Living Electronic Music 2009/2010

Drawing from the fields of research, Book Reviews observation and experience, Emmerson attempts to identify the acoustic, Emmerson, Simon. psychological and organic elements as Living Electronic Music. well as the paradoxes and intricacies Ashgate Publishing, 2007 (195 p., of live performances in the “electronic ISBN 0754655482) age.” The notions of body, compositional Reviewed by Valérie Vivancos intention, presence, immersion and degrees of spatial proximity are all Simon Emmerson’s book Living carefully examined through the prism of Electronic Music seems to be drawing a non-chronological historical revolutions rhizomatic topology of the elements (rather than evolutions) and aesthetic that play a significant part in defining theories often borrowed from visual arts the live performance of electronic paradigms. music today. The tone of the essay is alternately academic, scientific and Emmerson’s analysis of the compositional journalistic, and the plural topics tackled process (prior to a “live” diffusion in its six main chapters and numerous or improvisation) is toying with the subsections overlap so as to achieve a “disappearance of the author” central quasi-exhaustive exploration of the to 20th-century avant-gardes. This is subject. It is, however, important to note conducted through various automated that Emmerson’s perspective is deeply electronic devices, but also through rooted in the acousmatic genre, a trait conceptual, systematic, and generative presumably induced by his teaching processes, scientific models and “Music, Technology and Innovation” at random productions including Cage’s De Montfort University and his practice experiments, serialism and elektronische as an electroacoustic composer. Thus, Musik. Subsequently, it also acknowledges references to acousmatic music, its the return of the personal print of the technical analysis (studio composition, live composer through the likes of anecdote diffusion, spatialisation and loudspeaker and narration (Ferrari). interface) and its pioneers and current practitioners (Schaeffer, Smalley) play a An important part of the book is then central part in his stance. granted to the body as a sounding element. Live events imply the presence of “a human” coupled with an operation

6464 array Book Reviews of “spontaneous creativity” in a non- mechanical way that also involves the Nick Collins and Julio audience as a receptive component d’Escriván, eds. within the performative area. Emmerson The Cambridge Companion to shifts from the quasi-static experience of an acousmatic diffusion (of a piece Electronic Music. that has been composed in the studio- Hardcover, December 2007, ISBN 978-0- instrument) to the micro-gestures of 521-86861-7, 312 pages, illustrated, notes, a laptop performer that still catch the index; Cambridge University Press, The audience’s attentive gaze. A third category Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 includes the moving body immersed in 8RU, UK; telephone in USA (800) 872- the Dionysian (almost taboo) rhythms of 7423; electronic mail orders@cambridge. electronic dance music and its fleeting org; World Wide Web www.cambridge.org IDM trend. In this instance, references Reviewed by Michael Barnhart are made to Aphex Twin and a few like- minded contemporaries as accepted (Editor’s Note: This review also appears in the illustrations of the popular “electronica” Fall 2009 issue (Vol. 33, No. 3) of Computer genre of the 90s. There, Emmerson Music Journal.) interestingly forecasts that “[i]n times to come there may be increasing exchange This book is a recent addition to the between electronica and ‘academic’ popular and extensive Cambridge electronic music strains but aims and Companion series. In the introduction, ideas can remain different without mutual the editors propose to “deliver access to distrust” (87). a powerful territory of inspiration and excitement” (p. 2), and deliver it they do. The final chapters of Living Electronic This survey deftly escapes the common Music are devoted to more literal acoustic pitfall of some similarly aimed works preoccupations of the various scales of which, though bursting with fascinating the performing space, approaches to facts about historical electronic music, multi-channel sound projection, new ultimately fail to illustrate the aims interfaces, and recording and amplifying that inspired such efforts in a way that devices—issues that can be of more meaningfully connects them to areas specific interest to technically curious of current creative effort. Rather than learners and practising performers. simply serving up the history, this book invites and assumes participation and offers a diverse range of perspectives for

65 The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music 2009/2010 consideration. Restating content found in other familiar works is largely avoided in favor of presenting new ways of thinking about both past and present endeavor and “less widely represented themes from the research front” (p. 2).

The structure of The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music consists of an Introduction followed by thirteen chapters grouped around three major thematic areas.

Part One, Electronic Music in Context, contains four chapters. In the first, entitled “The origins of electronic music,” Andrew Hugill finds the nascent stirrings of desire for sound technology in passages of visionary fiction from the 17th through of “Live electronic music” in the third 19th centuries. It is a refreshing vantage chapter, acknowledging the important point from which to begin. Taken together experiments of 20th century composer- with his discussion of early inventions and performers and smartly including often- their transformation into new expressive neglected subjects such as turntablism and media, he illustrates the emergence of real circuit bending. sonic art from the collective imagination. Ge Wang’s “A history of programming In Chapter Two, “Electronic music and and music” concludes Part One. He the studio,” Margaret Schedel looks at the addresses pre-computer mechanical importance of the early studio to aesthetic automation, the development of early development and the changing definition computer music languages, contemporary of the studio concept. “The studio is no real-time systems and future directions, longer defined by its contents; rather it has looking at how “the programming become a context created by the user” (p. language acts as a mediator between 37). human intention and the corresponding bits and instructions that make sense to a Nicolas Collins examines the development computer” (p. 55).

66 array Book Reviews 5-10), each dipping into a different Interleaved with the three major subject conceptual stream of contemporary work. areas are two engaging collections of “Interactivity and live computer music” artists’ statements following Chapters Four by Sergi Jordà covers the computer and Ten. Together, they offer a sampling as instrument and the composer as of the creative perspectives of thirty instrument builder, and catalogs various electronic musicians from across a wide means of performance interface and their array of experiences. inherent possibilities/limitations.

This excerpt by Alejandro Viñao offers a Karlheinz Essl’s “Algorithmic glimpse: composition” presents a useful overview of the field, linking pre-computer process Our serious music world has musics that involved style rules, serialism disowned one of its greatest and chance operations to ongoing real- traditions: that of being at time experimentation. Chapter 7, “Live the forefront of technological audiovisuals,” co-authored by Amy transformation in music. Far from Alexander and Nick Collins, examines inspiring change and invention the complex history of multimedia like composers of the past, most performance. composers of the last sixty or seventy Julian Rohruber’s chapter on “Network years have attempted to create the music” “covers a broad range from music of today with the technology collaborative composition environments of another time (p. 187). to sound installations and improvised music ensembles,” giving special So does this one by Seong-Ah Shin: attention to the history and significance of communications technology in art (p. Most students called the studio the 140). ‘ghost room’ because of the strange sounds that emanated from that dark Julio d’Escriván’s chapter, “Sound and corner of the building. However, for the moving image,” addresses electronic me it was the most interesting room music for film, television and video in the department, with new sounds games. Among other points of interest, and fascinating equipment (p. 82). it contains a favorable reappraisal of the importance of Raymond Scott’s Part Two, Electronic Music in Practice, is innovative commercial music and studio comprised of six chapters (Chapters techniques during the 1950s and 60s and

67 The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music 2009/2010 closes with a provocative section entitled “Future media?” The final chapter of electronic music. Curious readers will Part Two is Nick Collins’ “Musical robots welcome the selected discographies and and listening machines.” A subsection suggestions for further reading that follow entitled “Four interactive improvisation many of the chapters, as well as additional systems” gives detailed profiles of selected notes and a lengthy reference list. composers’ strategies. Other subsections include material on machine listening and The diversity of topics, accessible format, accompaniment. careful referencing, and the high quality of the contributions to The Cambridge Part Three, Analysis and Synthesis, contains Companion to Electronic Music guarantee that three chapters. In the first, “Computer it will be of some interest to nearly every generation and manipulation of sounds,” reader of Array. Stefania Serafin provides a well-organized overview of the categories of synthesis Michael Robert Barnhart techniques and their origins, ending with Shawnee State University an exploration of future possibilities. In the second, Petri Toiviainen reviews “The psychology of electronic music,” explaining “some of the important aspects of perception and cognition that can be regarded as useful for gaining better understanding of the perception of electronic music” (p. 231).

Natasha Barrett’s substantial finale entitled “Trends in electroacoustic music” “identifies these trends and their compositional and aesthetic circumstances, forming a springboard for a new composer to the genre” (p. 232). The main text is preceded by a detailed timeline (beginning with Pythagoras and ending with contemporary video games) that highlights many foundational contributions to and developments in

6868