The first batch of recordings of the sheet music featured in the Leisure & Entertainment gallery (see “Sheet Music” on the pull down menu) is up! The recordings were
made over the course of several sessions this past spring at the home of Philip C. Carli, pianist, film historian, popular culture scholar, and all-around Renaissance human. Dr. Carli is a familiar figure for silent film enthusiasts, renowned for both his live piano accompaniments all over the world and original scores for silent film screenings. Locally, he regularly introduces and performs for the silent  film screenings at the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, where he also worked in the past as film archivist. For the vocals he assembled colleagues and graduate students at the Eastman School of Music, including soloists Isaac Wenger, Lulu Cossich, and Peter Doyle; additional vocals were provided by Matthew Adrian, Isaac Assor, Hannah Kurth, and Cody Muller. Dr. Carli’s wife, Alice Carli (complementary Renaissance human) performed also and coordinated everything, including preparing for the rehearsals by making more readable black and white copies of the 46 songs that were recorded. Recording Engineer David Dusman, of Dusman Audio, Inc., is still in the process of working on the recordings, but the following songs are now available to enjoy online: Poppy Time in Old Japan (1915); In Japan with Mi-Mo-San (1915); Midnight in Japan (1915), In Old Japan (1917); So Long Oo Long (1920, there are two versions on the site, so choose the first, item no. 1873); and Japansy (1927). The songs are fascinating examples of the ways in which Japan and the Japanese were characterized by orientalist trends in early twentieth century popular music.