Chapter Three
On Recording
If at any moment I were to be asked how I feel about recording, my immedi-
ate reaction would be to reply, “I hate it.” Whether this refl ects a fundamen-
tal attitude or an accumulation of unpleasant experiences, I am no longer
able to tell. I have always disliked mechanical contraptions and have only
reluctantly become accustomed to such things as the automobile and the
telephone. But I have never grown to accept without resistance what comes
out of a loudspeaker. At various moments in my life this resistance has been
slightly weakened, but there is little evidence that it will ever be entirely
overcome. It is also signifi cant that I do not like mirrors and that I am apt
to take a strong dislike to persons who are said to resemble me. Let others
make what they will of this bit of self-revelation! For reasons that are obvi-
ously related, I dislike being photographed, and on the rare occasions when I
have sat for painters or draftsmen, I have only been prevented by a conscious-
ness of common human weakness from bitterly resenting what they have pro-
duced. Later, when all has become ancient history, I calm down and none
of this upsets me anymore.
What I have just said is not quite true. Floods of unpleasant memories assail
me when I think even of recording sessions that took place over a quarter-
century ago, but since there is some evidence that my recordings have caused
more pleasure to others than to me it is perhaps worthwhile to tell a history of
how and under what circumstances they were made.
When asked how I feel after a recording session, I am tempted to answer,
“like an orange after it has just been made into marmalade; squeezed, shred-
ded, minced, crushed, boiled, hermetically sealed, more embittered than sweet-
ened.” As far back as 1933, I had made some experimental wax recordings with
the clavichord, but my fi rst commercial harpsichord recordings were made in
December 1936 for a company called Musicraft. They consisted of the Italian
Concerto coupled with the three-part Ricercar from The Musical Offering, and
the G-major Partita. Of the sessions themselves I recall little except that they
went well enough for two or three sides of the Italian Concerto to be accepted
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