Bone Music
Today, Bone Music. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
______________________
Soviet Russia began banning outside influence even before World War II. Music was among those influences they deemed subversive. Especially Russian expatriate music making. But also Gypsy music, America’s jazz, and our other popular music. Of course the ban only whetted a Russian appetite. Ban anything, and we awaken the genius of black marketeers.
There are, of course, many ways to skin a cat. So let me share with you, one truly zany means for spreading such music in the USSR. They used something called Bone Music, or Rib Music. Bear in mind that, in those days, music rode almost exclusively on various kinds of phonograph records. So: How to make a phonograph record look like something else entirely?
OK: here’s something that bears no resemblance to a record. It is a discarded X-ray. X-rays were, in those days, recorded on large sheets of photographic film. Most records, on the other hand, were materials like shellac or vinyl. Each presented a surface that could be scratched very precisely. Although X-ray film was a pretty shabby substitute. But hold on ...
The counterfeiters figured out how to record music on discarded X-rays. Cut a hole in the middle. Cut a circle around the hole to the edge of the recording area. Then make the recording. The result? Well, it still left the actual X-ray on display. Now you could listen to Jazz while a broken rib or a skull fracture turned seventy-eight times a minute.
Bone Music. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
The result (like so many bootleg products) was far from an equal of the real McCoy. But then, some scratchiness doesn’t stop you and me from listening to an old Caruso record. Buyers were willing to put up with imperfection when it was all they had. Of course, it was worse than just scratchiness. Bone recordings often deteriorated seriously after only a few playings.
[Bone Music example]
The Russians could be brutal when they caught bootleggers. It could be off to prison for years. Stalin died in 1953, and things eased up somewhat. But some, released from prison, went right back to work. Bone Music lingered until far-superior tape recordings appeared. They sounded far better and they were much easier to copy. So much for a Bone Music industry.
Today, certain collectors gather up those old recordings. But they don’t play them. They are far too vulnerable. So they leave us to wonder about their two untold stories. Stories of their manufacture, purchase, and survival, of course. But then, there are their origin stories: Whose fingers were fractured, and by what kind of accident? Could a doctor mend that broken hip – or clear that blocked lung?
Each tells of a wound. And we will never know.
I’m John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we’re interested in the way inventive minds work.
(Theme music)
Some source material
A Short History of Bone — BONE MUSIC
What Is X-Ray Film Made Of? Film Explained
Samizdat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (about Russian dissidence)
Click here for a Russian account of Bone music.
And for a musical example of bone music, click here: Bing Videos
Many thanks to Andrew Lienhard for suggesting this topic.
This Episode first aired on September 28, 2026.