali madad’. As a religious narrative
the ‘madahkani’ recital is reserved purely for religious occasion
and extends from periods of around a few hours to performances stretching
all through the night in the event of a death.
The most common instrument is the Rubab, having six strings, made of gut, processed from the skin of a sheep. The fact that the instruments strings come from an animal reaffirms the Ismailis belief that the instrument is an instrument of heaven, consequently an instrument with strings of steel is perceived as an instrument of hell and therefore unfit for religious praise. It is however accepted, that some of the more modern Rubab incorporate nylon strings.
It is recognised by van de Berg and Belle that the music has undergone centuries of various Arabic, Turkish and Persian influence although the harsh Pamir mountainous regions of Badakhshan have served to create a kind of enclosure, preserving the traditional forms from further influence. The people of Badakhshan do however form part of a split people with neighbouring relatives in the mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Chinese Turkistan.
This
brings us to Mali, West Africa, and the blind duo Amadou Bagayoko and
Miriam Doumbia, who had met while performing for a group of musicians
representing an institute for young blind people. Like the music of Badakhshan
their music is also born in a tradition of story telling and in particular
in the figure of the Griot, (or story teller) in the Bambaran language.
Before being colonised by the west Bambara was in fact not a written language
and hence the role of the Griot vital in passing on the traditions and
narrative of the people. In the form of praise for others and god as well
as numerous folk love songs the Griot was and still is to some extent,
a centre of Malian cultural society.
As one of the poorest countries in the world, Mali is necessarily resourceful
in its distribution of music within the country. Like neighbouring countries
it has, since the 70s, been circulating a cheap yet durable form of plastic
cassette. Naturally the l.p. and c.d. feature as media although the tapes
are cheapest and therefore most popular. Almost all local producers are
available in mainly three colours of plastic: yellow, blue and brown.
In the early days Amadou and Miriam released on cassette and had skyrocketed
in popularity, moving to the Ivory Coast they continued to produce and
had become household names.
A point of interest here is the presence of the singer songwriter Issa Bagayogo, with a name similar to that of Amadou Bagayoko, Issa was one of the first traditional Malian musicians to incorporate the drum machine in his compositions. At first reluctant, as a result of its supposedly fake sounds, Issa later embraced the difference of sounds from machine to those organic and formed a band including two kora players as well as the renown guitarist Moussa Koné, former collaborator with the great Ali Farka Touré. Issa had notably changed his stage name to Issa Techno Bagayogo. The large-scale popularity of his music became his saviour, lifting him from a period of drug abuse, -habits he developed whist a trainee bus driver.
Although internationally available on compact disc, Techno Issa is still
available in Mali on cassette. Little international music imported is
released on cassette, most probably for copyright reasons, meaning that
most Malian people are listening almost solely to Malian music. Exceptions
would be the release of music from Mali’s immediate neighbouring
countries. This to some extent describes the restricted movement of artistic
material as a result of international trade laws involving taxing and
the enforcement of copyright, supposedly protecting the interests of the
artist. Regarding tax, the situation can be mirrored in other former colonies
of France. For example: In relatively poor Cameroon, central Africa, it
is considerably more expensive to buy basic appliance, such as a radio,
than it is in Europe, the reason being that both the corrupt local government
as well as the French government charge large tax on all import and export
goods.
For this reason if something is to be taxed it may as well be cheap in
the first place, very cheap
(i.e.: fake) even better -hence the flourishing of a diverse black market.
Development of illegal or alternative markets can seen as a survival mechanism,
affording its users a distribution of otherwise unaffordable appliance
and cultural product. Although damaging to the mainstream, the underground
provides access for the masses.
Contemporary Chinese piracy is under severe threat. The U.S. is suffering a great loss in trade, estimated at around 2.3 billion dollars per annum as a result of Chinese piracy. In addition to this figure the Russian black market is growing and further depleting the legitimate production and sales of licensed material. For the domestic market in Russia piracy makes perfect sense as for a generally poor populace, the purchase of a fake product is less than a quarter the price of an original.
The embrace of copyright, as displayed by Wang Lee Hom, does however seem to run contrary to a Chinese disposition, as is recognised by the journalist Graham J. Chynoweth:
“Historically, copyright law has been present in at least some form since the Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D.). Since then, copyright law has existed somewhat irregularly and its potency has always remained a question. Although copyright law has existed de jure, the cultural norms of the Chinese society played a large role in mitigating its de facto significance. The deep-seeded yin-yang cultural concepts of Li and Fa leave the Chinese people predisposed against the concept of copyright. Mainly, this predisposition comes from the Li notions that the individual should be submerged in the collective, that the individual-society relationship should be non-competitive, and the disfavoured Fa notion that the state has control over the individual.”
Evidence of the ‘Li’ notion in practice on the level of the state can perhaps be found in a both basic and beautiful measure. The government has at present placed a ban on all its computers to use Windows or any other Microsoft software, in an action aimed to suppress further profit to the monopoly of such multinational corporations. In this case Linux is the operating system of choice.
Like any other pop star Heino’s popularity was exploited for commercial profit, mostly notably in the release of video albums featuring diverse Christmas songs and beyond his control in being included into the then latest version of Microsoft Windows.
Western
pop legend Brian Eno has also been active in the Windows lineage, having
composed the start up sound for Windows 95. Despite the nature of such
later commissions, he had begun an otherwise interesting musical career
in the sixties, producing his own music as well as that of others, most
notably David Bowie and the Irish pop-group U2.
Eno has recently been collaborating with singer songwriter Peter Gabriel.
Aside from having been the vocalist for Genesis in the Eighties, Gabriel
is perhaps best known for his work in the formation and further management
of Real World Records. Real World Records produces and promotes music
from mostly third world countries, generally places with neither an independent
infrastructure nor an outlet for their music in western markets.
Many find the term “real world” or “world music”
to be quite patronising, that is: if all formerly non- represented musicians
outside the western world are now referred to as being world music (hence
coming from that magnificent unified place, the world) where exactly is
it that the rest of us come from? Nevertheless, having catered for the
marginal on this planet, it is now the goal of Gabriel in collaboration
with Eno to cater for the representation of those sitting outside the
mainstream world of record labels by hosting song by song purchase on
the internet, actively cutting out the middle man and giving the artist
more from their work.
The title for their project is ‘MUDDA’ -"Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists", which was handed to a spectrum of players in the industry as a slim red manifesto around two months ago. With the rise of Apples ‘i-Tunes’ site for 99 cent songs, MUDDA plans to compete by allowing artists to directly upload their music, whether a complete album or not, and benefit from sales directly.
Jump back to the formative years of Thaddeus Cahill and a time when dreaming was as important as doing, this extract, comprised of two references made by the Dutch writer Reynold Weidenaar, from his book, “Magic Music from the Telharmonium”
Edward Bellamy, born in 1850, was a lawyer and newspaperman who turned
to writing short stories and romantic novels in the 1870s and 1880s. He
electrified the popular imagination with Looking Backward (1887), a socialist
utopian novel set in the year 2000. The protagonist, Julian West, wakes
from a 113-year trance in an underground chamber and becomes acquainted
with the ideal of new order. Fresh in West’s mind are the wide spread
industrial problems and social unrest of the 1880s, a world of unrelieved
misery and widespread inequality. In the year 2000 the nation had emerged
as one gigantic business corporation with the proceeds shared equally
by all. There could be no relationship between individual effort and return.
There was no national debt, no military, no criminal class and no taxes.
Looking backward was largely concerned with industrial economics and social
organisation. As in most utopian schemes it left precious little room
for the arts. Bellamy dealt with music at some length but strictly as
a commodity to be purchased and distributed. Everyone in the new society
learnt to sing as part of his or her general voice training. Professional
musicians worked in the musical service. Music was distributed 24 hours
a day to homes, which had music rooms filled with perfectly rendered performances.
All were live concerts emanating from halls connected by telephone to
any subscriber who would pay the fee. This cable service carried a choice
of four musical programs. These were also on tap in the bedroom, each
of which had a telephone attachment at the head of the bed, to provide
balm for sleepless nights. Miraculously, if two persons lay side-by-side
and one desired to sleep, the sound could be made audible only to the
other. The two would be awaked the next morning by “inspiring”
alarm music. On Sunday mornings church services by wire were offered.
One prominent minister was said to preach only by telephone to an audience
of 150, 000.
I
quote Draper on a few of the benefits:
“Not only could you dial through internal trunk codes, but could
also "Leap frog" from one switching centre to another, called
"Stacking Tandems”. Other things like punching through busy
signals was possible, for instance if someone's line is busy, an internal
trunk code is used to "Tap into" that phone and hear conversations.”
In order to avoid any suspicious brushes with law they were to use several
diversions, one example being that any 800 numbers dialled would be tabulated
but not charged for, nevertheless leaving an irregularity in ones phone
bill.
Only small and trusting circles would have access to the knowledge of
the MF’er, -a crude DIY contraption later to be named the blue-box.
In his practice, Draper had made several curious discoveries relating
to the source of frequency, one being the use of a whistle to produce
a 2600hz tone capable of several hacking functions. The whistles were
practically free from the boxes of Captain Crunch breakfast cereals, making
them easily accessible and quite a threat to the AT&T infrastructure.
Thus the birth off Drapers alias, “Captain Crunch.”
During this period, very few people knew of the flaws in the system and it would take some time before someone would get caught. The hacking actions were a curiosity above a money-spinner although things were to change; -the conviction of a user had lead to a public announcement of the network vulnerability in a 1971 Esquire article, documenting the growing sub-culture. This lead to many of those involved being prosecuted and many newcomers thirsty for knowledge of the blue-box. One such person was Steve Wozniac, a young college student who, in pursuing Draper, was eager to learn and against all advice, began the production of blue-boxes in commercial venture. He produced hundreds and sold them at around $ 150 to other scholars or anyone else who would listen. Each was engraved with the phrase "He has the whole world in his hands". The money gained from his little project was later to fund a venture which was to become Apple Macintosh.
In 1972 the subsequent spread and commercialisation of the blue-box lead
to a lot of users being caught and incarcerated, including Draper who
had abstained for several years. Now in prison, Draper would hold classes
for groups in phones hacking, educating some on the roughest elements
of society in DIY hacking. Blue boxes and transmitters were supposedly
quite easy to build and were sourced from butchering old radios available
around the prison. Draper had provided the classes not so much for ideological
reasons, but more in order to avoid being sodomised. If he taught he was
respected, hence left alone.
