Symposium on Wire Transmission of Symphonic Music and Its Reproduction in Auditory Perspective, Basic Requirements

N THIS electrical era one is not surprised to hear that orchestral music can be picked up in one city, transmitted a long distance, and reproduced in another. Indeed, most people think such things are commonplace. They are heard every night on the radio. However, anyone who appreciates good music would not admit that listening even to the best radio gives the emotional thrill experienced in the concert hall. Nor is it evident that a listener in a small room ever will be able to get the same effect as that experienced in a large hall, although it must be admitted that such a question is debatable. The proper answer will involve more than a consideration of only the physical factors. This symposium describes principles and apparatus involved in the reproduction of music in large halls, the reproduction beingof a character that may give even greater emotional thrills to music lovers than those experienced from the original music. This statement is based upon the testimony of those who have heard some of the few concerts reproduced by the apparatus which will be described in the papers of this symposium. It is well known that when an orchestra plays, vibrations which are continually changing in form are produced in the air of the concert hall where the orchestra is located. An ideal transmission and reproducing system may be considered as one that produces a similar set of vibrations in a distant concert hall in which is executed the same time-sequence of changes that takes place in the original hall.