Speaking of ArtEven so, speech itself remains the primary mode of human communication, with its own irreducible features and characteristics, and it remains central to the living continuum of what the English political philosopher Michael Oakeshott called 'the conversation of mankind'. Sound recordings contain the actuality of the spoken voice, the impress of an original reality: a sound recording gives the auditor a direct contact with the source. Like photography it is itself a trace of the real, a transformation of the source energy, received by the senses.