[78-L] Herr Doktor Brahms (was: Paging Jerry Fabris)

[Michael Biel]

  This seems to be the best web page so far with the best info about the 
introduction as well as an analysis of the piano playing.

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/edison/brahms/brahms.html


+++++++++++++++++++++++

Jonathan Berger (CCRMA, Stanford University)

The spoken text at the start of the cylinder recording has been wrongly 
attributed as belonging to Brahms. Numerous writers, scholars and 
amateurs alike, have presumed that Brahms introduces himself with the 
words "I am Doctor Brahms, Johannes Brahms". However a humber of factors 
raise serious doubts as to who is speaking. The only mention of the 
recording by someone who was present (in the published memoires of 
Fellinger's son) states that Brahms was introduced. Considering the time 
between the announcement and the start of the music it seems improbable 
that the same person could segue from speech to playing so quickly 
particularly given the technological limitations.

The denoised excerpts reveals enough of the speech to suggest that the 
speaker (probably Wangemann) introduces Brahms as follows:

"...Dezember Achtzehnhundertachtundneunzig. Haus von Herrn Doktor 
Fellinger, bei mir ist Doktor Brahms, Johannes Brahms".

("...December Eighteen Hundred Eighty Nine. House of Mr. Fellinger, with 
me is Doctor Brahms, Johannes Brahms.")

(acknowledgements to Guido Behnke for his assistance in transcribing the 
text)

+++++++++++++++++

This has a restored version and you can actually hear the announcement 
clearly, and start to understand the piano style.  Partway through it 
shows a photo of the cylinder and I can vouch for that crack on the 
right side that this is the REAL cylinder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DILubIRIgX4&feature=related

This also is an interesting restoration but gets out of sync between two 
versions at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdFuqKcYaZk&feature=watch_response

This has two different unrestored dubs of the cylinder and even has the 
story correct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXL3I7GPCY

There is an earlier version of the first web page that has some audio 
links and writes about some of the alternation transcripts of the intro, 
but does not include the corrections.
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~brg/brahms2.html

Back in the early history of the controversy, someone heard "Gruss Got 
Herr Edison" which would be an Austrian greeting to Edison.  This is 
IMPOSSIBLE, and might be what has caused someone to think that Edison 
was on the cylinder.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



On 9/14/2010 4:28 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> On 9/14/2010 4:19 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
>>     On 9/14/2010 3:50 PM, David Lennick wrote:
>>> Same question you've just answered off-list..expect to hear from a nice fellow
>>> in Toronto who wants to debunk a story about Brahms and Edison speaking on the
>>> same cylinder. (Unless there actually is such a thing..)
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>> __ I __ can debunk this.  I have seen and actually held the ORIGINAL
>> Brahms cylinder.  It is not Brahms voice, Edison was thousands of miles
>> away, and the words on it do not even include Edison's NAME.
>>
>> The translation of what is actually said in German goes something like
>> "In the house of Mr. Fellinger, I have Mr. Doctor Brahms, Johannes Brahms.
>>
>> I'll get the links later.
>>
>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>
>>
> You know that, I know that, even the fellow who wants Jerry's address knows
> that, but he needs something to refute a print article claiming the existence
> of Edison and Brahms speaking the same language.
>
> dl
>
>