Sound Archives
First Sounds
Humanity’s earliest playable recordings, recovered from experimental inscriptions made before the phonograph era. Listen to selections and inspect original source records and reuse notes.
19 catalog recordings. 1857–1880s.
Original source: First Sounds.
Selected recordings
- Au Clair de la Lune - By the Light of the Moon (April 9, 1860) [#36] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Au Clair de la Lune - By the Light of the Moon (April 20, 1860) [#44] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Gamme de la Voix - Vocal Scale (May 17, 1860) [#46] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Excerpt from Ducis's Othello (April 17, 1860) [#38] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Opening lines from Tasso's Aminta (undated, probably April-May 1860) [#45] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Vole, Petite Abeille - Fly, Little Bee (undated, probably September 1860) [#50] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Vole, Petite Abeille - Fly, Little Bee (September 15, 1860) [#49] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1860) · Original source
- Jeune Jouvencelle (August 17, 1857) [#9] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1857) · Original source
- Diapason at 435 Hz--at sequential stages of restoration (1859 Phonautogram) [#33] — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1859) · Original source
- Metropolitan Elevated Railroad from 40 feet away — Thomas Edison and Charles Batchelor (1878) · Original source
- Lateral electroplated disc (Disc 1 – 312119) — Volta Laboratory Associates (1881) · Original source
- Barometer (Disc 2 – 287686) — Volta Laboratory Associates (1884) · Original source
- Mary Had a Little Lamb (Disc 3 – 287654.11) — Volta Laboratory Associates (1885) · Original source
- Hamlet’s Soliloquy (Disc 4 – 287920) — Volta Laboratory Associates (c. 1884) · Original source
- Business-related speech (Disc 5 – 287700) — part 1 — Volta Laboratory Associates (1885) · Original source
- Business-related speech (Disc 5 – 287700) — part 2 — Volta Laboratory Associates (1885) · Original source
- Business-related speech (Disc 5 – 287700) — part 3 — Volta Laboratory Associates (1885) · Original source
- Story and Jackson Company history (Disc 6 – 287701) — part 1 — Volta Laboratory Associates (1885) · Original source
- Story and Jackson Company history (Disc 6 – 287701) — part 2 — Volta Laboratory Associates (1885) · Original source
Rights vary by recording and jurisdiction. Verify the original archive record before reuse; inclusion is not a blanket copyright-free guarantee.
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