From the Musical World for January, 1890, an article on what people might use the phonograph for when it is perfected. The article reveals much about the assumptions of late-nineteenth-century performers: Beethoven and Mozart would certainly have performed their works the way we perform them if they had had the ability and the technique.
EDISON’S PHONOGRAPH.
Edison’s phonograph is still attracting a great deal of attention in Europe, and many speculations are indulged in, as to the practical good that is to be derived from it. One writer in the Hamburger Musik Zeitung thinks, that its greatest benefit will consist in the preservation of musical performances, as models for future generations. No doubt there is some truth in this, but then imagine, if you please, a phonographic picture of the first performance of Schubert’s great Symphony in C, or of Beethoven’s “Eroica.’’1 Certainly something could be learned from such phonographic information, but we doubt whether it would have more than a mere historic value. No leader would play the Schubert Symphony in C, as it was first performed in Vienna, and, could Beethoven or Mozart hear their orchestral works performed now-a-days, they would see a progress, which is quite beyond our comprehension. What an inventive people we are! If American symphonies or operas are not attracting the attention of the European art world, our inventions will always be accepted and used abroad with gratitude. Europeans often are unwilling to believe the wonderful progress that is constantly being made in this country, especially in the line of labor-saving machinery. Europeans can neither comprehend the extent of our country’s domains, our ideas of liberty, nor our extensive use of machinery. But whether they realize the rapidity of our progress or not, we are nevertheless moving onward and, if our morality keeps pace with our scientific progress, we are sure to become eventually the greatest nation on the earth.
- Misprinted “Ervica” in the original. ↩