Here’s an anniversary I’ll bet you didn’t know about. This year marks the 150th anniversary since the birth of recorded sound. I’ll bet you’re thinking about Thomas Edison and his talking machine.
But then maybe you’re thinking “Wait! That wasn’t 150 years ago! What’s he talking about?” It was in 1860 when a Frenchman named Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville made something he called a “photoautogram” of him singing a folk song called “Au Claire de La Lune.”
It sounds like a woman, but we think it’s Edouard himself. Speed control was a little tough in those days. Shh: listen. [Play clip found here.] The first known instance of recorded music, made April 9, 1860, 150 years ago.