To all with interest in preservation

On 12 Aug 2012 at 12:43, William Donzelli wrote: I'll make one of the arguments I often make with the music people who insist on "authentic performance" of old music (e.g. Renaissance, Baroque, Classical). The least perfect instrument used in a recreation is the audience. We have been conditioned by our own time to the extent that our notions of rhythm, harmony and even tuning. The old tunings sound strange to us; we have no idea how Bach or Mozart performed their works--all we can do is guess. And we guess with our own ears conditioned by our own modern experiences. All we can hope for is to capture a ghost of the experience. The same obtains, I suspect, with attempting to create a authentic experience with old iron. Today's audience has grown up in a world where the computer's presence penetrates every corner of existence. To the user of a 7090, computers were rare things. Watching a printer create printed output from instructions punched into cards was magical. The 7090 was FAST for the time--now, even the lowliest mobile phone has a faster CPU. To someone born yesterday, can a really authentic old iron experience ever be created? I doubt it. --Chuck