Surface Noise

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 analyzes the cyclic surface noise patterns heard on early recording formats including wax cylinders and gramophone discs. The sound of recording and playback machines is theorized alongside the composition being recording, treating the resultant totality as one music. An analogy is made between surface noise and a Renaissance illustration of a sighting grid by Fludd. Six modes of interaction are defined between perceived meter and the pulse patterns of surface noise: (1) performance-centricity; (2) narrative asynchrony; (3) ekphrastic (non)coincidence; (4) expressive synchrony; (5) metaphoric development; and (6) surface noise-centricity. The modes are illustrated in recordings by Simpson singing Bonds, Caruso singing Donizetti, Granados and Arensky recording their own music, Krushelnytska singing Lysenko, and a re-recording of the historic Brahms cylinder. The deterioration of the cylinder is related to a letter in which Rilke voiced his concerns about a tarnished daguerreotype of his father.