Trust in Early Recordings: documents, performances and works

Over the past few years, I have arrived at the conclusion that one should feel genuine sympathy for any researcher that is misfortunate enough to study early recordings. This is not because their area of research is so bewilderingly broad. Nor is it because researchers of early recordings are required to read so many different kinds of text. Rather, it is because no matter how far their scholarship advances, and no matter how significant their findings appear to be, scholars of early recordings are constantly questioned about the legitimacy of the very thing that they study. I have experienced this first-hand, since involving myself in a research project focussed on the production and analysis of mechanical recordings; even though the findings of this project were disseminated far and wide, involving both academic and public audiences, specialists and non-specialists, questions about the legitimacy of early recordings almost always dominated proceedings. The precise nature of the questions varied, of course, as did the terminology used. The overarching sentiment remained the same: to what extent can we really trust early recordings?