How Music Works

I've just finished reading David Byrne's 'How Music Works' in which the Talking Heads frontman eloquently shares his musical experiences and theories.  It's a fascinating read that covers everything from the history of recording formats and how changes in technology have affected the way Byrne works to the relationship between harmonic scales and the solar system.  It makes a good companion piece to Greg Milner's 'Perfecting Sound Forever'.  Both highly recommended.

I was interested to hear Byrne's take on MP3s, noting that the way our ears are tricked by the removal of musical information we are supposedly unable to hear is a continuation of a trend throughout the history of recorded music to value convenience over quality.  I never realized that the louder or lower the pitch of a vinyl record the deeper and wider the groove. So bass heavy passages have to be shorter or quieter to fit on an LP and one of the main reasons 12" singles took off, as well as being able to be up to 20 mins long they could also be louder and have more bottom end than a regular 45.  A similar trade off was seen in the mastering of a CD, the dynamic range sacrificed for louder volume - a trend that reached it's peak in the mid 90's volume wars - 'Californiacation' by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers often cited as the most extreme example.  Byrne suggests that the quality and accuracy of a recording are somewhat irrelevant to enjoyment and that fuzziness and ambiguity in a recording may help the listener connect as it gives them a way in.  If they have to fill in the blanks (complete the music) the work becomes personalized and adapted to their own situation.  The soul lies in the music itself and not in the recording.

It's a similar thing with films.  Old school editors will say that films need to be edited with their destination format in mind, Walter Murch famously has audience heads cut into the mask he places on his monitor when he cuts to remind him of how big the image will end up when it's viewed on a cinema screen, but these days you have to bear in mind that the films will also be watched in less optimum situations; laptops, iPads, tiny screens on a smartphone or massively compressed on YouTube.  The heart and soul of a good film will withstand any compromise in quality that the sound and image undergoes on it's journey from the screen to the viewer's subconscious.