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Article: A Century of Recorded Music.(Review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- April 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Timothy Day A Century of Recorded Music. Yale University Press, 306 pages, $35
A few years ago a friend played for me a tape copy of an Edison cylinder recorded by Johannes Brahms in Vienna in 1889. Edison's agent in the city, Theo Wangemann, announces the date and place of the recording and that he is with "Doktor" Brahms himself. After a short pause, the playing begins. I could not at all identify the piece, since the scratch and swish seemed to drown out everything. My friend then conducted what was playing, and it jumped out at me--a snippet from the composer's "Hungarian Dance No. 1" in G minor. What was also evident was a rambunctious, freewheeling ...