Abstract
This talk introduces a research case-study, conducted as a part of the Early Recordings Association’s mechanical recording workshops. Recordings of violin playing from the early twentieth century are well-researched sources, mostly explored in terms of studying performance practice. Various insights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in terms of traditions, musical approaches and performance styles, have all been well documented (Brown 1999; Fabian 2003; Leech Wilkinson 2006; Katz 2006; Gebauer 2017; Milsom 2003, 2019, 2020). This case study explored the main stumbling block in all the studies done on the historical violin playing styles on record: what is registered on the disc? The question of the difference between what was played in the recording session, and what was registered on the disc, was asked by Stanovic’s post-doctoral project ‘(Re)constructing Early Recordings: a guide for historically informed performance’. Through further development of historically informed recording method, this case-study expanded the research question of the relationship between the performer and technologies. The case-study was based on violinists recording 10-inch acoustic discs and two-minute wax cylinders in front of an audience of musicologists and performers. The violinists all played the same repertoire, and the audience contributed with their feedback in terms of what they heard being played, and what was produced on the recording. Findings from the study reveal the differences between what is played and what is registered, along with the audience’s response to violin vibrato and portamento, and suggested methodologies in performance practice research.