Doctoral research

Doctoral project 1

Partly through the work of CHARM, musicologists are increasingly seeing sound recordings as primary sources for the reconstruction of performance history, and for the appraisal of different performers’ contributions to the development of musical style. But sound recordings are not neutral traces of performance events. This is partly for reasons connected with the limitations of the different technologies used since the beginning of sound recording: these limitations affected both acoustic quality and crucial aspects of the recording event (for instance, the relative location of players), meaning that recordings have to be seen as historical documents requiring as much interpretation as any other historical document. However, there is also a quite different sense in which recordings are not neutral traces of performance events, and this concerns the role in the recording process of sound engineers and, in particular, producers.

Ever since the introduction in the mid-twentieth century of tape recording, it has been possible to assemble what sounded like continuous performances from multiple separate takes (by the 1960s it was not uncommon for an LP to made up of more than 100 of them). There is an obvious comparison between this process and film editing, and the result of this technological development was greatly to enhance the creative role of the producer: John Culshaw (1924–80), for example, aimed not to record concert-style performance but rather to create a new kind of performance specifically designed for high-fidelity reproduction. Technological developments since that time have greatly enhanced the producer’s ability to determine all aspects of the final product, resulting in the development of quite distinct ideologies of recording; in an age dominated by recorded music, the producer is a key agent in creative practice. But musicology has hardly begun to take this on board. As a result, while the aim of this project is selectively to document the role of the producer in ‘art’ music recordings and to develop approaches to the analysis and critical evaluation of the producer as creative practitioner, there is scope for the research methods and target repertoire to be tailored to the student’s particular interests and skills, as well as to the resources available to support the research (at the British Library Sound Archive, King’s Sound Archive, etc). It is however envisaged that the project will involve (1) discussion with producers and sound engineers, building on the contacts which CHARM developed in these fields; these will facilitate (2) analysis of sound recordings, including non-released materials (outtakes, master tapes, etc.) where these can be accessed; (3) ethnographic study of present-day recording practices; and (4) oral-historical research (survivors from the period when classical production practices were being developed are now elderly and there is an urgent need to document their knowledge for the future).

Performance today takes place in the context of a world suffused with recordings, and cannot be properly understood without reference to that distinctively twentieth-century legacy. This studentship, building on work developed by CHARM, therefore represents a significant opportunity for path-breaking work with regard to the following: (1) the extent to which the work of singers and instrumental performers is received in the form of sound recordings, in other words through the mediation of producers; (2) the argument that record production may be seen as in its own right a distinctively twentieth-century form of performance; (3) the infrastructure for and expertise in the study of recordings built up through CHARM’s activities; and (4) the external contacts in the field of music production which CHARM also built. The student’s research will in this way add breadth to the new Centre’s work, feeding in particular into Nicholas Cook’s study of music as creative practice; while the supervisor will be John Rink, it is intended that Cook will act as advisor, thereby also ensuring close communication between Project Student 1 and Project Student 2, who will be working on parallel issues but from the perspective of popular music. This is particularly relevant because of the extent to which there has been interaction between the ‘art’ and popular musical traditions in terms not only of technologies and processes but also of investigative methodologies.

The thesis resulting from the project will have both documentary and methodological value, so that the student will be well placed to build a musicological career in an area of the discipline that seems likely to become increasingly important: the first academic conference on music production (co-organised by CHARM) took place in London in September 2005 and, although the emphasis of this conference was primarily on popular music, it was evident from the sessions devoted to the ‘art’ tradition that classical musicologists are waking up to the role of the producer. While the student will benefit from the range of workshops and network events available through CMPCP, we shall also be in a position to facilitate external contacts as required, ranging from individual producers and sound engineers with whom CHARM collaborated to other teaching and research institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music (classical music production), University of Surrey (Tonmeister programme) and Thames Valley University (popular music production).