(Re)constructing Julius Block: Embodied

Responses to Early Recordings

This paper considers the intriguing relationship between embodied responses to early

recorded music and their application in practice, through exploration of the nineteenth-

century performance practices. Focusing on early sound recordings and their use, it presents the

reconstruction of mechanical recording processes, discussed through a case-study based on Julius

Block’s wax cylinders. Julius Block was a music enthusiast and recording pioneer who, between

1889 and 1927, recorded some of the most eminent musicians and artists of the time, including:

Anton Arensky, Paul Pabst, Sergei Taneyev, Leo Conus, Jules Conus, and Anna Essipova. The author

made a series of reconstructions of a mechanical recording process modelled on that used by Block,

to make a range of wax cylinders. These recordings were captured by both a range of phonographs

and digital technologies, and were made using historical pianos. The focus of the case-study is

on interpretational changes which had to be undertaken in order to record piano mechanically,

whilst taking into account various factors impacting the recording process. Admittedly subjective,

this study is based on haptic perception, pianistic proprioception, and practical examination of

reconstruction of mechanical recording processes, in order to inform interpretational and practical

changes influenced by mechanical technologies, thus changing the objective perspectives on early

sound recordings. This paper reveals various challenges facing the historically informed performers,

including the re-learning of playing techniques and adoption of new performance styles. It suggests

that there is a fine line between copying others’ performances and developing a unique style of

playing, and it describes certain limitations in our understating of historical performing practices.