Full Description
This unique anthology assembles primary documents chronicling the development of the phonograph, film sound, and the radio. These three sound technologies shaped Americans' relation to music from the late nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War, by which time the technologies were thoroughly integrated into everyday life. There are more than 120 selections between the collection's first piece, an article on the phonograph written by Thomas Edison in 1878, and its last, a column advising listeners "desirous of gaining more from music as presented by the radio." Among the selections are articles from popular and trade publications, advertisements, fan letters, corporate records, fiction, and sheet music. Taken together, the selections capture how the new sound technologies were shaped by developments such as urbanization, the increasing value placed on leisure time, and the rise of the advertising industry. Most importantly, they depict the ways that the new sound technologies were received by real people in particular places and moments in time.
Contents
General Introduction: Music Technologies in Everyday Life / Timothy D. Taylor 1
Part 1. Sound Recording
Introduction / Mark Katz 11
Sound Recording: Readings 29
Predictions 29
The Listener and the Phonograph 44
Learning to Listen 44
The Phonograph in Everyday Life 48
The Phonograph and Music Appreciation 65
Men, Women, and Phonographs 70
Music and the Great War 78
Performers and the Phonograph 84
In the Recording Studio 84
The Phonograph and Music Pedagogy 94
The Phonograph and the Composer 104
The Composer in the Machine Age 104
The Phonograph as a Compositional Tool 110
Phonograph Debates 113
Con 113
Pro 126
Part II. Cinema
Introduction / Tony Grajeda 137
Cinema: Readings 145
Technologies of Sight and Sound 145
Sounds of the Cinema: Illustrated Song Slides; The Role of the Voice (lecturers, actors); Incidental Musics, Special Effects, Ballyhoo, and Noise of the Audience 153
Playing to the Pictures 173
Performative Accompaniment 173
The Organist of the Picture Palace 192
Conducting and Scoring to the Movies 200
Taste, Culture, and Educating the Public 212
Responding to the Talkies 226
Part III. Radio
Introduction / Timothy D. Taylor 239
Radio: Readings 255
Radio as Dream, Radio as Technology 255
Early Broadcasts: Performer and Listener Impressions 266
Radio in Everyday Life 275
Healing 279
Economics of Radio Broadcasting 285
Advertising 288
Music on the Radio 301
Con 301
Pro 305
What Do Listeners Want? 311
Crooning 316
Radio Behind the Scenes 324
Getting on the Air 324
Talent 340
Production behind the Scenes 344
Composing for the Radio 354
How to Listen to Music on the Radio 361
Notes 367
References 387
Index 399
