midicnMusic History 中文

A History of Recording

From wax cylinder to streaming, recording rewrote how music is heard.

ModernContemporaryMIDI ProtocolTape music machines

The question

Live music vanishes, and every performance differs. Recording had to solve storage and repetition. Once sound could be stored, questions appeared. Is a recording a document or a work in its own right? If a performance is spliced, is it still a performance?

Historical arc

In 1877 Edison recorded Mary Had a Little Lamb on a tinfoil cylinder. In the 1890s discs replaced cylinders. In 1902 Caruso recorded arias for the Gramophone company, and Leoncavallo's Mattinata, written for him in 1904, was almost made for the machine. In the 1920s electrical recording widened the frequency range, and jazz and dance music entered homes through radio and discs. In 1948 the LP and tape made albums and editing possible; in the 1960s multitrack recording turned the studio into an instrument. From the 1990s digital files and streaming turned music into searchable data.

The turning point

The first turn was repeatability. One performance could be played countless times, and a performer's name could travel across continents. The second turn was editability. Tape and multitrack recording allowed splicing, patching and layering, so a recording became an independent work. The third turn was portability. From discs to streaming, listening moved from a social event to a private background.

What to listen for

Begin with the melody of Mattinata and imagine it written for a tenor and a gramophone. Then hear Maple Leaf Rag, which travelled through score, piano roll and disc. Finally hear the Goldberg aria and compare how recordings from different decades change touch. The library versions are MIDI transcriptions, so listen for habits rather than sound quality.

Recording history crosses Modern and Contemporary, with MIDI Protocol and Tape music machines.

Listen in the library

MattinataC10:50莱翁卡瓦洛1904年为卡鲁索写的《晨曲》，见证了唱片工业的早期腾飞DetailsMaple Leaf RagC12:46乔普林的《Maple Leaf Rag》，靠乐谱、钢琴卷与唱片进入千家万户DetailsGoldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria da capo - 1981 VersionC13:481981年版《哥德堡变奏曲》的咏叹调，录音让同一作品拥有可比较的多个权威版本Details12 Études, Op. 8: No. 12 in D-Sharp Minor - 1962 RecordingC12:09斯克里亚宾练习曲的1962年录音，与1968年版本并置，录音成为演奏史的证据Details

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

Sources

  • The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Recorded sound" — dates checked, not quoted
  • Michael Chanan, Repeated Takes (Verso) — narrative checked, not quoted

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