SOUND RECORDING, AUDIO COMMUNICATIONS AND PIANO PERFORMANCE: EVOLUTION OF VIEWS
Authors:   Magnitogorsk State Conservatory (Academy) named after M. I. Glinka, Magnitogorsk, Russian Federation, Chvanova T. P. 
Published: October 2021

Sound recording and related audio communication tools are complex and ambiguous phenomena, the potential of which was revealed and implemented gradually, as technology improves and new performing practices are consolidated. Sound recording has become a determining factor in the development of musical culture in the XXth century, creating new forms of musical being, changing the principles of musical communication and distribution of roles in the musical hierarchy. In the field of piano art, recording led to the emergence of "virtual" forms of piano performance and post-production practices, gave a new aesthetic quality to piano art, revived the figure of composer-performer, and raised the value of a pianist-interpreter to a new level. The tradition to consider the evolution of art in the context of scientific and technological progress appeared in the 1970s. Nowadays in musicology, the aesthetic significance of recording for piano art remains undefined, there are no large generalizing studies on this issue. Recording has caused fundamental changes in the social life of music and musical performance, the transformation of the traditional musical communication system — these processes are currently most studied. The issues of musical communication are covered in the works of E. Dukov, E. Nazaikinsky, I. Orlova, A. Sokhor, A. Yakupov. Books by N. Lebrecht, Yu. Strakovich, A. Karabanova, T. Kuzub, Yu. Streglov are devoted to the problems of functioning of musical art and their historical origin. A considerable part of G. Gould's journalism is focused on prospects of sound recording. According to Gould, the participation of the performer-interpreter in the process of sound engineering brings his work closer to the composer, allowing "to establish a contact with a work, which is very similar to the composer's own attitude to it". Sound recording becomes the reason for transformation of the traditional system of "composer — performer — listener" musical communication, historically associated with the functioning of concert halls and the composer's priority role. Researchers note the complication of the communicative chain due to the inclusion of the figure of the sound engineer (Yu. Kapustin, I. Orlova). Feedback of listeners and the performer becomes mediated, it is carried out through other channels — public opinion, press (Yu. Kapustin), the figure of a musicologist critic (A. Yakupov, Yu. Streglov). The authors begin to consider sound recording as a new form of musical existence, different from concert practice, which develops its own means of expression, forms its own listener, creates its own performing personnel. In modern research, recording as a component of innovative progress achievements is included in the periodization of information technologies. Sound recording, being a means of documentary communication, creates a new quality of fixation of a work of art in the actual form of performing interpretation, post-production practices expand the aesthetic experience of the performer and listeners. In the modern musical landscape, sound recording becomes a product of joint work of a performer and sound engineer, art manager, music producer, while the role of the performer is "virtualized".