From the first voice and music recordings of the 1800s, nothing much changed in the early part of the 1900s. Wind-up gramophones with paper mache cones were used for the reproduction of music that was stored on metal or wax discs. There was no electronic amplification – the recording was done by using a diaphragm to carve grooves into a disc.

Electronic amplification followed and then tape recording, vinyl records, CDs, a brief excursion into compression, such as MP3, and now the superdigital age, where people think nothing of downloading 20 MB of a music collection and storing it on a 60 GB drive, connected to earphones of limited reproduction quality.

The fact is that what music can be stored is not at all limited by the storage capacity of any device. The digitisation of all modern storage methods means that modern music, no matter how great the loudspeakers or earphones, is not reproduced as well as music produced with analogue (that is, vinyl) reproduction.

Fortunately, many say, this does not matter, since modern music is so awful that few care. I am not sure I agree. However, we do noise control for a number of music events in Cape Town and surrounding districts. These are held outdoors or in a marquee and normally the sound system consists of a DJ station with a mixer, electronic turntables and lots and lots of loudspeakers. Not the least of the latter are the subwoofers, which can reproduce frequencies of 20 Hz to 80 Hz.

The total power output of these systems is of the order of 20 000 W. It is interesting to realise that, since the heat given off by an average person is about 100 W, the loudspeakers have the heating effect of a small crowd.

The power and music production of the loudspeakers do not improve the inherent quality of the music. As humans, we respond most readily to sounds that are harmonic, as in consisting of sine waves or multiples thereof. A large drum skin vibrates in a number of modes, all harmonic. Modern bass music is just a series of thumps and thwacks which sound like large slabs of meat hitting the wall. This is added to a series of shrieks, such as those made by my friendly hadeda in my front garden at 06:00. The whole is improved (no, really, it is not) by the injection of very low frequency sound, like the vibrations one would get from a concrete vibrator. This then is modern music. Or not, perhaps.

On the last Friday of each month, in our office, we are too slack to work and so we have a braai, break out the beers (well, I do not, but the staff do) and play a game. The game is like this: in turn, each of us takes the mouse and keyboard and calls up a video on YouTube. The video plays for a minimum of two minutes and then it is the next guy’s turn. In this way, each of us gets an insight into what music is out there. Some of it, which I had never heard, is really good and, given the fantastic reproduction options, it can sound way better than the loudspeakers in our boardroom.

The matter is: now that we have such fantastic reproduction equipment, what is the limit of possibility for music composition? Will it just get better and better and better? This very much depends on the minds of the people who do the composing. The mind of the person who composes musical pieces which rely on the noise from a concrete vibrator and solid nontympanic thumps is not one, to my mind, which will improve.

However, if we could bring back some of the old composers, such as Mozart, Pachelbel, et cetera, or just find somebody like them alive today . . . can you imagine?