The Phonoscène was an antecedent of

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

Keazor, Henry and Wübbena, Thorsten (eds). "Introduction" to ''Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video'', transcript Verlag (2010) and was regarded by

Michel Chion Michel Chion (born 1947) is a French film theorist and composer of experimental music. Life Born in Creil, France, Chion teaches at several institutions in France and currently holds the post of Associate Professor at the University of Paris III ...

Noël Burch Noël Burch (born 1932) is an American film theorist and movie maker who moved to France at a young age. Burch is known for his contribution to terms commonly used by film scholars (such as institutional mode of representation (IMR)) and for hi ...

Burch, Noël. ''La Lucarne de l’infini. Naissance du langage cinématographique'' Paris, Nathan, 1991, chapter 10, p. 226, 5th footnote (quotation: "en puissance, le premier long métrage «parlant» !" ("in power, the first feature "talking" film !") English version: ''Life to those shadows'' University of California Press, Berkeley, BFI Londres, 1990 and Richard Abel as a forerunner of

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

. The first Phonoscènes were presented by

Léon Gaumont Léon Ernest Gaumont (; 10 May 1864 – 10 August 1946) was a French inventor, engineer, and industrialist who was a pioneer of the motion picture industry. He founded the world's oldest operating film studio, Gaumont (company), Gaumont, and wor ...

in 1902 in France. The first official presentation in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

took place at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

in 1907. Schmitt, Thomas. ''The Genealogy of Clip Culture'', in Henry Keazor and Thorsten Wübbena (eds.) ''Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video'', transcript Verlag (2010), pp. 45 et seq., The last phonoscène was presented in 1917.

Technology

The Phonoscène was a forerunner of sound film. It combined a chronophone sound recording with a

chronograph A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has hour and minute hands on the main dial to tell the time, a small seconds hand to tell that the watch is running, and ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

shot with actors

lip-synching Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements ...

to the sound recording. The recording and film were synchronized by a mechanism patented by

in 1902. Phonoscènes were played on an apparatus known as a

Chronophone The Chronophone is an apparatus patented by Léon Gaumont in 1902 to synchronise the Cinématographe (Chrono-Bioscope) with a disc Phonograph (Cyclophone) using a "Conductor" or "Switchboard". This sound-on-disc display was used as an experiment fr ...

or a later development of it known as a

Chronomegaphone Compressed air gramophones were gramophones which employed compressed air and a pneumatic amplifier to amplify the recorded sound. One of the earliest versions was the , designed by the Anglo-Irish engineer Sir Charles Parsons. It was capable ...

. Both variants typically had two turntables and two speaker horns, and both used

compressed air Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air in vehicle tires and shock absorbers are commonly used for improved traction and reduced vibration. Compressed air is an important medium for t ...

to amplify the sound. ''Phonoscènes'' were typically the duration of one

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

, including only one song, but longer

sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent sys ...

films were made of

operas Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a li ...

. ''Faust'' (1907) ran for 1 hour and 6 minutes, with 22 scenes, presumably with the audio content on 22 separate discs. The method of production, because it involved lip-synching, was only well-suited to recording singing, not spoken drama. Most Phonoscènes were in French language, but some were in English, German, or Italian. The sound recordings were mostly issued on 16 inch discs, but also some 12 or 10 inch discs, based on a collection of around 100 such recordings in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

History

The first Phonoscènes were presented by Gaumont in 1902 in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Introduction in London

Phonoscènes were presented at

on 4 April 1907 before

Alexandra of Denmark Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, queen-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...

, the Dowager Empress of Russia, the

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

and

Princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

of Wales and their children, The Princess Victoria, The Hon. Charlotte Knollys, General Sir Dighton Probyn, V.C., Mdlle. Ozeroff, The Hon. Sidney Greville (

Royal Household of the United Kingdom The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the collective departments that support members of the British royal family. Many members of the royal family who undertake public duties have separate households. They vary considerably in size, f ...

), Colonel Blocklehurst and Colonel Frederick. The "singing pictures", as the British press called them, were projected on a screen over a bank of palms. The programme was a selection of phonoscènes previously presented at the

London Hippodrome The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survi ...

, as follows: * ''The Miserere'' scene from '' Il Trovatore'', * ''The Captain's song'' and chorus from ''

H.M.S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May 1878, and ran for 571 performances, w ...

'', *''Tit-Willow'' from ''

The Mikado ''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...

'', *''This little Girl and That'', a song and dance from '' The Little Michus'', and *''The Serenade'' from

Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

's opera ''

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

''.

Belle Époque

The three major French

Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

celebrities,

Félix Mayol Félix Mayol (18 November 1872 – 26 October 1941) was a French singer and entertainer. Career Mayol was born in Toulon, France. His parents, amateur singers and actors, arranged for Felix to make his debut stage at six years of age. In 1895, ...

Dranem Dranem (23 May 1869 – 13 October 1935) was a French comic singer, music hall, stage and film actor. History Born Armand Ménard, in Paris, he began working as an apprentice jeweler in a local shop before embarking on a career in entertainment ...

and were recorded by

Alice Guy-Blaché Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché ( Guy; ; 1 July 1873 – 24 March 1968) was a French pioneer film director. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a Narrative film, narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From ...

using the

Sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent sys ...

system to make phonoscènes.

Last phonoscène to be projected and heard

''J'ai du Cinéma'' was the last presented phonoscène at the Gaumont Palace ("Greatest Cinema Theatre of the world") on 29 June 1917. Schmitt, Thomas, « Scènes primitives. Notes sur quelques genres comiques "hérités“ du café-concert », in ''1895 : revue de l’Association française de recherche sur l’histoire du cinéma (AFRHC)'',#61, 2010, p. 174
(text to be fully online on september 2013)
/ref>

Notes

External links

Phonoscene with an Elephone chronophone (1905), Félix Mayol sings "La polka des trottins" (A. Trébitsch/ H. Christiné)

Filming of a phonoscene
directed by

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phonoscene Film sound production History of film Film and video technology Motion picture film formats