GRABACIONES SONORAS - BNE

The Hispanic Digital Library is the digital library of the National Library of Spain. Since its creation in 2008, it has provided free and free access to thousands of digitized documents, including sound recordings.

It contains recordings from Ariston's records, wax cylinders, pianola rolls and slate discs. It comprises from the end of the 19th century until the middle of the 20th century.

About 20,000 recordings divided into 23 categories:

Blues, Boleros, Concerts, Cuplés, Jazz, Flamenco, Fox-trot: great voices and orchestras, Frédéric Chopin, Gershwin Brothers, Masters of the couplet: Quintero, León and Quiroga, Masters of the zarzuela of the XIX: Barbieri, Chapí, Chueca and Breton, Choral music, Music for film, Religious music of the seventeenth and eighteenth: masses and motets, Italian musicians in Spain, non-musical sound records: speeches, recitals, stories, humor ..., Symphonies, Tangos: Carlos Gardel, Wagner , Operas, Wax discs, Perforated discs and Pianola rolls.

This App allows you to reproduce on your mobile, thanks to the open data policy of the BNE, authentic discographic gems, as well as having a very complete database.

You can enjoy thousands of artists, composers, bands, orchestras, etc., both national and foreign.

Word Archive

Within the sound collection of the National Library the word occupies a prominent place. The voices of distinguished characters from all areas are collected through speeches, readings, etc. : Alfonso XIII, Unamuno, Cela

Collection of Wax Cylinders

They are documents of great historical value for being the first sound and voice recordings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, being considered as the equivalent to the incunabula of the printed collection.

Pianola rolls

The first musical rolls of perforated paper appeared around 1880. They can be heard by means of a mechanical keyboard instrument called "pianola", which works with a pneumatic system activated by the pedaling of the "pianolista". The different musical notes are produced while unrolling the paper, which has encoded the position of the keyboard notes in the placement of the perforations.

Perforated discs

The first discs that were used for the reproduction of sound in the nineteenth century used reproductive devices (the most primitive "record players") based on pneumatic mechanisms similar to the barrel organ (as in Ariston, Ariosa or Herophon models) or music box (as in the Symphonion). By rotating the discs on the plate, driven by a crank, the perforations activate the mechanisms of sound production. The duration of each piece is always very short and coincides with what it takes to turn the disc a full turn; from that point, the music begins to repeat itself.

The repertoire recorded by this procedure consists mainly of very popular fragments of zarzuela (for example of La Gran Vía, by F. Chueca), waltzes, national anthems, small piano pieces, etc.

4. Slate disks

From the invention of the gramophone by E. Berliner in 1887 until the mid-fifties of the last century, hundreds of thousands of recordings were released on slate records (also called "stone disc"), covering all genres: classical music, flamenco, zarzuela, military marches, popular music, light, operas, word archive, etc.

The collection of slate discs of the Library is made up of more than 21,000 units from different Spanish and foreign record labels: Odeón Gramophone Company: Pathé, MGM, Regal, La Voz de su Amo, Columbia, Decca, Philips, etc.

Between its subjects: Blues, Boleros, Concerts, Cuplés, Jazz, Flamenco, Fox-trot, Coplas, Zarzuela,, Music for cinema, Symphonies, Tangos, etc.

The author does not maintain any kind of relationship with the National Library of Spain or with the Hispanic Digital Library.