The Oldest Voices We Can Still Hear

The 1800s aren’t usually remembered through sound. While Photographs allow us to see this century more vividly than any before it, the stern-faced Victorians stare back at us in silence from their portraits. It was only in the 20th century that the phenomenon of playing back voices became so common that we take it for granted. But the technology to do so existed far earlier, allowing us to listen to the distant echoes of people who lived centuries ago. This video is dedicated to the oldest voices that can still be heard.

→ MUSIC

The Nutcracker Suite - Act I, No.5. Arabian Dance - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Holberg Suite, Op.40 - 4. Air - Edvard Grieg

Lyric Pieces, Op. 62 - V. Drommesyn - Edvard Grieg

Pieces in G - no. 2 - César Franck

Lyric Pieces, Op. 38 - VIII. Canon - Edvard Grieg

Peer Gynt Suite no. 1, Op. 46 - II. Aase's Death - Edvard Grieg

[hailchristandmary]

Imagine the seconds after they finished speaking into the phonograph, telling those in the room what a remarkable machine it is and not knowing over a hundred years later thousands of people will be listening to their words, that are stuck in time, intently with fascination.

[CallicoJackracham]

For how creepy and ghostly those digitalized 19th century recordings tend to sound i could not help but smile at the genuine hearty laughter of the gentleman reciting nursery rhymes. We are so accustomed to pictures and painting of 19th century people looking stoic and serious we tend to forget they were ordinary people capable of humor just as much as we are.

[gtb.]

it's somewhat comforting to know Édouard-Léon was not only not forgotten but his voice is still heard centuries later. His wishes were certainly fulfilled.

[moodberry]

I inherited a plastic disk from my late mother. She recorded onto it in the 1940's as a young woman. Apparently, she was with my aunt and they saw this recording booth where you could go in and record and it would create the record. It was a novelty machine and the novelty didn't last long. But National Public Radio did a series a few years back where they attempter to find old recordings from the public. I submitted the record (which couldn't be played on any existing equipment) and they digitized it for me and used it on air. I was thrilled to hear the voice of my mother when she was a young woman. She just said a few things, but you could clearly understand it. There have been many ways to record since Edison. I appreciate your attempt to let us hear old sound.

[zacksung]

This is just haunting. To hear the voices of people over a century ago really shakes a person's ideas of history and time. Really fascinating.

[scot]

It blows my mind that I, as a 63 year old person have known and spoken with people born as long ago as 1890.

[malac]

Fun fact: Until the discovery of a recording of Helmuth von Moltke in 2012, Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian nobleman/statesman etc. was the person with the earliest birth date from whom a sound recording was known (he was born in 1802).

[shinta]

As a former German Officer I learned a lot about Helmuth von Moltke. But never in my life I would've thought that I'd be able to actually hear his voice with my own ears.
Technology truly is something magnificent.

Thank you for this very interesting video.

[gaspartiznado]

“The phonograph makes it possible for a man, who has already rested long in the grave, once again to raise his voice and greet the present.” ~ Helmut von Moltke

Geez, this hits hard.

[mistahcow]

13:38 i'm german and listening to this man's eloquent use of words from more than 130 years ago was both fascinating and terrifying considering that he grew up during napoleon's peak

[calmkenny]

I met my great grandmother for the one and only time in 1960. The one and only sentence she said to me was " I've spoken to someone who had a conversation with Napoleon". She was 90 in 1960, so she must have been very young at the time and the person who spoke to Boney must have been quite old. If true, it's a tenuous connection spanning a long time but I can say that I've spoken to someone who has spoken to someone who chatted with Napoleon.

[sheilasmith]

I'm 52. I remember my nans neighbour when I was a small child. She was nearly 100 years old so was born around 1876, almost 150 years ago. She was always nice to me giving me bars of chocolate or a 50 pence piece which to me as a little kid seemed a fortune. She died around 1977, not long after she reached 100. Just think, her grandparents would have been born during the Georgian period long before Victoria came to the throne. We live so close to the 19th and 18th centuries even though they seem the distant past. Listening to our ancestors voices is truly fascinating so thanks for adding this to YouTube.

[tylernaturalist]

Hearing the voice of a human born two centuries ago is both incredible and creepy

[gregbrougham]

I knew someone born in 1859 and when I asked her who was the oldest person she knew, it was her great grandmother who was born when Washington was president. So I guess I knew someone who knew someone when Washington was president. Brings the years closer together than we think.

[darthplagueis]

The Moltke recording is super interesting, not just because he's the earliest born man to ever have his voice recorded, but also because he was entirely aware that this recording may outlive him and that people might listen to it long after his death.

It's also remarkable just how much the sound quality had improved in such a short span of time. The earlier recordings in this video had so much static that you could only make out a few individual words but this one is almost entirely clear and comprehensible (if you speak german, anyways).

[lovelylavenderr]

"The telephone makes it possible for a man who has already lain long in the grave to once again raise his voice and greet the present."
Wow...just wow. It's all I can say to something so poetic.

[Leprechaunproduction]

If I ever got a time machine, I would love to go back in time and tell the gentleman at 8:30 that people would still be smiling at hearing his laughter 145 years later.

[jenniferhanses]

I can't help but love that "The Great Silent One" is somehow the oldest recorded human voice surviving. And that was a very nice, clear recording, too., given the technology.

[JacobSmith-fhkb]

That last part, "no one knows what happened to his remains, but his voice lives on, " sent chills up my spine.

[frankvandorp]

So great that these recordings are so old, and still have better sound quality than most intercoms at drive-throughs.