When music recording emerged around 1880, classical music was less likely to be recorded than popular songs, due to a lack of interest and the limited running time of recordings. Still, there was a sense that recordings could democratise classical music: there was no need any more for seeing the actual performers and instruments in a concert hall. Classical music entered homes, and decreases in record prices allowed targeting audiences with wide-ranging backgrounds. The notion was picked up by radio; in 1928 the BBC proclaimed it was “the great Democratiser of Music” (Day 2000, p.73).


Records and radio not only had similar aspirations in democratising classical music, research in radio technology during WWI also helped overcome the record’s early limitations – and once running time had increased, the repertoire of classical music was not reliant on abbreviation anymore. By 1936, audiences could buy complete recordings of Bach. However, these developments cannot account for Bach’s promotion to musical genius, which is so often associated with him today. There were indeed complete recordings of several of Bach’s works, but the focus was by no means on Bach alone; works by Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven also had been recorded in full (Day 2000). The situation changed in Germany when, in 1947, Archiv Produktion was founded.


The Archiv label set out to preserve the sound of early instruments and German Baroque music. From the beginning, Bach was central: providing the first records and first success he secured the label’s future. Several large-scale Bach projects were undertaken and many Bach “masterpieces” became so closely identified with the label that they “have been recorded by successive generations of Archiv artists” (Butchart n.d., ‘Archiv Produktion – History’). Essentially, Archiv’s Bach recordings are democratising his work by preserving it, making it available. But they also showcase specialisation: specialisation in music, taste and target group. Focussing on early music and highlighting of Bach foreshadows later developments caused by the growing repertoire when “there [was] simply too much music available for anyone to develop a knowledge, let alone a love, for all” (Day 2000, p.140). Archiv’s programme contributed to this specialisation in taste; other labels needed to react.


Thus the specialisation of taste fostered EMI Classics’ 1995 reorganisation of their labels hierarchically – a sure way to channel people’s perception of classical music in terms of quality and value. This new system of full, mid- and bargain price categories cements Bach as musical genius with its Baroque Special: “Music from the time of J.S. Bach, his forerunners, contemporaries, and successors” (cited in Day 2000, p.135). It is hardly possible to make the description of this full price category more Bach-centred and to suggest his importance for his own and all subsequent epochs.

 

In the cases of Archiv Produktion and EMI Classics we encounter the importance of marketability and, indirectly, of gatekeepers to the labels’ development and their respective ways of keeping Bach central to their programme. “Media gatekeepers […] determine not only what is mediated by technological means but the manner, the nuances of its communication” (Barnard 1997, p.272). Taking the industry as gatekeeper to Bach, their actions in and reactions to the market showcase their mediation of the idea of Bach’s musical exceptionalism – next to the technological mediators of the record (and later the internet), gatekeepers are human mediators. Their choice to repeatedly centre on Bach reveres him not so much in words but in attention. Of course the addition of textual media to records (titles, descriptions, reviews) often emphasise this admiration. A case in point is Deutsche Grammophon’s series website: Bach not only gets his own special treatment by being the only composer series titled “Masterworks,” he also is linked to a special “About this Collection”-website that none of the other series have.


Questions of marketability and decision-making also resulted in record companies moving into the world of new media – and regularly, their choice of entry has been Bach: Bach appears to be a safe bestseller instead of a shelf warmer, his music worthy of being translated onto a new type of classical records. Hence hänssler CLASSIC has digitalised their Bach edition and put it onto Apple’s iPod Classic – creating BachPod. All of Bach’s music on one portable device means truly universal access, anytime, anywhere. At €499 however, the project very much combines democratisation of Bach’s music with specialisation: the target audience will almost exclusively consist of those already familiar with Bach. In a similar vein, Teldec released their Complete Bach Edition on a flash drive: “A set which, like the Bible and Shakespeare, ought rightly to accompany any thinking person to a desert island” (The Complete Bach Edition 2013).


Both of these examples show a new approach to recording, eliminating the physical disc and embracing the new media. These projects are unique in the world of classical music, enforcing the idea “Bach the musical genius.” They also are a first step on the way into the world of new media that continues with the internet. 

 

References

 

  • Barnard, S. (1997). ‘Keepers of the Castle: Producers, Programmers and Music Selection.’ In T. O’Sullivan & Y. Jewkes (eds.). The Media Studies Reader. London [etc.]: Arnold.

 
  • Day, T. (2000). A Century of Recorded Music. Listening to Recorded Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

 

Creating a Genius: Bach on Record
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