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- Boström, Mathias, 1973-
(författare)
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Fonografen som föreställning : Introduktionen av ljudinspelningar vid svenska minnesinstitutioner
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- With the invention of the phonograph in 1877 came the possibility to mechanically capture, store and reproduce sound. This thesis deals with how sound recording technology was introduced in memory institutions in Sweden. The focus of the thesis is on the first phonogram format, wax cylinder recordings, and their life cycle in use. This study deals only with memory institutions primarily directed towards Swedish-speaking majority culture, whereas cylinder recordings of the cultural Others will be the subject of a separate publication.The aim of the thesis is to increase the knowledge and enhance the understanding of the archival use of the cylinder phonograph in discourse and practice, with a focus on music recordings. With inspiration taken from a model of knowledge production by Bruno Latour, the study encompasses technology transfer, collecting practices and repertory analysis, institutionalization and professionalization, institutional economics, public presentations, and research practices. The cylinder phonograph was used by ten Swedish memory institutions 1898-1948, primarily by institutions directed towards traditional culture (dialects, folklore, and folk music), and with professional ambitions to some degree. Equipment and knowledge were to a certain extent transferred through professional networks in Sweden, with Danish and German memory institutions as important foreign competence centres. In comparison with some of the neighbouring countries, the introduction of sound recording technology in Sweden was generally some years later and the collections smaller. This is due to that professional memory institutions were founded later in Sweden, and that the collectors and scholars were primarily interested in typical representations of music in notation, rather than the phonogram’s particular representation of a single performance. Sound recording technology was therefore not regarded as a threat in relation to collecting music by ear. It was instead seen as a complement that could also, as objective reference recordings, increase the value of collections made by ear. The use of recording technology did, in several cases, narrow down the collected repertory and the informants that were chosen, due to that quality of performance now became important in a new sense. Few scholars in Sweden asked for archival recordings for research, and the cylinder recordings were not used for public presentations and publications in the period when the technology was in active use. Thus, it is not surprising that the cylinder phonograph did not became an important method for memory institutions in Sweden.
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