30 Books in 30 Days: Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music, by Greg Milner
by John Reed | Feb-15-2010
Each day leading up to the March 11 announcement of the 2009 NBCC award winners, Critical Mass highlights one of the thirty finalists. Today, NBCC board member John Reed discusses criticism finalist Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music (Faber & Faber)

Greg Milner, as he approaches the maturation of recording in the twentieth century, guides us with thorough research and resolve, and a casual elegance.
Perfecting Sound Forever takes a comprehensive look at the relatively young art of music recording. Beginning with Thomas Edison, and moving through generations of audio technologists versus audio purists (clinging to one outmoded process after another), Milner tracks the surprisingly constructed notion “good sound.” Recorded music is not, as we presume, natural, it is hyper natural, more real, more vibrant, more distinct in its components—more than any live auditory experience could ever be. That music can be a studio experience—made better, made cleaner, made perfect—is an argument ever-sieged, and ever-victorious. As a culture, we have come to assume the notion of “perfect sound,” and Milner deconstructs the critical history of how we listen to recordings. That music is not “real sound,” that it is an education of what sounds right, and a long evolution of sound-science, is uncontroversial, but nonetheless surprising, and broadly impactful in a critical reading of contemporary culture. And the effect of recording technology is not just an altered perception of the listener; the psychology of the recording process has found its way into the music itself. Milner details a contemporary music that is as much the result of the recording process as the subject of it. As handled by Milner, what could be an esoteric and ancillary subject finds grounding in fundamental questions of what it is to hear, and what it is to experience music.
Click here to listen to an interview with Greg Milner on NPR
Comments
Perspicacity.
You live
in the world
with a great
perspicacity,
your delicate
eyes invent
in a moment
a beautiful
dream….
Francesco Sinibaldi
– Francesco Sinibaldi (02/18 at 18-Feb 12:51 -05:00)
La medida de la sobriedad.
El sonido
del ave alegre
me llama, en
la eternidad
del cielo
cristalino;
siento silente
el triste recuerdo
que regresa
en el sol,
duermo feliz
en el canto
dichoso.
Francesco Sinibaldi
– Francesco Sinibaldi (02/22 at 22-Feb 12:57 -05:00)
Page 1 of 1 pages of comments
Commenting is not available in this section entry.About the Critical Mass Blog
Commentary on literary criticism, publishing, writing, and all things NBCC related. It's written by independent members of the NBCC Board of Directors (see list of bloggers below).
Subscribe
Categories & Archives
- Adventures in E-Reading |
- Awards |
- 2007 Awards |
- 2008 Awards |
- 30 Books in 30 Days |
- Live announcement of NBCC Awards finalists |
- 2009 Awards |
- What I'm Looking Forward to Reading |
- Conversations with Literary Websites |
- Critical Library |
- Critical Outtakes: Discussions With Writers |
- In Retrospect |
- Industry News |
- Interviews |
- NBCC 35th Anniversary |
- NBCC Featured Review |
- NBCC News |
- Q&A |
- Remembrances |
- NBCC Reads |
- Roundups |
- The Critical I: Conversations With Critics and Review Editors |
- The Next Decade in Book Culture |
- Thinking About New Orleans: A Series About New Orleans Writers Post Katrina |
- Small Press Spotlight
Upcoming Events
NBCC’s Name that Author, Brooklyn Book Festival: September 12th, 2010
NBCC at the Fall for the Book Festival at George Mason University.: September 21st, 2010
NBCC Reads at The Center for Fiction: September 22nd, 2010
NBCC Awards Reading, Minneapolis: November 03rd, 2010
NBCC Awards
- » See all award winners
- » Find out how to submit
- » Read how we select
- » Frequently Asked Questions
- » Awards news
Je chante une pensée.
Quand le
souffle du soleil
revient dans
l’école, je chante
une triste
harmonie; et
quand la naturelle
neige invente
l’atmosphère
d’une pensée
perpétuelle,
j’attends le matin…
Francesco Sinibaldi
– Francesco Sinibaldi (02/16 at 16-Feb 13:21 -05:00)