06.08.2024

SAN [BUZZ]

 

As you enter the exhibit hall, you will definitely notice that it is bustling with activity, almost like a beehive. It is an all-encompassing sound. The first delicate hum, like bees on a summer morning, transforms through the ages until it reaches this day. In December 2023, we celebrate 120 years since the first Latvian sound recording. This exhibition is a tribute to the art of sound recording – from its beginnings to the present day. Through digitisation and restoration of sound, we can simultaneously hear and, hopefully, listen to our heritage. A sound recording is not just a mechanically recorded wave, a vibration, it is also a span of time. One moment, hijacked into oblivion. Sound recording technologies can bring us back to the past. Perhaps it can even be considered the first time machine. Isn’t it wonderful that we can hear Aspasija’s voice today, almost as if she were right here with us?

The Museum of Literature and Music has a collection of over 8000 recordings, ranging from mechanical pianola rolls to digital mp3 recordings.

The name of the exhibition SAN [BUZZ] takes us back to the time when the first consumer sound recording tool – the phonograph – was invented. Phonographs recorded sound on wax-coated cardboard cylinders. All this was possible thanks to a tiny insect – the bee. Perhaps SAN brings us back to an even more ancient, more primitive understanding of the human relationship with sound. The etymological roots of the Latvian verb “sanēt” [to buzz, to hum] are from the Indo-European proto-language root “swen”, also common in other Indo-European languages for words related to sound such as “sonic” and “sound” in English.

A wave was chosen as the theme of this exhibition. Visually, it is represented by a yellow timeline that accompanies each visitor through the history of sound recordings. On the ethereal level, the soundscape, created by composer and musician Jēkabs Nīmanis as a spatial piece, represents an acoustic wave, a journey through the world of sound recordings. It was created by researching the museum’s collection, highlighting the most characteristic compositions and their recordings for each time and type of technology.

Now close your eyes and listen to what the past can tell us!

Creators

Curator – Katrīna Kūkoja

Artist – Aigars Ozoliņš

Soundscape – Jēkabs Nīmanis

Installation Trĩsskanis³ – Maksims Šenteļevs

MLM Audio visual collection curators – Juris Lubējs, Gunita Eņģele

Research consultants – Inese Žune, Andrievs Alksnis

Editor – Ruta Kurpniece

Creative team – Ilona Matvejeva, Liega Piešiņa, Roberts Skrajāns, Jānis Ķīkulis, Kaspars Balamovskis, Elīna Kursīte, Annija Luīze Pentjuša

Graphic design – Daina Stelpa

Restorers – Ance Pudāne, Alvis Melbārdis, Kārlis Rubenis, Jānis Vilšķērsts, Zira Taivāne, Agris Strautmanis, Uva Gaiķe

Education programme – Līva Miķelsone

Exhibition arrangement – Dekorāciju darbnīca

Supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation

 Pianola

The pianola became popular back when listening to music took place only at live performances, and it was impossible to repeat what had been performed. It was also the time of the industrial revolution when ways to make all human activity more efficient and faster through mechanisation were sought: the railroad, telegraph, electricity, sewing machines, typewriters, cameras, and many other revolutionary inventions came to be. Chains of mechanisms set in motion countless other mechanisms. The question soon arose: why couldn’t the piano also be mechanical?

In 1880 the first pianola, also known as the mechanical piano or player piano, was invented. It was a piano that played itself. It was no longer necessary to have a well-trained pianist to enjoy your favourite pieces or to accompany singing or dancing. Pianolas became especially popular in various public places such as pubs, cafes, and restaurants. Only the urban elite could afford them at home.

How does it work?

The pianola is based on the mechanism of a traditional piano with the addition of a pneumatic (bellows) system operated by foot pedals (later by electricity). Each piano key had its own small bellows that activated at the right moment. To play music, you needed a perforated music roll with small holes through which air flowed, causing a small device to strike the keys. Each hole corresponded to a note. The length of the hole determined the length of the sound played.

Interesting facts

  • Pianola rolls ranged from 7 to 27 metres long.
  • Changes adopted in 1909 to the copyright law in the United States finally required royalty payments to composers for reproduced music rolls. Until then, player-piano rolls were considered mechanical devices, not reproductions of musical material and, therefore, not subject to copyright law.
  • A pianola roll reproduces a specific pianist’s performance, so many rolls are signed by the musician as proof.
  • In 1952, American writer Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) published his dystopian novel Mechanical Piano about future society in the United States when it had reached such a level of technological automation that human labour, as well as elementary paperwork and thought processes, had become completely unnecessary.

Musical box

The heyday of the musical box was the 19th century, but its predecessor – the pneumatic organ – was known in ancient Egypt. They came to Europe through Byzantium and became especially popular in the 18th century when they were played together with other musical instruments (drums, bells, metal reeds, violin and cello strings, etc.) that together formed a whole orchestra, which is why they were called “orchestrions”. The small portable organ is better known as a barrel, street, or crank organ.

Musical boxes came in a wide variety of sizes and often served as a fine gift and status symbol. The musical mechanism also used to be embedded in jewelled and memorial musical boxes, which were often richly decorated with drawings, etchings, and the like.

At the end of the 19th century, larger boxes with replaceable metal (also paper) discs or cylinders began to be produced. Such musical instruments were mainly used at home to accompany celebrations and dances. Public institutions also had closet-sized musical boxes that worked on the principle of jukeboxes. By depositing a coin, you could listen to your favourite melody.

How does it work?

The melody is stored in rhythmically arranged holes – in this case with the help of slots hollowed out in a metal disc place in the box. Each notch corresponds to a metal bell, which, when sounded in sequence, produces the corresponding melody. The box serves as a resonator that amplifies the sound. The boxes could be mechanically wound, like clocks, or in later years powered by electricity.

Interesting facts

  • In 1813 German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) created a special piece of music Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria [Wellington’s Victory or the Battle of Vitoria] for the mechanical instrument – the panharmonicon – built by the composer’s friend, engineer and creator of the metronome, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel(1772–1838). Beethoven later rewrote the piece for orchestra.

Gramophone

Science replaced mechanisms in the preservation and reproduction of sound after Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) invented the phonograph in Newark, New Jersey in 1877. The combination of physics and biology led to sound recording technology based on beeswax: it truly managed to record sound in time and space. In fact, a sound wave was recorded that moved a membrane at the end of a large metal horn, which in turn was attached to a needle that left grooves in a rotating wax roll. However, wax – a natural material easily affected by the environment, especially heat – could not last long, so a new solution was sought, a harder and more durable material.

The gramophone was invented in Germany in 1887. Those who could afford the new invention could enjoy their favourite music performed by a full symphony orchestra without leaving their homes. Music began to transcend unprecedented borders: from the stages of opera houses and concert halls, it reached the Latvian countryside. Both classical and popular music, which became especially popular, was recorded. Like pianolas, gramophones became the entertainment soul of various public institutions.

How does it work?

The sound wave is recorded on a rotating wax disk. From this, a metal casting or matrix is ​​created using electroplating, which is then used to mass reproduce records in a harder material – initially shellac and later vinyl and plastic disks – but glass, aluminium, rubber, and other materials have also been used.

To play a sound record, it must be placed on a rotating turntable and a needle placed on the record. The needle follows the recorded sound wave and vibrates the membrane, and the sound reaches the listener’s ears through a horn or other resonator or amplifier.

Interesting facts

  • In 1902, the first record factory in Latvia was opened in Riga. It was the Gramaphone production plant for the Russian market and operated until the First World War when the factory was dismantled and transported to Russian territory.
  • In December 1903 German sound engineer Franz Hampe (1879–1947) made the first Latvian music recordings. Before records got their name (skaņu plates), they were also called “gramophone sheet music” (gramofona/patafona notis) in Latvian.
  • In 1931 Helmārs Rudzītis (1903–2001) founded the first extensive Latvian record factory, Bellaccord Electro, at 40 Kalnciema iela, Riga.
  • The first Bellaccord Electro hit was Jānis Āre’s recording of “Ak, kaut man Daliņa kājas būtu” [Oh, if only I had Daliņš’ legs]. The song was composed in honour of track and field athlete and speed-walker Jānis Daliņš (1904–1978) who won a silver medal at the 1932 Olympic Games, an important achievement for the entire Latvian nation (just like the 3rd place won by the Latvian ice hockey team at the 2023 world championship). No wonder it was popular!
  • After the Second World War, the former Bellaccord Electro changed its name several times and was ultimately incorporated into the Soviet record company Melodija, which published local music and performances from the entire Soviet Union.
  • After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the factory was privatised and renamed SIA RiTonis. Competitive Western markets forced the factory to close after eight years, and the company was completely liquidated in 2001. In its short life, RiTonis released around 20 records: the most significant was the first – “Song for free Latvia” – that included a recording of the Latvian national anthem “Dievs, svetī Latvija” [God, bless Latvia!], which was sung as early as 1989, as well as the group bet bet’s record “Mana mīļā meitene” [My Sweet Girl] (1992).
  • Latvian Music, founded by engineer Aleksandrs Kancāns (1910–1993), was the largest Latvian record company in exile. The first LP record was released in 1954 and featured choir songs sung by Reiters’ Choir.

Interesting facts about records and animals

  • The record manufacturing process is based on two insects. First, the bee whose wax has been a soft enough material to record sound on a roll or disc. Second, the shellac beetle found only in India. Secretions produced by the female insects was the base for the raw material of shellac varnish from which records were later made.
  • The logo for the famous record company RCA Victor was created when its founder, German-American inventor Emile Berliner (1851–1929), visited RCA Victor’s London offices in 1899 and noticed a painting of a dog listening to a gramophone record in a colleague’s office. He liked the painting so much that he asked the artist Francis Barraud (1856–1924) to make a copy, which developed into the company’s logo and later became the company’s official brand. That’s how the dog, Nipper, (seen in the painting that belonged to the English artist) became world famous.

Tape recorders

Although the first recordings using the electromagnetic phenomenon were made as early as 1898, it was not until the 1930s that enough cheap, convenient, and readily available material was found to make this recording technology commercially viable. Once again, the intersection of different fields of science created a unique material for sound preservation – plastic tape containing iron oxide. Sound recorded in this manner had incomparably higher quality, and the recording could be edited – cut and pasted, deleted, and rewritten. Recording everything in one technique was a thing of the past. After World War II, most professional recordings were made on tapes, even those that were later released on records.

The first tape recorders were very heavy and inconvenient, but this was insignificant compared to the benefits that this machine brought. It allowed anyone to make audio recordings at home. Amateur recording flourished and was especially popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the USSR as it allowed for reproduction and distribution of banned music, audio books, dissident speeches, and other materials, bypassing the centralised and censored record-issuing system. Radio programmes could also be recorded.

How does it work?

The electrical signal (oscillations) is converted into a magnetic field and recorded by a special head onto tape with a magnetic coating. The tape is wound into a roll with a core in the middle; to run the tape, it must be wound onto another core. The reverse process occurs when playing back the tape. The tape slides along the head at a specific speed. The magnetic track reproduces the same signals as when it was recorded. To listen to the recording from the beginning, the entire tape has to be rewound.

Interesting facts

  • Magnetic tapes could reach a length of one kilometre.
  • Because the magnetic tape has a metal coating, it oxidizes or rusts over time.
  • Magnetic tape recording had the greatest impact on the development of radio as it allowed repeated playback and editing of recorded broadcasts, which had until then been mostly live broadcasts.
  • Unfortunately, magnetic tape is not durable and begins to break down 10-20 years after its production. It is not intended for long-term archiving.
  • In early computers, magnetic tape was used to store information.

Cassette players

Tape recorder cassettes are a smaller, commercial version of magnetic tape recorders, conveniently housed in a plastic case, thus solving the perennial problem of unwinding tape, which also resulted in the loss of recording quality. Cassettes were designed for smaller players and soon became journalists’ closest allies. It was convenient to take with you and discreetly record conversations. An even smaller cassette was created for this purpose, designed specifically for voice recording.

How does it work?

The principle of recording and listening remains the same as for conventional tape recorders, but rewinding no longer requires the use of reels, only flipping the cassette from one side to the other. The cassette can also be manually rewound using a pencil, finger, or other prod.

Interesting facts

  • Between 1963 and 1988 (considered the heyday of cassettes), 3 billion cassettes were sold worldwide.
  • The life of one cassette is 10 to 30 years on average.
  • Many people associated cassettes with vehicles: finally, the recording format was small enough to place in a player in the dashboard of a car, thus allowing the driver and passengers to enjoy their favourite music on the go.
  • Due to its cheap and convenient format, cassettes became especially popular in Latvia in the 1990s among young people, who exchanged recordings of foreign groups and copied and distributed them. A black market for tapes developed.

CD and MP3

In 1982, Sony and Philips began producing compact discs (CDs), and a new era of sound recordings and music distribution began. The production process used a sound recording method that converted sound into digital format. A physical data carrier, the CD, was used to share this information. It was used by both record companies and ordinary computer users who could record their own selections of songs on discs.

Unfortunately, bootleg recordings flourished. This gave Internet users virtually unlimited free access to music and posed a major threat to the music industry as many people were no longer willing to pay for what was available a few free clicks away. Soon, increasingly strict copyright norms began to be introduced that gradually reduced illegal circulation of music.

The increase of availability of information on the Internet directly affected the size of the museum’s audio visual collection, reducing it.

How does it work?

Computer technology and laser recorders are used to record and play CDs, but the formats in which music is recorded, such as WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) and MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III), is still used today.

Interesting facts

  • The first album to be released on CD was Swedish pop group Abba’s The Visitors.
  • The best-selling disc of all time is American pop singer Michael Jackson’s (1958-2009) album Thriller, which sold 42 million copies.

 Trĩsskanis³

Trĩsskanis³ – sensory training. The name is a play on words: ‘trīs’ (quiver) and ‘skanis’ (variation of sound)

Deep listening*

Throughout life, each person can develop the sense of hearing into the art of listening. It promotes observation, self-awareness, and development through deep listening.** It is a technique by which attention is directed from the sounds of the external world through the perception of vibration and waves to increasingly subtle nuances of internal body sensations that become noticeable as the activity of the mind subsides.

Trĩsskanis³ **

The installation Trĩsskanis³ offers sensory observation training. Three surface speakers are embedded in three wooden cubes, transmitting beehive sound vibrations from three tape players. Place your palms near the side of the cube to activate the tape players, awakening the nesting beehive in the top cube. If you place your palms even closer to the cubes, you can feel the vibrations. Hitting the string with the mallet will trigger another tape player, coaxing the bees from the lowest cube. By combining these sounds of nature with the rough oscillation of piano strings, the range of vibration expands, bringing people and the bee colony closer together in one stream of consciousness, opening possibilities for a deeper observation of the senses.

*Deep listening – a form of listening in which the listener observes his/her own state of consciousness concurrently with sounds. The ability to consciously focus attention on the sounds of the environment and music. (Sonic Awareness musical theory, Pauline Oliveros –  https://deeplistening.org/)

**Trĩsskanis³ – The name is a play on the Latvian words ‘trīs’ (quiver) and ‘skanis’ (variation of the word for sound). The tilde punctuation mark (˜), indicating range, replaces the traditional diacritical mark (“ī”) used to indicated stretched intonation of the syllable. 

Time Machine

The Museum of Literature and Music collection of sound recordings includes voice recordings of several writers that are of particular importance. In the time machine chair, you can listen to the voices of ten authors from the past.

  1. Sound Shower

Get into the sound shower and sing along!

The shower is where one can let loose and sing without worrying about an audience. Try it! Turn on the water tap and pick up the shower head (which is a microphone). Look at the song lyrics in the mirror and sing along!

INFOGRAFIKA

In the 18th century, one of the most popular street instruments was the street organ (or the “nightingale”), which was used for mechanical music playback until the invention of records.

1877 – American Thomas Alva Edison invents the phonograph. Sound is recorded on wax rolls or rollers. The phonograph waltz collection of the Latvian Folklore Repository has been included in the Latvian national register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

1885 – production of musical boxes with replaceable perforated discs or rolls begins. The first companies are Poliphonand Simphonium.

1880 – the pianola (mechanical or player piano) is invented with pneumatic bellows. Sound recordings are made on perforated paper tapes.

1887 – the gramophone is invented in Germany. The sound is still recorded on wax – no longer on a roll but on a rotating circular disc. A metal matrix is made from this record and can now be mass-produced on shellac and later, vinyl and plastic records.

The first records play at a speed of 78 revolutions per minute. A 3-minute recording can be recorded on one side of a record, which is the unwritten standard for popular music even to this day.

1915 – mechanical technology combines with electricity; microphones and electromagnetic induction are used for recording.

1933 – spatial sound recording, or stereo, is invented. Until then, all recordings were made using the mono method, recorded from a single point.

1948 – long-playing (LP) records appear, which rotate at a speed of 33 revolutions per minute. A 30-minute recording can fit on each side.

1958 – the first stereo records appear on the market.

Singles – smaller diameter records with a speed of 45 revolutions per minute, which allow for high quality recording of 1-2 songs per side.

In 1898, magnetic sound recording was invented. Initially, recordings were made on metal wires, but in the 1930s, special iron oxide magnetic tapes appeared.

After World War 2, all recordings for sound discs began to be made on tape as this improved the sound quality.

1963 – Philips invent the tape recorder.

1982 – Sony and Philips introduce the CD – compact disk format – in which sound is recorded digitally. A computer is used to record and play them.

THE BIEZAITIS MUSIC ARCHIVE

The Biezaitis Music Archive is a unique collection of Latvian music and descriptions of its history, created in Adelaide, Australia after the Second World War by Ēriks (1911–1994) and Margarita (1921–2007) Biezaitis. The origins of the collection can be traced back to the days of the Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Germany where extensive cultural activities took place. Ēriks Biezaitis participated in them as well, and he began collecting sheet music for choir repertoires. When the couple moved to Australia in 1949, the collection was already quite substantial. Over time, the collection expanded and housed materials in a wide variety of formats from sheet music, manuscripts, programmes, and photographs to recordings, both amateur and officially released records, reel-to-reel tapes, and cassettes.

In 1996, the entire collection was given to the Museum of Literature and Music. It was brought from Australia to Latvia in a huge cargo container, totalling around 45,000 items.

It was the wish of the Biezaitis family to keep this material unified in a single collection. 

LATVIAN RADIO HERITAGE

Riga Radio officially began operation in 1925, making it the 19th broadcaster in Europe. In 1938, it was renamed Latvian Radio. Initially, radio was available only to a small number of subscribers, but as their number grew to over 18,000 in 1928, the initial public investment had paid off: in December 1929, radio became available free of charge to anyone with access to a radio. By the end of 1934, Latvian radio could be heard throughout the territory of Latvia. Latvian Radio had the most modern sound recording studios, where records for Bellaccord Electro were also made. Radio broadcasts were also recorded using a new technology in which a single sound recording was made on in a thin layer of varnish on a glass or aluminium disc, which could be played repeatedly on the radio, but not reproduced.

When the German army retreated in 1944, the post and telegraph building, which also housed the radio studios, equipment, and all the recordings, was burnt down. Few records from the radio archives have survived; the fate of most remains unknown. Yet, 28 records are housed in the collection of the Museum of Literature and Music, among them unique recordings such as the voice of the poet Aspazija, readings of Rainis’ poetry by the famous director Eduards Smilģis, and a recording of the 1937 production of the opera Baņuta by Alfrēds Kalniņš with a pre-performance commentary. Some of these old records have news broadcasts created by the German occupying regime recorded on the reverse side, which were scratched. Thanks to modern sound restoration technologies, it was possible to restore and listen to these recordings as well.