[John Williamson]

On 02/07/2019 21:18, geoff wrote:

In the case of much classical music, the composer hadn't even considered
the possibility of there being any sort of 'recording'. So the
performance 'artifacts' were expected.

In a lot of cases, classical music was written to be performed in a
certain type of acoustic and take advantage of that. I have listened in
the past to the same choir performing the same programme in a large,
fairly empty church and a modern, dead space, where sound reinforcement
had to be used, and while the former sounded "live", the latter sounded
as though they were playing a CD through the PA system. Using shotgun
mics didn't help...

Choral music such as hymns are written and arranged to be performed in a
large, echoing church, large scale orchestral works and opera in a large
hall, deadened by the audience, and chamber music in a smaller room with
a much deader acoustic.

And even in current times such music is composed with the aim being
performance, not manicured manufactured recordings.

Modern classical music is written, by and large,to be performed in a
deader acoustic than, say Beethoven's works.



--
Tciao for Now!

John.