Phonorama, le site dédié aux phonographes à cylindres

HENRI LIORET: Un horloger pionnier du phonographe by Julien Anton. Paris. Cercle d'information et de recherche sur l'enregistrement du son, 2006.231 pp. price 60 euros, available through PhonoGalerie, 6 rue Crétet,75009 Paris. [email protected],
http://www.phonogalerie.com/lioret_invitation.htm

Henri Lioret was until recently a forgotten pioneer of the phonograph industry.
As early as 1893 he developed a celluloid cylinder, similar to the type later manufactured by Lambert, and went on to produce high precision phonographs. Lioret, as the title of this book indicates, was a watchmaker by training and by trade. His cylinders could be reproduced in quantity, handled with ease and played with considerable volume,unlike those of his competitors. Yet Lioret remains long-forgotten. Part of the reason was probably  owing to his early goal: to perfect the talking doll. Although he produced a fair quantity of both cylinders (and a few discs) and machines  before eventually going out of business,  his unique system simply never caught on. Most of the cylinders were anonymous, depriving collectors of the object of their research. All this meant that the name of Lioret was absent from  the chief reference works, particularly in English, though the major impetus for a re-evaluation  of his importance came from the Michigan Antique Phonograph Society in the late 1990s.  Christian Zwarg produced two CDs, one devoted to classical vocal', and a second  to popular, providing most collectors with their first introduction to Lioret's production.
The handsome book written by collector and French authority on the history of the phonograph Julien Anton does not go. into much more detail on the artists concerned. The major operatic discovery is the voice of the late nineteenth century heroic tenor Emmanuel Lafarge, born 8 July 1862, though his cylinders, reproduced on Zwarg's CD, sung a cappella, as many of the Lioret production, make difficult listening. The other identified singers are better known from early Pathé catalogues than from their stage appearances: the tenor Vallade (who also made some excellent Columbia cylinders), and the baritones Maréchal and Collinet. The real value of the book is in the minute description of the phonographs and cylinders produced and the biography of the extraordinary personage of the late nineteenth century inventor. The illustrations are superb, both reproductions of contemporary documents and photographs of the machines and recordings still extant.
The text is in French, but the many illustrations have captions in both French and English The same publishers have also produced a reproduction of the Lioret 1899 catalogue (42 pages on glossy paper), comprising the list of opera, opera-comique, operetta and song recordings, some two hundred in all, though no mention is made of the singers. Price: 15 euros
John Humbley