Pablo Massa wrote in response to Barry Blesser:

>>But by splitting the performance space from the listening space, which
>>only happened in the 20th century, reproducing classical music now
>>contains a paradox.  The listening experience no longer matches the
>>composers original intent.
>
>I'm not sure about where the paradox lies.  That's simply a loss. From
>the very beginning, recording technologies were accused of "spoiling
>music", not only concerning spatial matters.  Nowadays we don't neccesarily
>uphold this extreme position, but we accept that recorded music fatally
>implies some kind of loss.

>Besides, I don't know if any listening experience ever matched the
>composer's original intent, or if all music really losses something
>essential when that match fails to occur.

I think Pablo's point is important, in that often our concept of the
"performing space" that Barry mentions is often itself far removed from
what the composer might have originally envisioned--think of a Mozart
concerto or a Haydn symphony, a Bach sonata or just about any string
quartet as performed in some huge modern concert hall.

So is it really a "loss"?  If anything, a recording offers the *potential*
to realize a listening space that better matches the acoustic to which
the music might have been conceived.  But the devil is in the details
(such as knowing what that acoustic is), and the realization is hence
often less than that potential.

Bill H.