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The Fetish of the Oldest Sound. Science, politics, and the fascination with the beginnings of sound recordings
Kratochvíl, Matěj
The invention of the phonograph in the late 19th century started an obsession with the recorded sound as a document of history. As such it became an important part of the human need to create stories from archival materials and to see them as parts of objective truth, a direct connection with the past. With the growing accessibility of historical audio documents, we need to look critically at these sources and at the possibility to take them as a trace leading to the beginning of a particular part of music history. The present paper shows in which ways we can see the phenomenon of sound recording truly as the beginning of something new and in which cases such an impression can be misleading. Unconsciously or with a political or other intent, recordings can present music in a very different, sometimes distorted form. With special focus on traditional music, the author attempts to formulate some general ideas that should be kept in mind when dealing with historical recordings so that we do not become too fascinated with the “past speaking directly to us”.
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