The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music

Featuring fascinating accounts from practitioners, this Companion examines how developments in recording have transformed musical culture.

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

9780521684613, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 November 2009

380 pages, 25 b/w illus. 1 table
24.4 x 17 x 2 cm, 0.75 kg

'This collection of essays offers many useful insights for both musicologists studying Western art music and scholars working within popular music studies. The book covers a wide range of topics within the remit of an exploration of recorded music, an area of study that has seen some noteworthy publications in the last decade.' The Journal of Popular Music

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.

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 man's 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 clarinettist's 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.

Subject Areas: Music industry [KNTF], Music recording & reproduction [AVX], Techniques of music / music tutorials [AVS], Music [AV]