On Jun 27, 2006, at 6:24 PM, Chuck Israels wrote:
OK, Andrew,
I am not nearly as knowledgeable as you about older music, but I am
surprised by the 1910 - 1935 comparison. I don't doubt that you have
good information about this, and I am curious about it.
I was thinking mainly of orchestral music. Orchestras 1900-1914 were
*huge*, with WW in 5s, 8 (French) horns, two timpanists, etc. It is for
this orchestra that the _Rite of Spring_ was written, as was
_Gurrelieder_ and most of the Mahler symphonies. After WW I nobody
could afford to support an orchestra that big, and ensembles were
scaled back to the now standard dimensions. Composition followed
accordingly: compare Mahler to Hindemith.
On the pop side, in 1910 every little town in America had a 12-30 -
piece wind band, loud enough to be heard outdoors by large crowds on
weekends and holidays in clement weather. The radio and phonograph put
paid to these town bands, and popular music came increasingly to be
listened to indoors, at, of course, a much lower volume.
Home music-making was totally dominated by the piano in 1910--but by
1935, once again, the radio and phonograph had severely cut into piano
sales. A modern stereo system can outblast a piano, but I don't think
the early ones could.
-------------------------------------
Around 1985, I complained in a concert review that the word
"electroacoustic" meant "too damn loud." I don't think things have
gotten any louder since then. They couldn't possibly.
--Andrew
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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