Songs of an INVENTION

[LittleNipper]

MR PHONOGRAPH written 1878

 

[LittleNipper]

Here is a song of the curve dash Oldsmobile sung by Billy Murray 1905 ---

 

[Dekster]

Not sure this exactly fits, but John Henry racing a machine seemed appropriate in my world of tangents

 

[LittleNipper]

TELSTAR 1962 by the Tornadoes, is actually a melody inspired by the telecommunications satellite launched in 1962 by the same name. It was a giant leap forward in both telephone and TV intercontinental communications. I think that this tune influenced the Star Trek theme that would appear some years later...

 

[LittleNipper]

Speaking to telecommunications, here is an early song regrading the telephone, when a child might imagine that it was possible to contact heaven...
Hello Central! Give Me Heaven

 

[SweetSue92]

MR PHONOGRAPH written 1878

"Big Data" by Spanish composer Ferran Cruixent. I had the pleasure of hearing this composition live at its premiere live. It musically tracks the invention of "data" through the 20th century and right to the present day....and ends with the orchestra using their Smartphones. I had chills at the end of this. You can hear it now, here!!

Big Data — Ferran Cruixent

ETA: here are the program notes on this composition:

"Big Data" for orchestra is a commissioned work by the Detroit Symphony orchestra, and a one-movement work inspired by the composer's fascination with human dependence on technology. It is concerned not only with the obsession, but also the magic behind data clusters in the computerised civilisation landscapes of the future.

Big Data is a term for large and complex 'data sets' used for strong predictive analytics.
Every human being who has an internet connection produces a unique digital shadow that cannot be deleted.

In this piece the orchestra imitates sounds of an old Modem-Fax device as a metaphor of the origin of Big Data, as well as encrypted Morse code messages such as "we-are-data". Even 'music data' information from other works written by Cruixent (such as "Binary", "Virtual" and "Solaria") are also used in this piece, in order to play with the global sense of Big Data.

Musicians are required to perform using special techniques, such as "Cyber Singing" (used for the first time in 2010 in Cruixent's symphonic work "Cyborg").
"Cyber Singing" introduces a new possibility of interaction between the composer and the musician, thereby enabling genuine communication to be attained.
The audio file prepared by the composer himself is played by the musician from his mobile phone, a device commonly used for other purposes.

Two mp3 audio files are required to be played during the work. The first of these (Singing Comet 67P) refers to recorded sounds (in 2014) coming from the Comet 67P using the Rosetta spacecraft magnetometer instrument. The result is a strange clicking noise that changes in pitch and tempo, like an unknown radio-voice from beyond.

Another musical theme to be heard in this piece refers to the old song "Daisy Bell" (Harry Dacre, 1892), programmed (1961) on an IBM 704 computer in the earliest known demonstration of computer speech synthesis. Auditory researchers also used this melody in 1974 for the first demonstration of "pure dichotic" (two-ear only) perception.
This melody works here as metaphor of the beginning of virtual intelligence.

(Ferran Cruixent, 2016)

 

[LittleNipper]

Ok, so it must be realized that telephones didn't always have either buttons or dials. One would pick up the receiver and turn the crank a time or two or jiggle the receiver to gain the attention of the OPERATOR (nearly always a young lady back then). You would then tell the OPERATOR the number you wished beginning with call letters. Delran, NJ would have been HOBART and then followed by a set of numbers. In Philadelphia ones' call letters might be POPULAR followed numbers.

In this song from 1915, our young caller is having a time getting his IPSWITCH connection through. The protagonist --- the OPERATOR, seems to be mismanaging "her" switchboard. This comic song was the hit both of Vaudeville and the music halls of England... WHICH SWITCH IS THE SWITCH MISS FOR IPSWITCH is the resulting song.... Jack Norworth music hall (England) Vaudeville (USA)

 

[the other mike]

Fast forward to the 21st century...

 

[LittleNipper]

Yes, Kodachrome was/is an invention --- and Paul Simon reminds of that fact:

 

[LittleNipper]

OK! SO ------------ not all inventions last forever but their memory lingers on. Here is a song from 1904 about an airship. Another name for an airship is a dirigible or a zeppelin (which had a rigid frame) and/or a blimp which is a steerable balloon (which did not). Blimps can still be found and have been used for both reconnaissance and for making maps. This song is called COME TAKE A TRIP IN MY AIRSHIP: This film was made in 1930 ---of course airships were still very much in vogue...

 

[the other mike]

The big bang took and shook the world....shot down the rising sun....

 

[konradv]

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Aeroplane

 

[konradv]

William Shatner- Rocket Man

 

[LittleNipper]

The big bang took and shook the world....shot down the rising sun....

My dad has a RCA Victor Stereo who loved "classical" music . One of the records he had contained this composition from 1960 Penderecki's: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. Kinda reminds me of fingernails on a chalkboard, but the music was intended to make one uncomfortable with this event.

 

[LittleNipper]

This one is from 1910 and was likely heard on the Titanic. A very popular tune of the day ---Come Josephine in My Flying Machine: This recording is from a Edison 4 Minute Amberola Record. Earlier cylinders were primarily 2 Minute up until 1908.

 

[Dalia]

Billy Joel - Billy Joel -

Spoiler: Invention

Piano

Man

 

[Dalia]

The Buggles - Video Killed The

Spoiler: Invention

Radio

Star

 

[LittleNipper]

Why not ------- TAKE YOU'RE GIRLIE TO THE MOVIES (1919)

 

[LittleNipper]

And after the movies a couple could go to a soda fountain for a malted milkshake and listen and dance to the juke box ----- JUKE BOX SATURDAY NIGHT:

 

[LittleNipper]

If one had a Wurlitzer or a Pianola one might just put in the latest piano roll and pump the pedals : The Old Piano Roll Blues!