II. Histories of Sound
2. Histories of Sound and Technology
1. Listening tech(nique)ology in 19th
century medicine (Nicolson)
2. The phonograph in lab experiments in
the early 1900s (Kursell)
3. Historiographies of mechanical music
(Katz)
4. Music in the era of electronic
reproduction (Mowitt)
1. Having the Doctor’s Ear in 19th Century
Edinburgh
• Auscultation (based on the Latin
verb auscultare "to listen") is the term for
listening to the internal sounds of the body,
usually using a stethoscope.
• Auscultation is performed for the purposes
of examining the circulatory system and
respiratory system (heart sounds and
breath sounds), as well as
the gastrointestinal system (bowel sounds).
René-ThéophileHyacinthe Laennec
Pages from De l’auscultation mediate
(published in 1819) showing Laennec’s
stethoscope design
Laennec’s stethoscope (lf.) compared to a
contemporary design (rt.) – see discussion of
N.P. Comins’s development of a flexible model
(p. 160-161)
Was the introduction of auscultation in
Britain a contested process?
• Paris: Laënnec’s invention of the stethoscope in
1816, and published De l’auscultation mediate
in 1819
• Edinburgh: Andrew Duncan and other’s review
of De l’auscultation mediate:
1. More a text on pathological anatomy than
one on diagnostics;
2. Difference between academic and
practical knowledge of the techniques of
physical examination
• Impact of trained stethoscopists like Andrew
Cullen and John Crauford Gregory
• From 1825 onwards, new theories developed
independent of the French source by James
Hope, John William Turner and others (p. 159)
• Improvements on the instrument: N.P. Comins
• By 1828-9 stethoscope use was taught in
medical textbooks
• By 1831: innovation of stethoscopy transferred
from Paris to Edinburgh
• Why Edinburgh?
2. A Gray Box: The Phonograph in
Laboratory Experiments and Field Work,
1900-1920
The phonograph
as a site of
intersection for
technology,
experimental
practices,
and ways of hearing and listening, none of
which were stable. (p. 178)
The Phonograph as a scientific
instrument :
• Prior to mass production
• Fleeming Jenking and J. Alfred Ewing’s
experiments on speech and voice
• Suggested new ways of asking question
• New ways of producing data, new methods
of correlation
• A new challenge to laboratory work:
experimenters had to use their ears
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s
Phonautograph, 1857
Alexander Graham
Bell & Clarence
Blake’s Ear
Phonautograph,
1874
Rudolph Koenig’s
Manometric Flame Apparatus, 1862
Carl Ludwig’s Kymograph, 1840s
• The medium is not a given entity but rather
an unstable and heterogenous object
• Some level of technical reliability and
established modes of use made it possible
to study the phonograph itself
• There is an inherent ambiguity in the use if
a medium, seen in the process of its
emergence. (p. 179)
• Kittler’s technological a priori: Media
analysis has been understood to help focus
on the instability of the notion of a
medium… most accounts of media
technology could not work without a notion
of medium that took its definition for
granted rather than explain it. (p. 192)
The phonograph
was central to the
founding of
ethnomusicology.
(Berlin Phonogram
Archive, founded in
1908, and others like
it established to
preserve samples of
music that were as
yet unknown to
researches, and
were in danger of
being lost forever.
Frances Densmore recording Blackfoot chief
Mountain Chief on a cylinder phonograph for the
Bureau of American Ethology in 1916
3. The Amateur in The Age of Mechanical Music
Exploring the role of amateur music in the age
of sound recording and reproduction
technologies:
• John Philip Sousa’s warning in 1906 (Why
did he object to mechanical music?)
• Did levels of interest in amateur music
diminish as Sousa predicted? 1890-1910
• Katz argue that amateur music persisted
not despite the presence of mechanical
music, but in response to the possibilities
of these technologies
• User-centered perspective: SCOT (the
social construction of technology)
4 Case Studies:
1. Phonograph and player piano (19001920) U.S.
2. Karaoke (1970s) Japan—U.S.
3. Hip-hop (1970s) U.S.
4. Music video games and mobile phone
music (late 1990s to present) Global
For Thursday: Choose a sound technology
and do research on the historical
developments and factors that shaped its
present form, then compare that history to
one that we studied this week. Create a blog
post and be prepared to discuss in class.
Also please bring your phone if you have
music apps on it!