Sound recordings

In the wake of NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act), museums and archives are acutely aware of cultural property issues. Cultural intellectual property remains legislatively neglected. Ethical precedent does exist, however, for museums and archives to treat intangible heritage with the same respect as tangible property. Recorded sound collections in many libraries, museums and archives in the United States hold ethnographic recordings of indigenous American cultures. These recordings are of immense value to the cultures and peoples they document as well as to those who study the history and development of humankind. Often they require special treatment or restricted access.

Through the development of collections management policies and procedures, a responsible institution can identify sensitive
recordings in its collections and isolate them for further investigation. By doing so, an institution can allow broader access to non-sensitive recordings and can begin the process of determining how to properly manage those that are culturally sensitive.

El objetivo del presente estudio es relevar las tradiciones interpretativas de la ópera Il
Trovatore de Giuseppe Verdi a través del análisis de registros sonoros, estudio y
comparación de fuentes con la edición crítica de la partitura realizada en conjunto entre la
Casa Editorial Ricordi Milán y The University of Chicago Press en 1993. Este trabajo
permitirá contar con un sustento teórico que complete el estudio de la obra en favor de
nuevas propuestas que continúen, contradigan o renueven estas prácticas interpretativas.
Para ello hemos seleccionado veinte grabaciones completas y once arias que abarcan un
período de tiempo de 106 años entre 1908 y 2014. Para la comparación han sido tenido en
cuenta los siguientes parámetros: velocidad (discrepancia en la interpretación de las
velocidades metronómicas indicadas por el compositor - cambios súbitos o graduales en la
velocidad de diversos fragmentos que no obedecen a ninguna indicación de la partitura);
variantes en la línea melódica; texto (distribución silábica – pronunciación - cambios de
texto); duración (cambios de ritmo en la línea vocal – detenciones - prolongación de las
líneas vocales en la finalización de escenas -cadencia vocal con detención total); cortes;
interpolaciones y transposiciones. Para mejor visualización de los resultados las
audiciones se han volcado en cuadros comparativos. La contextualización de la obra en su
entorno histórico-cultural se estableció a través del análisis musical enfocado en establecer
parámetros formales, armónicos, melódicos, rítmicos, instrumentales y topográficos.
Asimismo se observaron otros procedimientos compositivos que pudieron ser comparados
con los de otros compositores de la época.
Como consecuencia del examen de los registros sonoros seleccionados podemos asegurar
que la ópera Il Trovatore ha sufrido cambios musicales durante sus interpretaciones con
respecto a lo escrito en la partitura los cuales tienden a replicarse en versiones realizadas en
diferentes lugares, momentos y con la participación de diversos intérpretes. Los mismos
han sido clasificados, comparados y analizados. En los casos pertinentes se aporta la
transcripción de las versiones escuchadas. Asimismo hemos rescatado aquellas situaciones
que por su conducta se han establecido como tradiciones de interpretación que se
multiplicaron, desarrollaron, transformaron y subsistieron en el tiempo. Así, la presente
investigación nos da un completo panorama acerca de la historia sonora de Il Trovatore.
Conocer las tradiciones interpretativas que se desarrollaron alrededor de la obra permite un
abordaje más completo de la misma, no sólo en el campo de la comprensión analítica sino
como sustento al momento de tomar decisiones artísticas en favor de su puesta en acto. En
este sentido el trabajo aporta evidencia a la cual se ha arribado en forma sistematizada y
metódica. Este conocimiento amplía la gama de posibilidades de interpretación que
subyacen en la partitura y resalta aspectos que la completan. Sobre todo estimamos que es
un aporte significativo al campo de nuestra especialidad, la dirección musical.

This paper was presented at the 2019 Sydney Folk Festival and focuses on musical mis-appropriations of Indigenous Australian cultures by non-Indigenous composers, particularly in popular music. The argument is made that this body of songs and musical works, although controversial, can be re-purposed and de-colonised by Indigenous creatives. In order to draw attention to this aspect of Australian music history, two projects are outlined and discussed. The first is a database and index of "Musical Aboriginalia" which seeks to document all such compositions and related iconography, and the second a reissue album of rare archival recordings of this material from 1949-1962. Issues and concerns surrounding the use of this material is discussed, using both Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives.

路德維茲‧凡‧貝多芬獨奏鋼琴全集: 由亞圖爾‧施耐貝爾錄製於一九三零年代的倫敦艾比路錄音室 --
三十二首鋼琴奏鳴曲(包括"悲愴"、"月光"、"暴風雨"、"華德斯坦" 及 "鎚子鍵琴")、迪亞貝里變奏曲及其他作品。
Ludwig van Beethoven: intégrale des oeuvres pour piano solo, enregistrées par Artur Schnabel au studio Abbey Road de Londres dans les années 1930 - les 32 sonates pour piano (y compris la «Pathétique», le «clair de lune», le «Tempest», la «Waldstein» et la «Hammerklavier»), les Variations Diabelli, et d'autres pièces.

Esta tesis doctoral trata sobre las grabaciones integrales de Iberia de Isaac Albéniz, desde una perspectiva que tiene en cuenta varias aristas con la intención de obtener una visión completa de estos documentos. Las diversas secciones abordan aspectos particulares relacionados con el objeto de estudio, siendo así que el cuerpo central del trabajo de investigación está dividido en tres partes: la primera de ellas desarrolla una discografía, aporta las fichas biográficas de los pianistas y documenta los elementos complementarios de las grabaciones; la segunda explora la iconografía mostrada en las carátulas de discos; y la tercera parte se enfoca en el tempo musical. A estas secciones analíticas le anteceden un estado de la cuestión y la presentación de una propuesta metodológica que posibilita el estudio sistemático del registro sonoro. El trabajo se inicia con el diseño de la investigación y cierra con un apartado que sintetiza los puntos principales del estudio realizado. La importancia de esta tesis recae en su enfoque riguroso y científico para estudiar la información musical, visual y discográfica dentro de un contexto interdisciplinario. El limitado número de registros contemplados y lo homogéneo del grupo en cuanto al soporte sonoro, permiten realizar un estudio comparativo de aspectos concretos con pocas variables. En un concepto más amplio, esta investigación contribuye al entendimiento de las grabaciones musicales como testigos fehacientes del siglo XX. Estos documentos sonoros han cobrado vital importancia al permitir el estudio de la interpretación musical y al existir un número considerable de registros disponibles. La perspectiva de estudio aplicada a dicha realidad conlleva las siguientes ventajas: en primer lugar promueve el posicionamiento de la grabación como objeto de estudio dentro del quehacer musicológico actual. En segundo, posibilita la obtención de máxima información de los elementos constitutivos de una grabación a través de las herramientas adecuadas. Y finalmente, ofrece una aproximación sistemática novedosa para estudiar el registro sonoro como un documento musical, histórico y comercial.

路德維茲‧凡‧貝多芬獨奏鋼琴全集: 由亞圖爾‧施耐貝爾錄製於一九三零年代的倫敦艾比路錄音室 --
三十二首鋼琴奏鳴曲(包括"悲愴"、"月光"、"暴風雨"、"華德斯坦" 及 "鎚子鍵琴")、迪亞貝里變奏曲及其他作品。
Ludwig van Beethoven: intégrale des oeuvres pour piano solo, enregistrées par Artur Schnabel au studio Abbey Road de Londres dans les années 1930 - les 32 sonates pour piano (y compris la «Pathétique», le «clair de lune», le «Tempest», la «Waldstein» et la «Hammerklavier»), les Variations Diabelli, et d'autres pièces.

Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) was one of the most distinguished singers of her generation, specializing in particular in the Wagnerian and Straussian operatic repertoire. Together with Maria Jeritza, she was an acclaimed prima donna at Wiener Hofoper under the superintendences of Franz Schalk, Richard Strauss and Clemens Krauss, until the Nazi Anschluss of 1938 led her leave for the USA. She established in California, continuing her operatic career until 1946 and co-founding the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where she taught Vocal Interpretation. Lehmann’s 1924 first appearance as the Marschallin under Bruno Walter at Covent Garden can be considered as a breaking point in her artistic life. This event marked the starting point of an international career throughout which Lehmann never ceased to sing the Straussian role. As a result, a complex relationship was engendered, linking the singer to that role and vice versa.
This article aims to reconstruct the main characteristics of Lehmann’s interpretative model for the Marschallin through the analysis of the singer’s writings and of the audio-visual materials related to her performances of the role. Moreover, a comparison between Lehmann’s model and the cultural ‘traditions’ embodied by the character of Marie Thérèse according to von Hofmannsthal and Strauss’s conception will highlight some phenomena related to the US reception of both the singer and the composer.
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The complete article can be read on:
https://www.sidm.it/ojs/index.php/ridm/issue/view/117

As the film focuses on how technology and messages introduced by the missionaries play a role in larger socioeconomic transformations, The Tailenders asks viewers to think deeply about the impact of evangelism on indigenous communities facing crises caused by global economic forces. As an outreach tool, this documentary provides a springboard for discussions about the pursuit of social justice and the often complex — and sometimes ambiguous — definitions of acceptance, resistance, benefit, harm and salvation.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Global Recordings Network (GRN), founded in Los Angeles in 1939, has produced audio versions of Bible stories in over 5,500 languages. GRN aims to record in every language on earth. They distribute the recordings, along with ultra-low-tech hand-wind players, in isolated regions and among displaced migrant workers. GRN calls their target audience "the tailenders" because they are the last to be reached by worldwide evangelism.

*Served as one of the guide producers.

路德維茲‧凡‧貝多芬獨奏鋼琴全集: 由亞圖爾‧施耐貝爾錄製於一九三零年代的倫敦艾比路錄音室 --
三十二首鋼琴奏鳴曲(包括"悲愴"、"月光"、"暴風雨"、"華德斯坦" 及 "鎚子鍵琴")、迪亞貝里變奏曲及其他作品。
Ludwig van Beethoven: intégrale des oeuvres pour piano solo, enregistrées par Artur Schnabel au studio Abbey Road de Londres dans les années 1930 - les 32 sonates pour piano (y compris la «Pathétique», le «clair de lune», le «Tempest», la «Waldstein» et la «Hammerklavier»), les Variations Diabelli, et d'autres pièces.

Until the first half of the 20th Century, traditional Irish music had remained almost exclusively oral. With recent widespread incorporation of digital communications and music dispersal networks, Irish musicians now employ multiple forms of technology on a daily basis as they document and develop their artform and maintain links with other players and a greater conceptualization of the tradition. These lines of communication and means of dissemination, though [post]modern and at odds with classic ideas of traditional music, are essential to today's traditional musicians as they discuss authenticity, negotiate regional style and repertoire, integrate with their community, and develop the core of the tradition through ongoing dialogue. Today's musicians are spread across the globe, and as their tradition seems to have lost a central geographic anchor, much of their sense of grounding and connection with ideas of traditionality and authenticity have become reliant on these digital lines of communication, which have become almost as vital as the information being passed. This study will therefore approach traditional Irish musical traditions as amalgamations of many individual experiences formed as a product of constant discussion within and without the core of the tradition, mediated at times by multiple layers of technology, yet always striving for historic continuity.

路德維茲‧凡‧貝多芬獨奏鋼琴全集: 由亞圖爾‧施耐貝爾錄製於一九三零年代的倫敦艾比路錄音室 --
三十二首鋼琴奏鳴曲(包括"悲愴"、"月光"、"暴風雨"、"華德斯坦" 及 "鎚子鍵琴")、迪亞貝里變奏曲及其他作品。
Ludwig van Beethoven: intégrale des oeuvres pour piano solo, enregistrées par Artur Schnabel au studio Abbey Road de Londres dans les années 1930 - les 32 sonates pour piano (y compris la «Pathétique», le «clair de lune», le «Tempest», la «Waldstein» et la «Hammerklavier»), les Variations Diabelli, et d'autres pièces.

Lusitana Musica (rubrica publicada pela revista Glosas) pretende viajar pela memória de uns, pela curiosidade de outros, revisitando alguma da mais importante discografia que marcou a nossa história. É indispensável relembrar que a importância destas edições revela-se no impacto que tiveram em determinado período e contexto social e artístico, revalorizando-se assim o seu carácter histórico no âmbito do nosso património musical. Com estas edições os ouvidos não ficaram iguais. Houve um antes e um depois…

The last twenty years have seen concerted efforts to shift the object of musicological study from scores to performances and sound recordings have played a huge part in fostering a sub-discipline of musical performance studies that focuses on acts rather than text. An action-centred musicology has sought to reposition musical creativity from enduring products or the minds of individuals to the diverse social and cultural sites of musical production and reception. Taking as a starting point Nicholas Cook’s theorization of recordings beyond the reproduction paradigm, this chapter considers how approaches to the cultural and historical, analytical, empirical and ethnographic study of classical sound recordings have been fuelled by this fast-changing scholarly landscape and have contributed to shaping an increasingly interdisciplinary field of musical performance studies which seeks to understand performances (recorded or otherwise) as intrinsically creative social practices. By firmly locating the study, criticism, and reception of classical sound recordings at the disciplinary cross-roads of musicology, empirical musicology, psychology, sociology, and ethnomusicology, this chapter reflects critically on the rich potential for cross-disciplinary dialogue and how this can extend the purview of musical performance studies.

The following is an unpublished outline for the "Australian Discographic Reissue Project" - an unrealised venture that would have seen Australia's entire recorded output of 78rpm recordings (from 1925-1958) digitised, remastered, researched and reissued through a combination of physical CDs and digital outlets like iTunes and Spotify.

Bruno Walter (1876-1962) has been one of the leading conductors of the first half of the 20th century. He co-founded the Salzburg Festival and contributed to cultural discourses on music with a series of publications culminating in the book Von der Musik und vom Musizieren (1957). Here Walter discusses the conductor's role in the construction of the musical performance, building a theory of interpretation which has not received a complete musicological consideration yet.
In this paper I aim at reconstructing the fundamentals of Walter's theory, highlighting their proximity to ideas elaborated by Rudolf Kolisch and René Leibowitz, both representatives of that New Music which the conductor deprecated as non-ethical. Moreover, the specific aspect of tempo will be discussed as mirroring the antithetical exegeses elicited by Wagner's polysemous concept of melos, drawing examples from Walter's recordings of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben with Lotte Lehmann (1941) and Kathleen Ferrier (1949).

Location: 1st International Conference on Music, Communication, and Performance (Montecassiano, 23-24 June 2018)

路德維茲‧凡‧貝多芬獨奏鋼琴全集: 由亞圖爾‧施耐貝爾錄製於一九三零年代的倫敦艾比路錄音室 --
三十二首鋼琴奏鳴曲(包括"悲愴"、"月光"、"暴風雨"、"華德斯坦" 及 "鎚子鍵琴")、迪亞貝里變奏曲及其他作品。
Ludwig van Beethoven: intégrale des oeuvres pour piano solo, enregistrées par Artur Schnabel au studio Abbey Road de Londres dans les années 1930 - les 32 sonates pour piano (y compris la «Pathétique», le «clair de lune», le «Tempest», la «Waldstein» et la «Hammerklavier»), les Variations Diabelli, et d'autres pièces.

Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) fu tra le maggiori interpreti wagneriane e straussiane del primo '900, imponendosi dapprima sulla scena viennese durante le sovrintendenze di Franz Schalk e dello stesso Strauss, quindi, dopo l'Anschluss, terminando la sua carriera oltre oceano e partecipando alla fondazione della Music Academy of the West di Santa Barbara, dove operò come docente di “interpretazione vocale”. Nella vita artistica della Lehmann si può individuare uno snodo fondamentale: l'interpretazione della Marschallin nel Rosenkavalier al Covent Garden, nel 1924, sotto la direzione di Bruno Walter. L'occasione diede effettivo inizio alla carriera internazionale della cantante e portò a battesimo un ruolo che ella avrebbe successivamente ripreso in oltre 150 recite attestate, divenendo, negli anni di Santa Barbara, uno dei canali preferenziali tramite cui la Lehmann trasmise alle nuove generazioni un'idea di teatro e di far musica precedente alle trasformazioni in atto nel periodo tra le due guerre, e ormai per lo più acquisite alla fine degli anni '50. Tra la Lehmann e la Marschallin si stabilì dunque un rapporto che operava in due direzioni differenti e contemporanee, legando tanto la cantante al ruolo quanto il ruolo alla sua interprete.
Se i lavori sulla Lehmann si sono concentrati per lo più sugli aspetti biografici (Jefferson 1988; Glass 1988; Kater 2008; Brown 2012), poco spazio è stato dedicato ad uno studio sistematico delle sue qualità vocali, musicali e attoriali. Esse sono l'obiettivo di questo intervento: attraverso l'analisi del monologo “Da geht er hin” nelle registrazioni del 1933 (Wiener Staatsoper, Robert Heger) e del 1938 e 1939 (Met, Artur Bodanzky), oltre che di un video del 1961 in cui la cantante “dimostra” come il monologo vada recitato, si può ricostruire quali furono le caratteristiche di una Principessa di Werdemberg che fece la storia del personaggio – o, perlomeno, una sua parte imprescindibile. Di converso, il confronto tra i valori e le “tradizioni” culturali inglobati da von Hofmannsthal-Strauss in Marie Théreèse e il modello stabilito dalla Lehmann aiutano a far luce sulla fortuna e sulla recezione della cantante sulle scene europee e statunitensi.

Until the advent of recording technology, the composer's influence as a
performer or teacher was continued posthumously only by his or her pupils
in an oral (and aural) tradition, and in written sources. By preserving the
composer's own performance in an audible form which can be recalled at any time and in any place, we have the equivalent, albeit mediated, of a direct experience with the composer. What we need to decide is how much
credence we should give to this information in relation to the score and
the other data used to prepare a performance.

This essay discuses the role of the score and recording in musicological research. It then examines some of the recordings in which Messiaen performs his own music or has had direct or indirect influence on
the performance of others, and suggests that these recordings are an invaluable aid to interpretation. Messiaen's own recordings point to a 'manner of realization' for his music, in effect a performance practice (or perhaps better a performance tradition), which will be an axiomatic reference point for future interpretations.

John adams: Nixon in China. Robert Orth (bar), Maria Kanyova (sop), Thomas Hammons (bass), Marc Heller (ten), Tracy Dahl (sop), Chen-Ye Yuan (bar), Melissa Malde (mezzo), Julie Simson (mezzo), Jennifer DeDominici (mezzo), Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Opera Colorado Chorus c. Marin Alsop Naxos 8.669022-24 (3-CD set).
In music as in marriage, anniversaries provide a time for stock-taking. Since its October 1987 Houston première, John Adams’s Nixon in China has fared far better than most new operas. It has been performed more than 150 times, with production in over a dozen countries and more on the way. Now, 20 years after the release of the first (Nonesuch) recording of Nixon, this new 3-CD set on the Naxos label provides more evidence of the opera’s enduring qualities.

A great buzz of media attention preceded Nixon’s première. When many expected a satire, Adams and librettist Alice Goodman created a traditional grand opera in a carefully crafted form. The three scenes of the opening act depict the grand events and iconic images: Nixon’s arrival on Air Force One, Mao Zedong’s study, Richard Nixon and Zhou En-lai raising their glasses at a state banquet. Act Two focuses on the wives: Pat Nixon and Jiang Qing (Madame Mao). In Act Three, the principal characters refl ect on their lives and achievements. Built on repetition and simple harmonic progressions, Adams’s musical language proved surprisingly effective in conveying drama. Voice types contributed to characterization in long-established ways, and the original casting was excellent. Baritone James Maddalena brought unexpected depth to Richard Nixon. Tenor John Duykers’s intense Mao Zedong contrasted fi ttingly with baritone Sanford Sylvan’s eloquent Zhou Enlai. Soprano Carolann Page presented a sympathetic Pat Nixon, Trudy Ellen Craney a shrill Jiang Qing, and Thomas Hammons the buffoonish Henry Kissinger. Many who did not see the original production on stage, saw it on television. Soon after, Nonesuch released an original cast recording, featuring Edo de Waart leading the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

On this new Naxos 3-CD set, recorded live during a June 2008 production, Hammons reprises his role as Kissinger. Otherwise, we have an entirely new cast. And while the Naxos crew may not quite rise to the level of the original cast, they are never far behind. If Robert Orth’s pronunciation is sometimes odd, from the scene one set-piece, ‘News’, he captures both Richard Nixon’s wide-eyed exuberance and his angst. Soprano Maria Kanyova was an especially fine choice for the outwardly cheerful Pat Nixon. Marc Heller and Tracy Dahl, as Chairman and Madame Mao, sing with conviction if with less intensity than Duykers and Craney. There is an awkward transition near the start of scene two, but it is one of the rare moments when Marin Alsop’s conducting of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra is less than superb. The Opera Colorado Chorus sings convincingly and with clarity in the opera’s opening numbers and throughout. Listening to this recording from start to finish, I could not help but be reminded of the mastery of form that Adams and Goodman achieved in this, their first opera. The opening scenes continue to captivate while the unusually meditative closing, sung here by Yuan Chen-Ye as Zhou Enlai, gives much pause for thought. In these final moments especially, the beautiful simplicity of Adams’s music seems the perfect vehicle for Goodman’s rich imagery. This just might be the great American opera of the 20th century.

Brian Christopher Thompson

路德維茲‧凡‧貝多芬獨奏鋼琴全集: 由亞圖爾‧施耐貝爾錄製於一九三零年代的倫敦艾比路錄音室 --
三十二首鋼琴奏鳴曲(包括"悲愴"、"月光"、"暴風雨"、"華德斯坦" 及 "鎚子鍵琴")、迪亞貝里變奏曲及其他作品。
Ludwig van Beethoven: intégrale des oeuvres pour piano solo, enregistrées par Artur Schnabel au studio Abbey Road de Londres dans les années 1930 - les 32 sonates pour piano (y compris la «Pathétique», le «clair de lune», le «Tempest», la «Waldstein» et la «Hammerklavier»), les Variations Diabelli, et d'autres pièces.

This chapter examines several significant Jewish music sound recording collections in the United States, most of which originated as private collections but are now housed at academic institutions. Their origins provide insight into individual agency tied to different understandings of Jewish music. A discussion of their complexities from a library science perspective focuses on conservation and preservation as well as bibliographic control and other issues in which the complexities of Jewish music unfold more clearly. Authenticity, comprehensiveness, and other constructions demonstrate how sound recording collections reflect the overall difficulties of defining and delimiting Jewish music. Subsequent discussions and observations on access and audiences inside and outside the academy ultimately reveal the fine line of individuality and collectivity that Jewish music sound recording collections navigate.

Before the era of recorded music, the performer and audience had a direct connection principally because they sat in the same room. The Performer could respond to audience interaction either immediately, or in the development of new works to satisfy the audience. Similarly, the audience could show appreciation enthusiastically, be non-committal or even ignore a performance. As Eisenberg has stated, the advent of the phonograph meant “that [for the performer] the audience is not there…[is] the flip side of the fact that, for the listener, the performer is not there”. The era of Eisenberg's "Music as a commodity" has therefore meant isolation between the performer and their audience. The performer only gets the “delayed” response from the audience through record sales, reviews and career success. The audience becomes accustomed to waiting for new recordings, not quite knowing whether they will satisfy their expectations.

Just as the adoption of new technology starting with the Phonograph created this isolation, so too is new technology now breaking it down. Developments in technology and social media communications now allow a rejoining of the performer and their audience. Rather than waiting for a performer's next creation, the audience can communicate with the artist, invest financially in their projects and influence the composition, recording and production processes.

Based on empirical research with artists who have adopted the Artistshare model, this paper will examine the implications of this radical rejoining of artist and audience. Artistshare facilitates audience investment in artist projects, and in return, them being involved in some way (from being present at recording sessions through to being credited as Executive Producer). This change of relationship suggests a number of issues which warrant examination. For example, what do Artistshare artists anticipate to be the effect of involving audiences in their creative process? What has been the effect of audience intervention on the creative and technical processes? Is audience involvement motivational and inspirational or a necessary evil to fund projects? Do those who invest more money deserve more influence? How is the power balance between artist and audience managed - does it shift with time, and does a more successful artist automatically have more power in the relationship? Through the research findings, this paper aims to answer these questions to establish the effect of audience investment and participation on creation, performance, recording and production.

The role of Pollione in Bellini's Norma was created in 1831 by Domenico Donzelli, who occupied an intermediate position between the last generation of opera seria tenors such as Andrea Nozzari and “romantic” singers like Giovan Battisa Rubini and Napoleone Moriani. In particular, following Alberto Mazzucato's report on the «Gazzetta Musicale di Milano» in 1842, Donzelli adopted a series of technical features later to be called voix sombrée by Manuel Garcia II. Pollione, then, stand in the path between the first experiments of vowel darkening and larynx lowering by Italian tenors and the renown Parisian eclat of Gilbert Duprez. This path represented a first step in the birth of the “modern” tenor, which has involved time by time questions of vocal registration and the way to solve the passaggio to the high part of tessitura (CELLETTI 1989, POTTER 2009).
This paper will consider recordings of Pollione's I Act aria «Meco all'altar di Venere» in a span of time which goes from the 1902 Italian HMV edition by Carlo Caffetto to Norma 1955 integral recording with Mario del Monaco. Firstly, information about the most significant singers' careers, repertoire choices and reception by critics will allow to understand their relationship with Pollione. Secondly, the analysis of recordings through SonicVisualiser will give datas on their interpretations, considering both general parameters individuated by Philip and Cook (tempo, dynamics and phrase arching, portamenti) and specific ones (quality of legato, vocal colour and technique, text declamation). The aim is to individuate constants and variations in Pollione's performance history during the first half of the 20th century, by highlighting how the interrelation between different techniques spread from Verismo era to post-World War II (like Arturo Melocchi's affondo) and discourses on how to sing the Bellinian role contributed to the evolution of its interpretative models.

Location: Perspectives on Historically Informed Practices in Music, Faculty of Music, University of Oxford , Oxford, UK (10-12 September 2018)

British musicians receive 'equitable remuneration' when their recordings are played in public or are broadcast. Performers’ rights are weaker than those of songwriters, however. This is largely because songwriters are the first owners of their copyrights, whereas performers rarely own the copyright in their sound recordings. This article concerns the remuneration of musicians’ labor. It looks at the legislative evolution of performers’ rights in the UK and addresses the influence that songwriters, record companies, and the Musicians’ Union have had on this area of copyright law. It argues that performers will only achieve legislative parity with songwriters if the ownership and conceptualization of sound recording copyright are reconfigured. This copyright should be awarded to performers for their creative labor, rather than to record companies for their financial and administrative endeavors.

Accounts by orchestral woodwind players have often been neglected in favour of didactic and aural sources. Whilst scholars have interrogated recorded performances, evidence from the players themselves is vital in reconciling the bigger picture. Reflecting on material gathered for the Listening Experience Database (LED) particularly by the clarinettist Jack Brymer (1915-2003), we appreciate the importance of a player’s listening in shaping their performing practices. Brymer was primarily a listener, and a clarinettist only second. His listening to the playing of the oboist Leon Goossens (1897-1988) with its prominent use of vibrato became profoundly important. In examining contemporary attitudes towards vibrato we realise that Brymer’s use of the effect was quite controversial for its time. The importance of the listening experience is reflected in many accounts by woodwind players whose experiences are included in LED. These musicians were amongst the first for whom the aural and sonic experience of listening to a recording or broadcast began to resemble the sound itself. They enjoyed careers before the era of globalisation. Whilst technological advances have made music more easily accessible they have also already eroded, and sometimes even eradicated, individual or regional or national characteristics and performing practices.

During the 1950s the experience of recording was transformed by a series of technical innovations including tape recording, editing, the LP record, and stereo sound. Within a decade recording had evolved into an art form in which multiple takes and editing were essential components in the creation of an illusory ideal performance. The British recording industry was at the forefront of development, and the rapid growth in recording activity throughout the 1950s as companies built catalogues of LP records, at first in mono but later in stereo, had a profound impact on the music profession in Britain. Despite this, there are few documented accounts of working practices, or of the experiences of those involved in recording at this time, and the subject has received sparse coverage in academic publications.

This thesis studies the development of the recording of classical music in Britain in the long 1950s, the core period under discussion being 1948 to 1964. It begins by considering the current literature on recording, the cultural history of the period in relation to classical music, and the development of recording in the 1950s. Oral history informs the central part of the thesis, based on the analysis of 89 interviews with musicians, producers, engineers, and others involved in recording during the 1950s and 1960s. The thesis concludes with five case studies. The first four examine significant recordings – Tristan und Isolde (1952), Peter Grimes (1958), Elektra (1966-67), and Scheherazade (1964) – while the fifth focuses on The Anatomy of a Record (1975), a television programme documenting aspects of the recording process.

The thesis reveals the ways in which musicians, producers, and engineers responded to the challenges and opportunities created by advances in technology, changing attitudes towards the aesthetics of performance on record, and the evolving nature of practices and relationships in the studio. It also highlights the wider impact of recording on musical practice and its central role in helping to raise standards of musical performance, develop audiences for classical music, and expand the repertoire in concert and on record.

"In this public letter, provided in response to the U.S. Copyright Offices notice of inquiry regarding their "Study on the Desirability of and Means for Bringing Sound Recordings Fixed Before February 15, 1972, Under Federal Jurisdiction," I argue in favor of federal copyright protection of this class of sound recordings.

Using examples from my digitization internship and case study on the Jesuit Tape Collection, a collection of reel-to-reel sound recordings from the 1950s and 1960s held by the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, I show the difficulties faced in digitization and digital preservation of this class of sound recordings that develop as a result of legal barriers. Federal protection of this class of recordings could lead to a reduced risk of losing significant cultural heritage as these materials degrade over time.

For further details on the U.S. Copyright Office's study, visit their website: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sound/