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From: hen@bu-cs.UUCP (Bill Henneman)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Music Majors Attention - Question For You
Message-ID: <210@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Mar-85 19:24:11 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.210
Posted: Sun Mar  3 19:24:11 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 02:41:15 EST
References: <949@hound.UUCP>, <1008@reed.UUCP>
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 16

Back in the late 40's and early 50's, I was being taught music at
the Peabody institute in Baltimore.  While recorded music wasn't
forbidden (in fact, they made very good use of an extensive
Edisonphone collection of cylinders in some advanced classes), it
was *strongly* discouraged.

The party line was that recorded performances were pastiches of the
best bars of several tries by the performer: listening to such ersatz
performances would lead the student to be overly critical of live
performances.

Upon reflection (and a soft probe at some contemporary composers), I
think there was an element of fear that people would rather spend their
money on recordings of the "golden oldies" of the 19th century than   
invest the effort to follow a modern performance.  Their fears were
probably justified.