The Combination of Digital Communications: Music and the Telegraph in the 19th Century

Abstract

The invention of the telegraph was an offspring of a newly industrialized world and changing economy. It heralded in the race for speed, mass production, mass communication, and convenience. With this changing world came countless ways in which technology impacted society and other fields of study, including the little-investigated relationship of the telegraph with music and musicians in the nineteenth century. While the influence the telegraph had on society can be seen in the music of Hans Christian Lumbye and father and son duo Johann Strauss I and II, music also had a heavy influence on the development of the telegraph, with music theory and the keyboard’s interface finding their way into early designs. Only by examining this uniquely symbiotic relationship can the very lingual aspect of music and the very music-based history of modern communication be fully appreciated.

Keywords

• Telegraph
• music history
• communication