Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 2108.
Adviser: Richard Bauman.
"Title from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2008)."
Summary:
This dissertation extends our knowledge of early sound recording practices by tracing the initial construction of the "phonogenic frame," a mode of behavior intended to yield phonograms or "records" for use on future occasions rather than performances for immediate apprehension by a traditional audience. By combining close listening to actual surviving phonograms with a survey of contemporaneous writings about them, I document a variety of acoustic, structural, and linguistic adaptations through which people in the United States first sought to make the phonograph "work" meaningfully as a medium of performance.