Researchers have figured out how to play back a rare audio recording from 1860 of what they insist is a person "singing" a "song," though it sounds suspiciously like someone abusing a pigeon. The discovery predates Thomas Edison's phonograph by almost twenty years, and it was produced by "a little-known Frenchman," so there's one more entry to the list of things Edison didn't invent that you were lied to about as a child. The Times piece on the discovery is by Jody Rosen, music critic for Slate—which could maybe possibly be a hint as to who will replace critic Kelefa Sanneh now that he's jumped ship to the New Yorker. (We've embedded the "Phonautograph Recording" after the jump. It's not very good.)

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