Matrix Listening; or, What and How We Can Learn from Historical Sound Recordings

Abstract

A matrix number is an alphanumeric code that is inscribed into the run-out area of commercially recorded gramophone discs. In this article, I argue that orienting our scholarly listening around matrix numbers—what I call “matrix listening”—can help us reframe our engagement with historical sound recordings as primary sources and thereby lend valuable insights into any number of scholarly questions. It can also help us revisit the issue of materiality in recorded sound specifically and music in general, approaching sound recordings not only as container technologies for “music” as a purified domain but as complexly agentive material things.