The Cambridge Companion To Recorded Music

Edited by Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, John Rink

From the cylinder to the download, the practice of music has been radically transformed by the development of recording and playback technologies. This Companion provides a detailed overview of the transformation, encompassing both classical and popular music. Topics covered include the history of recording technology and the businesses built on it: the impact of recording on performance styles: studio practices, viewed from the perspectives of performer, producer and engineer: and approaches to the study of recordings. The main chapters are interspersed by ‘short takes’ – short contributions by different practitioners, ranging from classical or pop producers and performers to record collectors. Combining basic information with a variety of perspectives on records and recordings, this book will appeal not only to students in a range of subjects from music to the media, but also to general readers interested in a fundamental yet insufficiently understood dimension of musical culture.

Bibliographic Details

25 b/w illus. 1 table

Contents

• Introduction Eric Clarke, Nicholas Cook, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson and John Rink
• Personal takes: learning to live with recording Susan Tomes
• A short take in praise of long takes Peter Hill
• 1. Performing for (and against) the microphone Donald Greig
• Personal takes: producing a credible voice Mike Howlett
• It could have happened: the evolution of music construction Steve Savage
• 2. Recording practices and the role of the producer Andrew Blake
• Personal takes: still small voices Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
• Broadening horizons: performance in the studio Michael Haas
• 3. Getting sounds: the art of sound engineering Albin Zak
• Personal takes: limitations and creativity in recording and performance Martyn Ware
• Records and recordings in post-punk England, 1978–80 Richard Witts
• 4. The politics of the recording studio Louise Meintjes
• Personal take: from Lanza to Lassus Tully Potter
• 5. From wind-up to iPod: techno-cultures of listening Arild Bergh and Tia DeNora
• Personal take: a matter of circumstance: on experiencing recordings Martin Elste
• 6. Selling sounds: recordings and the music business David Patmore
• Personal take: revisiting concert life in mid-century: the survival of acetate discs Lewis Foreman
• 7. The development of recording technologies George Brock-Nannestad
• Personal takes: raiders of the lost archive Roger Beardsley
• The original cast recording of West Side Story Nigel Simeone
• 8. The recorded document: interpretation and discography Simon Trezise
• Personal takes: one mans approach to remastering Ted Kendall
• Technology, the studio, music Nick Mason
• Reminder: a recording is not a performance Roger Heaton
• 9. Methods for analysing recordings Nicholas Cook
• 10. Recordings and histories of performance style Daniel Leech-Wilkinson
• Personal take: recreating history: a clarinettists perspective Colin Lawson
• 11. Going critical. Writing about recordings Simon Frith
• Personal take: something in the air Chris Watson
• 12. Afterword: from reproduction to representation to remediation Georgina Born
• Global bibliography
• Global discography.