• SECCIONES
    • Audiovisión
    • Sound Studies
    • Cuadernos
    • RADIO
  • ARCHIVO
  • SOBRE NOSOTROS
  • CONTACTO
./mediateletipos)))
  • SECCIONES
    • Audiovisión
    • Sound Studies
    • Cuadernos
    • RADIO
  • ARCHIVO
  • SOBRE NOSOTROS
  • CONTACTO
01 marzo 2007

Capturing Sound

Written by Pablo Sanz
Audioteletipos fonografía, historia, novedades, textos Leave a Comment

Capturing Sound
How Technology Has Changed Music
Mark Katz
book + cd
ISBN: 0520243803

There is more to sound recording than just recording sound. Far from being simply a tool for the preservation of music, the technology is a catalyst. This is the clear message of Capturing Sound, a wide-ranging, deeply informative, consistently entertaining history of recording’s profound impact on the musical life of the past century, from Edison to the Internet.

In a series of case studies, Mark Katz explores how recording technology has encouraged new ways of listening to music, led performers to change their practices, and allowed entirely new musical genres to come into existence. An accompanying CD, featuring thirteen tracks from Chopin to Public Enemy, allows readers to hear what Katz means when he discusses music as varied as King Oliver’s «Dippermouth Blues,» a Jascha Heifetz recording of a Brahms Hungarian Dance, and Fatboy Slim’s «Praise You.»

Introduction

Several years ago a friend asked me to explain the subject of this book, then in its early stages of development. Opting for a dramatic approach, I pulled a CD at random from a nearby shelf and brandished it in front of me. «This,» I declared, «has changed the way we listen to, perform, and compose music.» My friend squinted at the CD, gave me a quizzical look, and asked, That did?» «Yes!» I answered with gusto. Seeming unconvinced, he clarified his question. Van Halen changed the way we listen to, perform, and compose music?»

Maybe, but that was not my point. My claim was that the technology of sound recording, writ large, has profoundly transformed modern musical life. At its broadest, that is the thesis of Capturing Sound.

This thesis may at first seem counterintuitive. After all, the function of recording, or so it might seem, is to record music, not to change it. Indeed, for more than a century, what I would call a discourse of realism has reinforced the idea of recorded sound as the mirror of sonic reality, while at the same time obscuring the true impact of the technology. Consider the series of television and print ads from the 1970s and 1980s in which the voice of jazz great Ella Fitzgerald was shown shattering glass. While a feat in itself, more remarkable was that it was Fitzgerald’s recorded voice that had such awesome power. Though the purpose of the ad campaign was to sell cassettes, it espoused the ideal of realism. «Is it live, or is it Memorex?» consumers were asked. The implicit answer was that the two were indistinguishable.

Memorex was not the first to make such a claim. Turn-of-the-century advertisements touted recordings as «lifelike,» «a true mirror of sound,» «natural,» and «the real thing.» In the 1910s and 1920s the Victor Talking Machine Company ran ads that would make an ontologist’s head spin: beneath illustrations of famous artists standing next to their records, captions proclaimed: «Both are Caruso,» or «Heifetz is actually Heifetz.» Like Memorex, Victor and its competitors were in the business of selling sound, and it behooved the industry to convince consumers that the tiny grooves incised in the black discs could somehow capture the essence of their flesh-and-blood musical idols. As Oscar Wilde once remarked in a very different context, «What a fuss people make about fidelity!»

[…continue reading the introduction]
[read chapter one]

9137.jpg

Compartir
 Previous Article Soundgarden
Next Article   historia del videoarte [>vlog<]

Related Posts

  • EUFÒNIC. TERRES DE L’EBRE / 10ª EDICIÓN

    16/07/2021
  • 10ª convocatoria de residencias artísticas

    03/05/2021
  • SOUND, ENERGIES AND ENVIRONMENTS

    07/05/2019

Leave a Reply

Lo siento, debes estar conectado para publicar un comentario.

mediateletipos.net Seguir

Sound art, audiovisual activism, and new media.

Avatar
Retuitear en Twitter mediateletipos.net Retuiteado
Avatar Robert Beatty @edsunspot ·
4 Sep

Internet Archive forever, fuck copyright

Responder en Twitter 1831427228091183297 Retuitear en Twitter 1831427228091183297 229 Dar me gusta en Twitter 1831427228091183297 1477 Twitter 1831427228091183297
Retuitear en Twitter mediateletipos.net Retuiteado
Avatar Sergio Sánchez @jazznoize ·
24 Ago

Deberíamos ir a grabar sus voces. Que suenen por megafonía. #talibanes #sonidos

Responder en Twitter 1827311211727192323 Retuitear en Twitter 1827311211727192323 2 Dar me gusta en Twitter 1827311211727192323 3 Twitter 1827311211727192323
Retuitear en Twitter mediateletipos.net Retuiteado
Avatar AGF ❤️‍ @poemproducer @poemproducer ·
28 May 2024

the entire human species should put all focus and resources to prevent ecocide, implement climate justice and force global disarmament, this is not naive talking, this is an urgent necessity ... we are one species, we decide how to become, alongside all life

Responder en Twitter 1795332083629568417 Retuitear en Twitter 1795332083629568417 1 Dar me gusta en Twitter 1795332083629568417 6 Twitter 1795332083629568417
Retuitear en Twitter mediateletipos.net Retuiteado
Avatar Los voluble @voluble ·
17 Mar 2024

Medio día de pregón,
Tarde de "searching for a good sample"

Id a muerte con Dios

Responder en Twitter 1769336726646911362 Retuitear en Twitter 1769336726646911362 2 Dar me gusta en Twitter 1769336726646911362 6 Twitter 1769336726646911362
Load More

Tags

acciones acústica arte arte sonoro artilugios artistas audiovisual charlas cine comunidades convocatorias copyleft cultura libre directos educación entrevistas eventos exposiciones festivales fonografía grabaciones de campo hacktivismo historia ideologías instalaciones instrumentos inteligencia colectiva internet libros música netaudio novedades nuevos medios paisaje sonoro podcasts radio recursos ruido software software libre sonido talleres textos videoarte vídeo

Comentarios

  • The Losers Conspiracy – (V) - ./mediateletipos))) en Existential cornerstone of DIY music
  • Pablo pelotudo callate que no sabes en Escribiendo sonidos

ENLACES

  • Artesonoro.org
  • Aurales
  • Escoitar.org
  • Observatorio de la Escucha
  • Sensxperiment 2011
  • Ursonate Fanzine
  • Zemos98
© Copyleft 2023. Algunos derechos reservados. Web alojada en Pumpun. I/O
Utilizamos cookies para asegurar que damos la mejor experiencia a nuestros usuarios y para desayunar. Si sigues navegando, asumiremos que estás de acuerdo.Chachi