The Shape of Tape

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Home tape fans have even organized themselves into clubs (such as World Tape Pals, with more than 5,000 members and local chapters known as "reels") and correspond with each other by tape. Most of them are strenuous collectors of gadgets—head demagnetizers, bulk erasers, splicers—and tend to value a performance in direct ratio to how rare it is. A currently prized item: Pianist Glenn Gould playing Brahms's D Minor Concerto with the New York Philharmonic this spring—and Conductor Leonard Bernstein's speech disclaiming any responsibility for the performance.