"music" = 'recorded music'

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> I'm looking for a pre-1947 example of _music_ in the sense
> 'a recording of the playing of music; (also) the sound
> reproduced by the playing of such a recording; recorded
> music'. (Sense 5.b. in Webster's 3.) Typical examples are
> things like "a growing demand for music by the best
> artists" or "put on some music".

Here are still earlier citations (some of these may be a shade off from
the usage you want):

1912 Arnold Bennett _Your United States_ 87  I wandered through the
warehouses--pyramids of the same chair, cupboards full of the same cheap
violin, stacks of the same album of music, acres of the same carpet and
wallpaper, tons of the same gramophone.

1914 George Bernard Shaw _Misalliance_ 55  Have the gramophone....No,
thank you: no music.

1917 Alfred H. Northcliffe _Lord Northcliffe's War Book_ 221  Some spoke
of the care, kindness, good food, flowers, and music (the gramophone never
stops) which are provided.

1917 Princess Der Ling _Two Years in the Forbidden City_ 102  My sister
said that she had noticed a large gramophone in Her Majesty's bedroom, and
that perhaps we could find some music.

Fred Shapiro


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