Ten experts decide who and what changed the course of music history.

Recording is to music what writing and printing are to words. Until Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877 memory was the only way we could hold on to sounds beyond the duration of their vibration. Imagine a world without books or screens, with only storytellers or street criers able to communicate ideas and information. Even our ancient ancestors left words etched on the walls of their caves, but until we had a device able to capture sound and pass it on our concerts were merely phantoms, conjured up then evaporated forever.

Music exists on the page too, but the symbolism of its notation is obscure. Written words symbolise ideas but squiggles on manuscript paper are another step removed. However cerebral the composer’s creative voice his or her ideas in the brain burst to be heard in the air and in the ear.

But more than being able to hear the notes which a composer wrote, with recordings we can listen to how different musicians over the years have interpreted those notes – a little like reading a text with the brain and memory of another. Because the notation of...