ABSTRACT
This chapter takes four examples from my research on historical recordings in colonial Taiwan since 2000 to reflect on my methodology and to argue for an integrative and dialogic approach to study music as processes. Specifically, it illustrates the importance of integrating and cross-referencing oral/aural with visual sources, historical with ethnographic methods, and musical genres that used to be considered separate and unrelated in order to figure out why and how sound was recorded by whom under what circumstances. Solving these puzzles in turn brings out the transformative moments that turn noise into decipherable and meaningful sound and allow us to understand and empathize with people making music in Taiwan’s colonial past. This chapter further shows that since most Taiwanese musicians before 1945 rarely left writings or notated compositions, historical recordings often become the only means through which we can understand their musical thoughts and practices. Therefore, it is all the more important that we know how to study and listen to historical recordings in order to resound colonial Taiwan.
