Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music

By Mark Katz

Book Overview

There is more to sound recording than just recording sound. Far from being simply a tool for the preservation of music, the technology is a catalyst. This is the clear message of Capturing Sound, a wide-ranging, deeply informative, consistently entertaining history of recording's profound impact on the musical life of the past century, from Edison to the Internet.

In a series of case studies, Mark Katz explores how recording technology has encouraged new ways of listening to music, led performers to change their practices, and allowed entirely new musical genres to come into existence. An accompanying CD, featuring thirteen tracks from Chopin to Public Enemy, allows readers to hear what Katz means when he discusses music as varied as King Oliver's "Dippermouth Blues," a Jascha Heifetz recording of a Brahms Hungarian Dance, and Fatboy Slim's "Praise You."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520243803
• ISBN13: 9780520243804
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Great Insight

This book gives the reader great insight on the effects of recorded music and the effects on society. A must read for anyone into music.

A great read.

Although being a scholarly work, fully footnoted and with a complete bibliograpy this book, unlike much of academic production, is a great read. I enjoyed it immensly. It is a good companion to Michael Channan's book on the same topic."Repeated Takes: A Short History of Recording and Its Effects on Music". If you are interested in the history of recording or just curious about how what we listen to came to be the way it is this book will delight you.