ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the period up to the outbreak of war in 1939. It gives a broad-brush overview of some of the resources available in recordings from the perspective of French piano music and considers some of the issues that arise when studying them. Numerous recordings still await transfer, including many commercial recordings, but also private recordings and, for the latter part of the period in question, radio broadcasts. The substantial collections of three national libraries offer a natural place to start: the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), the National Sound Archive at the British Library (NSA), and the Library of Congress (LC). Acoustic era discs had an approximate range of 168-2,000Hz, as opposed to the human ear's range of about 20-20,000Hz. Especially pronounced in the acoustic era, before the introduction of microphones, this changes timbre and tone from hearing music in the flesh.
