The voice of Tsar Nicholas II? This transcription of a rare pre-revolutionary Russian shellac disc may or may not contain a short recording of the real voice of the Tsar of all the Russias, but it is certainly of interest in and of itself for its fascinating portrayal of Imperial Russian military ceremony. Contemporary eyewitnesses described the last Russian Emperors voice as a rich baritone, and though it is documented that he sat for two spoken-word recording sessions with technicians from the Thomas Edison Company in the 1890’s, as of yet no confirmed recordings of Nicholas II’s voice have yet been identified. This may change, as conservators at the Thomas Edison Laboratories in New Jersey continue to explore the treasure trove of forgotten wax cylinders found there many years ago, but which has been subject to serious research only since 2011. These super-fragile sound documents included spoken word recordings of Otto von Bismarck and Field Marshal von Moltke, which have already been identified and released to the public. One promising note: the trove is known to include numerous performances by illustrious Russian musicians and opera singers from the 1890s, when the Russian empire was at the height of its cultural flowering of the nineteenth century.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 15:48:29 +0000