Evan Roberts: A Waxwork Revival
Address delivered at a public lecture
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
November 16, 2011
An audio recording of the lecture is available at John Harvey: Spoken Word
On the 16 November 2011, at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, John Harvey presented a public lecture on the sound-art project R R B V E Ǝ T N Ƨ O A . In 2003, a wax cylinder containing a unique recording of a short speech by Evan Roberts, the charismatic figurehead of the Welsh religious revival of 1904-5, was deposited at the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, Aberystwyth. The cylinder had been broken into eleven extant pieces. After a painstaking restoration by an American dentist, it was able to be played during the centenary of the revival. Against the insistent noise of surface clicks and crackles and the rhythm of the stylus as it ploughs through the spinning furrows, the febrile voices of Roberts and a small choir of male singers are discernible. A digitised version of the recording was prepared by a sound studio in Pasadena, California and the British Library, London.
Address delivered at a public lecture
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
November 16, 2011
An audio recording of the lecture is available at John Harvey: Spoken Word
On the 16 November 2011, at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, John Harvey presented a public lecture on the sound-art project R R B V E Ǝ T N Ƨ O A . In 2003, a wax cylinder containing a unique recording of a short speech by Evan Roberts, the charismatic figurehead of the Welsh religious revival of 1904-5, was deposited at the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, Aberystwyth. The cylinder had been broken into eleven extant pieces. After a painstaking restoration by an American dentist, it was able to be played during the centenary of the revival. Against the insistent noise of surface clicks and crackles and the rhythm of the stylus as it ploughs through the spinning furrows, the febrile voices of Roberts and a small choir of male singers are discernible. A digitised version of the recording was prepared by a sound studio in Pasadena, California and the British Library, London.
Revival, Restoration, and Revision: An Audio Interrogation of Evan Roberts' Wax Cylinder
Keynote address presented at the Material Religion in Modern Britain and her Worlds conference
University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, UK
June 8-9, 2012
Keynote address presented at the Material Religion in Modern Britain and her Worlds conference
University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, UK
June 8-9, 2012
In 2003, a unique wax-cylinder recording of Evan Roberts (1878–1951), the charismatic figurehead of the Welsh religious revival of 1904-5, was deposited at the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. However, the cylinder was broken into pieces, and one of them was missing. After a painstaking restoration by an American dentist, the recording was able to be played during the revival’s centenary. Against the insistent noise of surface clicks and crackles, the febrile voices of the revivalist and a small choir of male singers are discernible. Subsequently, a digital representation of the recording was prepared by a sound studio in California and the British Library, London. John Harvey’s R R B V E Ǝ T N Ƨ O A is a sonic-art intervention into one of Welsh Nonconformity’s most treasured relics – a cultural artefact that is not only material (and therefore visible) but also audible and textual.
The sonic artwork (which is divided into twelve pieces, referring to the eleven extant and one absent fragments of the cylinder) further extends the process by which the recording has been subjected to contemporary audio technology. The cylinder’s content is sampled, recomposed, re-articulated and collaged using digital sound processors. By this means, the audible material is fractured and reassembled again and again. The twelve pieces (of which several will be heard during the lecture) are in the process of being recorded and performed at houses, chapels, and churches in Wales and England associated with Roberts’ life and ministry.
The paper examines the making and afterlife of the cylinder as an index to the history and legacy of Roberts and the revival. It also considers what this sole audio document of the revival reveals about the phenomenon that textual and visual records do not. The cylinder is discussed in the context of early sound-recording processes, the relationship of the revival to the technology of modernity, and Roberts’ preaching style, and in terms of the propagation and dissemination of religious ideas. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how creative practice can serve as a medium and process of interpretation and historical inquiry.
The sonic artwork (which is divided into twelve pieces, referring to the eleven extant and one absent fragments of the cylinder) further extends the process by which the recording has been subjected to contemporary audio technology. The cylinder’s content is sampled, recomposed, re-articulated and collaged using digital sound processors. By this means, the audible material is fractured and reassembled again and again. The twelve pieces (of which several will be heard during the lecture) are in the process of being recorded and performed at houses, chapels, and churches in Wales and England associated with Roberts’ life and ministry.
The paper examines the making and afterlife of the cylinder as an index to the history and legacy of Roberts and the revival. It also considers what this sole audio document of the revival reveals about the phenomenon that textual and visual records do not. The cylinder is discussed in the context of early sound-recording processes, the relationship of the revival to the technology of modernity, and Roberts’ preaching style, and in terms of the propagation and dissemination of religious ideas. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how creative practice can serve as a medium and process of interpretation and historical inquiry.
The Retrieval of Revival: Recollecting and Revising the Evan Roberts Wax Cylinder
Keynote address delivered at the Revival: Memory, Utopia, and Identity conference
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
November 23-4, 2012
An audio recording of the address is available at John Harvey: Spoken Word
Keynote address delivered at the Revival: Memory, Utopia, and Identity conference
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
November 23-4, 2012
An audio recording of the address is available at John Harvey: Spoken Word
In 2003 a unique but severely damaged wax-cylinder recording of Evan Roberts (1878–1951), the charismatic figurehead of the Welsh religious revival of 1904-5, was discovered. The paper examines the making, restoration, and afterlife of the cylinder and its status as an index to the identity of both the revivalist and his cause. The cylinder is discussed in the context of early sound-recording processes, technology and modernity, metaphors of ruin and fracture, Roberts’ preaching, and the promotion of the religious idealism. It also discusses how sound art can serve as a medium and process of intrusion, interpretation, and historical inquiry.
”The Noise of His Voice” (Job 37.2): Re-articulations of the Evan Roberts Wax Cylinder
Keynote address presented at the ‘Voice & Something Else’ conference
Aberystwyth University, UK
January 24, 2014
An audio recording of the lecture is available at John Harvey: Spoken Word
R B V E Ǝ T N Ƨ O A E is a suite of counterfactual reconstructions of a unique, shattered and subsequently repaired wax-cylinder recording of the voices of the Welsh revivalist Evan Roberts (1878–1951) and a small, male-voice choir. The sonic material, derived from a digital copy of the original recording, comprises the sound of speaking and singing and (‘something else’) the noise of the technology itself: the surface defects, cracks, and static on the cylinder’s surface, together with the sound produced by drawing the cylinder’s fragments.
Keynote address presented at the ‘Voice & Something Else’ conference
Aberystwyth University, UK
January 24, 2014
An audio recording of the lecture is available at John Harvey: Spoken Word
R B V E Ǝ T N Ƨ O A E is a suite of counterfactual reconstructions of a unique, shattered and subsequently repaired wax-cylinder recording of the voices of the Welsh revivalist Evan Roberts (1878–1951) and a small, male-voice choir. The sonic material, derived from a digital copy of the original recording, comprises the sound of speaking and singing and (‘something else’) the noise of the technology itself: the surface defects, cracks, and static on the cylinder’s surface, together with the sound produced by drawing the cylinder’s fragments.
