Sounds
of the Western Reserve Historical Society
|
CD
- 15.95
|
SOUNDS
OF THE WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
*includes musical background selections 1.
1890 Soundscape
2. 1903 Sounds of the
Road *”The Entertainer,” (Joplin, Scott 1902) Ampico
Player Piano Roll played by Bill Flint
3. 1930 Sounds of the Road *”Puttin’ On The Ritz,”
(Berlin, Irving 1930) Fred Astaire with The Columbia Studio Orchestra,
“Mountain Greenery,” (Rodgers, Richard 1926) Ampico Player
Piano Roll played by Richard Rodgers
4. WWII Airstrip Soundscape * “A Slip of the Lip,” (Ellington
and Henderson 1943) Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra
5. The Bells of the 19th Century
6. Blacksmithing
7. Popcorn – Timeless Snack
8. The Remarkable Steam Engine
9. Cleveland Car Chronicle *”Mr. Jelly Lord,” (Morton, Jellyroll
1924) Ampico Player Piano Roll played by Jellyroll Morton
10. 1903 – Year On Wheels *”Maple Leaf Rag,” (Joplin,
Scott 1899) Ampico Player Piano Roll played by Bill Flint; “In
My Merry Oldsmobile,” (Edwards, G. and Bryan, V. 1905) Recorded
by Billy Murray; “Fascination,” (Blake, Eubie 1939) Ampico
Player Piano Roll played by Eubie Blake
11. The Sounds of Vaudeville * “Vaudeville’s Favorite Mimic,”
Edison Cylinder-Record
12. Mr. Ford’s Model T
13. 2003 Air Show Race
14. The Jimmy Franklin
Story
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| |
Jeff
next to the sound kiosk featuring his CD, "Sounds of the Western Reserve
Historical Society," at the Crawford Auto/Aviation Museum Exhibit, Cleveland
International Auto Show, March 2005 |
Jeff
Moyer spent two years conducting in the field the actual sounds of numerous
historic machines, devices and other sound-producing artifacts from
the collection of The Western Reserve Historical Society. In addition,
he collected the wonderful sounds of player piano rolls developed during
the late 19th and early 20th centuries and recording historic aircraft
at the Cleveland National Air Show.
Jeff has developed
a truly unique contribution to American history – an innovative
CD that presents these historic sound treasures in a creative array
that sets the sound stage for the theater of the mind and weaves wonderful
stories that will be of interest to anyone who can be delighted by entertaining
and educational sounds and narratives. Historians, educators, families,
antique car and airplane buffs, veterans and simple lovers of history
will find this creative work a delightful additional to their CD collection.
Tracks 1 through 4 create the illusion of “being” in a country
town in 1890, standing by the road in 1903 and 1930 and on a World War
II airstrip and hearing the actual sounds that would have filled the
air along with the music of the period.
“ The past should never be silent! Hearing these sounds from
the past adds an important dimension to understanding our history. Jeff
Moyer has produced historic soundscapes--creating an exciting way of
doing history.”
Dr. Edward Pershey, Director of the WRHS History Museum
|
A Crusade
to Save Sounds of the Past
Tuesday, March
08, 2005
Tom Feran - Plain Dealer Columnist
The distant past
was black and white and silent -- or so it might seem, if we judge from the
evidence of photographs, documents and artifacts.
Those things can
tell us stories about the past, but they only hint at what life was like in
color. Even the addition of color doesn't tell us what everyday life sounded
like, in the unamplified days before traffic and cell phones, when steam engines
ruled the rails and horses filled the streets
Sound recordings
date from the 1870s, but most early recordings were staged performances, as
posed in their own way as the photographs that go with them.
"There isn't much
environmental sound," said Ed Pershey, director of the Western Reserve Historical
Society's History Museum. "People just didn't do that. So we don't know what,
say, East Ninth and Euclid sounded like in 1920. It was different. And there's
a richness there that's another part of history."
Capturing those
lost sounds is part of a growing effort at the historical society to make its
collections come alive.
Visitors to the
Greater Cleveland International Auto Show got to hear a sample from one collection,
the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, at a "sound kiosk" near its vintage cars.
From the sound of the road in 1903 to a narrative about Cleveland as the first
motor city, the kiosk featured excerpts from "Sounds of the Western Reserve
Historical Society," a new CD of 14 creative "soundscapes" and stories.
The CD was recorded
and produced by Jeff Moyer, a local producer, writer, musician and educator
who has an interesting history of his own. Blind since childhood, the 56-year-old
Brush High School graduate is known to adults nationally as an activist for
the disabled, for his teaching about accessibility and to kids as the "Troubador
of Inclusion" for the CDs and educational programs he has developed.
The historical
society hired him as an access consultant a couple of years ago to examine ways
of adding sound to the museum on East Boulevard in Cleveland.
"Blind people
have no way of perceiving what's there," Moyer said. "The first thing that struck
me, as with most museums, is that the place is silent -- though you're dealing
with machines that make sound. It struck me that recording the sound of the
cars could have meaning."
Moyer's idea dovetailed
with the goal of Crawford director Allan Unrein to get the entire collection
running, one car at a time, at the museum's warehouse and preservation center
in Macedonia.
"I wasn't sure
what I'd do with the sounds," Moyer said, "but I had purchased digital stereo
recording gear. I'd go out while they were getting the cars running, to hear
them starting, idling and driving away. I'd record them from the inside, including
the sound of the horn.
"I was fascinated
by the sounds. The one line people always associate with blindness is your hearing
gets better. It doesn't. What happens is, you have to rely on it more, and it
can become more interesting because you don't have access to the visual piece."
He heard a one-cylinder
car that sounds like a steam engine struggling to go up a hill. He heard a car
with two pistons starting to sound like vehicles we're familiar with. He noted
the distinctive growl of a 1909 Hupmobile, "because even people buying a Hup,
a low-end car, wanted the sound of speed."
Fascinated, Moyer
recorded more sounds at the museum and the society's Hale Farm & Village
-- from a steam engine to turn-of-the-20th-century vaudeville instruments, and
a 1926 player piano "playing the real music of the day, the way it would have
been played then."
He did research,
added narrative to some of the soundscapes and produced the CD that's getting
attention beyond Cleveland and will probably lead to more.
"It does give
a new dimension to the museum experience," Moyer said.
"Access is not
just provisions for people who have a limitation. It's opening to everybody
in a way that's expansive."
Much like a sidewalk
curb cut, the benefit of which isn't limited to someone using a wheelchair,
access can deliver unexpected dividends.
It is access to
the past in this case, and a message worth hearing.
