The Edison phonograph monthly (Dec 1914-Dec 1915)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, NOVEMBER, 1915 The Johnstown Leader thus spoke of the Concert: SOLOIST SANG A DUET WITH HER OWN VOICE Miss Christine Miller and Harold E. Lyman Demonstrate Perfect Phonograph Imitation of Tone Exact "The Cambria Theater was packed to the doors Monday evening with an audience anxious to hear Miss Christine Miller, the Pittsburgh contralto, sing in competition and in concert with one of the new Edison Diamond Disc Cabinet Phonographs. The demonstration of the powers of the phonograph to reproduce the natural tones of the singer's voice was perfect and the audience was greatly impressed and much delighted with the program rendered. The flute selections by Harold E. Lyman were also much appreciated. The demonstration was under the direction of the Swank Hardware Company, which has the agency of the Edison machine in this vicinity. "One of the most startling proofs of the power of the new instrument to imitate the human voice was when Miss Miller sang a duet with her own voice. The instrument carried the air, a record made from her own singing, and Miss Miller at the same time sang the alto, making an even blending of tone that was almost unbelievable in its perfection. Mr. Lyman also played the flute in concert with the machine, the tones being so perfectly blended that it was difficult to tell whether the instrument or the flute was leading." The Johntown Tribune spoke as follows: CHRISTINE MILLER PLEASES AUDIENCE Cambria Theater Not Able to Care for Crowd at Last Evening's Concert "Cambria Theater was unable to accommodate the great crowd of music lovers who sought admission to the Christine Miller concert last evening. Every seat in the theater was taken long before the beginning of the concert. Miss Miller added to her popularity with musical people of Johnstown by her work last evening. She was assisted by Harold E. Lyman, flute soloist, whose work also was of high grade. "An interesting feature of the evening's concert was the demonstration of the art of recording and re-creating the human voice on the Edison disc. Miss Miller sang several selections in unison with the phonographic record of the same selection which she had previously made, and it was only by watching her lips that the audience could tell when the artist was singing and when the recorded voice was furnishing the music. If her lips were silent the instrument carried the song; if active, both artist and disc were singing, yet both in perfect harmony. "Mr. Lyman also carried on similar experiments with the flute, playing to the accompaniment of disc records made by him. He was, without doubt, the most accomplished flutist ever heard in Johnstown. "Miss Miller opened her program with '0 Rest in the Lord,' from 'Elijah.' The diamond disc started the selection and Miss Miller sang a few bars in unison with the re-creation of her own voice. She then stopped and permitted the disc to continue alone for a few bars, and so continued, alternately singing and pausing, to the conclusion." TONE-TEST RECITAL AT WILKES-BARRE, PA. Monday, September 13 (Attendance 1,400) Artist: Christine Miller. Recital given at Irem Temple under the auspices of C. F. Murray-Smith Company. Murray-Smith Company, two days previous to the Recital, wrote: "At this writing (7 P.M. Saturday) there is standing room only for the Recital next Monday night. We are turning away applications in large numbers. Am writing this information so that you will know the concert will be a great success." W. E. Woodruff, of the C. F. Murray-Smith Co., wrote after the Recital: "Our exploitation of the Edison in such a large way by employing the two artists you have had here, has not only been, as I think, a fine commercial venture, but it has really given much of the worthiest musical pleasure to the people. Christine Miller is entitled to be called an artist and she is among the singers most in demand in the concert season. She is a reigning favorite and she has justly earned her eminence by force of artistry and personality. When music like this is offered, you see, the community ought to sit up and notice it. "The tests were most interesting and did I tell you that the manager tied me up afterward on my claim that the V sounds had never yet been done by the machines. He put on the 'Inflammatus,' from Rossini's 'Stabat Mater,' which was concluded with a short lecture. The speaker's voice was as distinct as if he had been right there and the V sounds and all others left absolutely nothing to be desired. This to me was the very crest of reproduction faithfulness, and it went beyond anything I had heard." The Wilkes-Barre Record said: "The Recital at Irem Temple interested a big company of people who were bidden by the Murray-Smith Company complimentarily. The singer was Christine Miller, who has been heard in this city before. Miss Miller has become easily enough the most popular concert contralto in the country, and she has risen to fame almost entirely through her own efforts. Her voice education, founded on a certain amount of teaching, has enabled her to work out perfectly the problem of tone placement and tone color. She began singing publicly in a small way and acted as her own manager for years until the demand for her services became so great that the burden of management was oppressive. At the time she was attending to her own engagements she was singing for fifty to seventy dates each concert season. Such critics as Henderson Hale, Hubbard, Fincke, Elson and others have found in her a remarkable summary of the highest qualities as an artist. And though the affair projected for the Temple has, in a sense, some flavor of a business enterprise, yet if such things are undertaken it is reassuring to know that the highest standard of the concert stage are to be adhered to, and that the hosts of the occasion have refused to be satisfied with anything less than the most attractive singer they could get. The event, aside from the purely mechanical marvel of s the most modern tone-reproducing machine, will have a large interest for the musical fraternity, for they did hear a voice and a method that might well enough form an event in the most elaborate recital series, and they also enjoyed a personality that matched the artistry." "The evenness of tone, the purity of phrase and cadence, the unmarred beautv of it all gave the audience to know that Edison has found the way to A PERFECT REPRODUCTION OF MUSICAL SOUND." — Evening Wisconsin, Milwaukee.