This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series The Survival of the Symphony, given by Alexander Goer, was originally broadcast in 1987.

Art, reproduced by mechanical means, may be as much a fact of modern life as electric light, running water and the telephone.

But while the light removes the need for

candles, the tap the well, and the telephone the messenger, live music making is not replaced by

recorded music, and not only does it endure, it interacts with recordings.

Live music making, which at first seemed to be threatened by the gramophone,

is now enjoying a renaissance, possibly even under its influence.

More people are playing and singing,

and the high standards achieved by young performers surely have something to do

with the fact that the repertoire

of classical music is widely available on record. Any negative effect of an experience of music,

which depends on recordings, is mitigated by the availability and variety of live musical activity.

However great the clash between it and technology,

the recording industry at least helps live music to survive,

as the motor industry ensures better roads.

In theory, a recording, as the word implies,

is only a way of extending the life of a specific performance, as a photograph

catches a passing moment. But as soon as the recording becomes a product for purchase,

there's a legitimate fear that the original performance from which a recording is made

ends up as nothing more than a mold for manufacturing reproductions.

The French economist Jacques Atali mentions this in his book called simply Noise.

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