Rediscovering Wax Cylinders from the MIM
(2025) 200 YEARS OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC & DANCE IN BELGIUM — Location: MIM, Bruxelles (19.December.2025)
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- Abstract
- The MIM's audiovisual collection includes around 980 wax cylinders dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although they were forgotten over time, recent research has brought to light once again the exceptional historical and heritage value of around 70 wax cylinders. These were digitized thanks to the support of the “Friends of the RMAH”. More than forty of these cylinders prove to be the preserved part of a collection of worldwide recordings assembled from 1899 onwards by the museum’s first curator, Victor-Charles Mahillon. This forgotten Belgian phonographic archive is remarkable. Both for its geographical breadth and its exceptionally early date, coinciding with the first initiatives in sound archiving in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. Although the recently rediscovered cylinders represent only a small part of the original collection, they form an exceptional heritage ensemble: most of them are early, nonprofessional recordings from Provence, Egypt, China, India, Ottoman Empire, England, and North America. In several cases they constitute the oldest preserved local recordings (fife and drum from Aix-en-Provence, Greek songs from Istanbul, Bengali chant from Kolkata, muwaššah from Egypt). The other thirty cylinders relate to the earliest phonographic activities in Brussels. Although their origin is less clear, they offer rare evidence of domestic and commercial recording practices, that have generally left very few traces. On the occasion of the online release of these recordings, this conference will outline the circumstances of their discovery and highlight the most striking features of this long forgotten heritage.
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Thoraval, F., & Thonon, M. (2025). Rediscovering Wax Cylinders from the MIM. 200 YEARS OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC & DANCE IN BELGIUM, MIM, Bruxelles.