GRAMOPHONES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 84, 30 June 1927, Page 14

GRAMOPHONES

ROMANCE OF A GARDEN BIRDS’ SONG RECORDED Light-winged Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beeches green, and shadows numberless. Singest of summer in full-throated ease. —Keats. The romance of a moonlit garden, .with 15 nightingales in full-throated song, will within a few weks be carried into thousands of homes in the country as the result of the latest gramophone development. Within a few more weeks the birds’ magic notes will have been carried to the furthermost corners of the earth. The birds were coaxed into song by Aliss Beatrice Harrison, the ’cellist, in the old-world garden of her home near Ox ted, Surrey. As the shadows lengthened and the moon came up above the trees Aliss Harrison took up her post in a tiny coppice, drawing soft music from her ’cello. IN FULL SONG About a quarter of a mile away, in an elaborately equipped motor-lorry belonging to ”His Alaster’s Voice” Company—a gramophone recording studio on wheels —engineers strained their ears to a loud speaker. It was connected by landlines to microphones cunningly concealed near the nests close by Aliss Harrison. For a while only the dreamy music from the ’cello came through the loud speaker. Then suddenly just one trill. But the music, becoming softer and sweeter, continued until the nightingale, as if unable to restrain itself any longer, burst into full song. Nightingale after nightingale joined in the chorus until the moonlight was flooded with magic notes. Inside the van a wax disc began to revolve, and the vesper hymn was recorded for all time. SIX HOURS IN DITCH Night after night for the past week Aliss Harrison has charmed the nightingales in this fashion. Once she crouched for six hours in a ditch, wearing gum boots and with the water over her ankles. But she declares that the record called “Dawn” alone justifies her vigil. In this record, which was made just as the sun was breaking the horizon, the nightingale is joined in marvellous concert by blackbirds, thrushes, starlings and sparrows, while in the far distance, across the dewy meadows, comes the crowing of a cock.