Phonoscène

The Phonoscène was an antecedent of music video[1] and was regarded by Michel Chion, Noël Burch[2] and Richard Abel as a forerunner of sound film.

Both variants typically had two turntables and two speaker horns, and both used compressed air to amplify the sound.

[4][5] Phonoscènes were typically the duration of one gramophone record, including only one song, but longer sound-on-disc films were made of operas.

[10] The programme was a selection of phonoscènes previously presented at the London Hippodrome,[11] as follows:[3][12] The three major French Belle Époque celebrities, Félix Mayol, Dranem and Polin [fr] were recorded by Alice Guy-Blaché using the Chronophone Sound-on-disc system to make phonoscènes.

[13] J'ai du Cinéma was the last presented phonoscène at the Gaumont Palace ("Greatest Cinema Theatre of the world") on 29 June 1917.

Illustration of a theater from the rear right of the stage. At the front of the stage a screen hangs down with the projected image of a tuxedoed man holding up a text and performing. In the foreground is a gramophone with two horns. In the background, a large audience is seated at orchestra level and on several balconies. The words "Chronomégaphone" and "Gaumont" appear at both the bottom of the illustration and, in reverse, at the top of the projection screen.
1902 poster advertising Gaumont 's sound films
"The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring", 1907
A phonoscène of Félix Mayol by Alice Guy-Blaché