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First SoundsAu Clair de la Lune (French folk song - 1860 Phonautogram)

First Sounds' most newsworthy achievement to date has been the reproduction of sound from four phonautograms. Download the mp3s below to hear the world's earliest sound recordings. These files are not excerpts; they are the full tracks as processed so far.

These sounds are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (by) license and may be redistributed or sampled; all we ask is that you provide First Sounds with a copy of your work. Also, if using the sounds on your website, please save the file and host on your server.

Au Clair de la Lune--French folk song (1860 Phonautogram)
Scott recorded someone singing an excerpt from the French folksong "Au Clair de la Lune" on April 9, 1860, and deposited the results with the Académie des Sciences in 1861. The existence of a tuning-fork calibration trace allows us to compensate for the irregular recording speed of the hand-cranked cylinder. The sheet contains the beginning line of the second verse-"Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit"-and is the earliest audibly recognizable record of the human voice yet recovered.


This audio is part of the collection: Ourmedia

Artist/Composer: First Sounds
Keywords: sound recording; au clair de la lune; french folks song; phonautogram

Creative Commons license: Attribution

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Reviewer: E.Morris - - April 15, 2009
Subject: Correction
For the record, the sheet contains the beginning line of song, i.e. "Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot, prête...", and not the beginning line of the second verse as stated.