Trust in Early Recordings: documents, performances, works

Conference Presentation

Jan 2023

Adam Stanović

At Vocal Recordings and New Beginnings Symposium, City University of London

An AHRC-funded research network Redefining Early Recordings as Sources for Performance Practice and History event

Over the past few years, I have arrived at the conclusion that one should feel genuine sympathy for any researcher that is misfortunate enough to study early recordings. This is not because their area of research is so bewilderingly broad. Nor is it because researchers of early recordings are required to read so many different kinds of texts. Rather, it is because no matter how far their scholarship advances, and no matter how significant their findings appear to be, scholars of early recordings are constantly questioned about the legitimacy of the very thing that they study. The precise nature of the questions varies, of course, but the overarching sentiment remains the same: to what extent can we really trust early recordings? In this talk, I consider the trustworthiness of early recordings. I survey three of the main ways in which such recordings may be described and understood; firstly, as a form of documentary evidence, secondly, as performances, and thirdly, as works of arts. I find the third option the most convincing, and conclude that early recordings are studio productions that come into being through multiple agents, in the form of recording musicians, technicians, engineers and producers who, combined, maximise the affordances of their technologies for the purpose of creating expressive works of art. Through an examination of such works, I believe that we do not only encounter historic performances, but have the opportunity to explore a broader artistic sensibility that reveals the individual and collective values of the time.

Vocal Recordings and New Beginnings Symposium

Held at City University of London on 19 & 20 Jan 2023, this event was led by AHRC-funded research network Redefining Early Recordings as Sources for Performance Practice and History. The fifth and final symposium from the network included six papers by leading experts, a wax cylinder concert curated by collector Dominic Combe, and a phonograph recording session.symposium. The full symposium programme can be read online here.

Redefining Early Recordings as Sources for Performance Practice and History network led by PI Dr Eva Moreda Rodríguez (University of Glasgow) and CoI Dr Inja Stanović (City, University of London) and Dr Karin Martensen (Technische Universität Berlin, international partner). It brings together researchers, performers, curators, technicians and collectors from all over the world who use early recordings (roughly defined as pre-Second World War) as sources for the study of music history and music performance. Read more about the Redefining Early Recordings networks here.