The Compact Disc

In 1982 the compact disc put seventy-four minutes of music on one silver platter.

Time and place

Tokyo and Hanover, October 1982. The Sony and Philips standard reached the market, with the CDP-101 on sale in Japan.

What happened

The CD reads pits with an infrared laser, carrying digital samples at 44.1 kilohertz and sixteen bits, capable of seventy-four minutes. The laser never touches the surface, so there is no wear or crackle, and players could shrink. The first releases leaned on classical music, whose quiet passages showed the format.

What changed

An album grew from twenty-odd minutes a side to seventy, so long works could be heard without a break. Labels re-planned programmes around CD capacity; classical and jazz reissues grew in the 1980s. The CD made music randomly accessible, a path to MP3 and streaming.

Listen to the turn

Liszt's B minor Sonata runs over thirty minutes, and the CD removed the mid-work turnover. Schubert's D.960 first movement lasts twenty minutes; hear a span whose breath is no longer cut. Brahms's Handel Variations run past thirty minutes, so theme and fugue fit on one disc.

The turn belongs to Contemporary; the reissued works are mostly Romantic, and the industry side is the Record Label.

Listen in the library

Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. 178C129:41李斯特奏鸣曲三十多分钟，CD 让它不必中途翻面DetailsPiano Sonata No.21 in B flat, D.960: 1. Molto moderatoC120:02舒伯特 D.960 第一乐章二十分钟，长段落的呼吸不再被切断DetailsVariations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24C131:06勃拉姆斯变奏曲三十多分钟，主题与终曲赋格可以一次听完Details

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

Grove Music Online, entry "Compact disc"（Oxford University Press），用于核对 1982 年上市与 44.1 千赫采样
Sony and Philips, Compact Disc Digital Audio System Description（1980），用于核对盘片规格与容量

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.

Related