Electro-Acoustic Music

[Steve44]

I'm curious as to whether people are aware of the "other" electronic music - the non-electronica, non-prog rock, non-soundscape music of many serious composers in the last forty-odd years. This music is often called Electronic music, electro-acoustic music, Musique Concre`te, and Computer music, based on the types of processes involved in the creation of the electronic "tape" part. The esthetic of this music stems from modern classical music (I see that term as an acceptable oxymoron) and is thus made primarily for the concert hall. If you've never heard anything of this music, you might want to check out the OHM 3 disc set or listen to anything on the SEAMUS label. You can also check out a couple samples made by the professor at my soon-to-be alma mater, Eric Chasalow.

 

But now I have something else to say: there are some aspects of this music that I just can't stand anymore. I finally figured it out yesterday and this gigantic concert of this music held here at my school. Many of these composers (notably Mario Davidovsky and those associated with his school) don't really use synthesizers as instruments, but instead as ways of getting controlled sounds. As a keyboard player, I think I'm finally ready to take arms against this use of synths - there is much more expression available in the synth itself than they use.. they seem to be consistently operating as one would if you were composing entirely with a TX81Z - creating tiny blips and notes that each vary in timbre a bit, but without any filtering or real-time control that gives the timbre an expressive characteristic. I've gotten sick of the sound-worlds that many of these composers create because their sounds are so sterile. Now when I listen to nearly any ?Davidovsky I wish I could run it all through a sherman filterbank and maybe an art Tube MP too because otherwise it just sounds so dead.. Anyhow, I just felt I had to get that off my chest.

 

For a while after I first discovered electroacoustic music I started to think that the pop-electronic music was pretty pathetic and didn't realize that people had done things that were far more complex much earlier (compare Stockhausen to Kraftwerk, and suddenly "numbers" looks like a really pathetic use of tape sounds, while their synths sound incredibly plain). But now I think I'm getting sick of this style of music and find that many composers really don't understand the tonal capacity and variety of electronic sounds.

 

I hope this isn't too academic for this board...

[Faruk]

I do not think this topic is too academic for this forum, on the contrary I think it opens one big and probably for keyboard players important argument. First, I`m sorry if I will be fussy on this one, because it`s hard for me to concetrate to think in english without some randomness in wrtiting...

I will not claim that I`m well introduced to electro acoustic music, but I have a feeling that electro acustic sound and concept is very atractive for me. I agree that synth sound`s depth is not taken seriously enough in the wide world of electro pop, in fact, in most cases synth sound is taken for granted and unexplored. The issue is not to make some "matter of taste" multitimbres, it is a matter of makeing a fine bland of frequencies using in the same time all possibilities of the synthisizer instrument, and playing that sam instrument.

 

Maybe the problem is that there is not a synthesizerist vocation as an instrumantalist. Ofcourse there are people that could be called like that, but what I mean is that it is not established as na institution, and there is not a conservatory of such dedication that would have a job of perserving old values, developing new ones and educating people.

 

Know I will turn to how I feel synthetic music. Electro acoustic term is very dear to me, but not as a music. Iy is dear to me as a concept in it`s literal meaning. My band is made of drumm kit, bass, and a keyboard. I am not wealthy enough that I can purchase some real synthesizer and play like a real synth player, but I try to compensate by some hard work programing of my sounds on my pathetic Yamaha CS2X. I am not educated instrument player. I educated my self thorugh with experience and lots of mistakes. When I was a young teenager I wanted to play in a band and I wanted to play keyboards as a synthesizer. From the very begining I wanted to be in a situation to make my own sounds. That`s exactly what I did. I envied, and I still envy Jan Michel Jarr. His music was a new world to me. It was all made by himself from A to Z. Nowdays I have a great time making completly my music with two other guys. They even encourege me to continue. So, our music becomes electro acoustic music, hence we play in real time, no sequencers or samplers, and I use a lot o real time control, or I make a new sound on site, and then I play my parts. It all blands in a wonderfull way.

 

All I can say in the end is that there is too many unexplored possibilities and resources for a keboard player, and too many things that are taken for granted.

 

I do not know if I said anything on the target, but I hope it still serves some pourpose. Once again, sorry for bad english.

[marino]

Just a short afterthought:

I've studied a little "serious" electronic music, and I've written quite a few works in that fashion. This kind of music has all the cultural problems of most academic contemporary music, plus a few more due to the electronic medium itself. But of course, at the end of the day what counts is, has the composer something to say and the skills to say it? Today most people agree that serialism, for example, is an absurdly reductive method for composing music, but Schoemberg and others wrote intense and expressive music inside that system; I guess they had the ideas and the talent, and that's what's count.

 

BTW this is just an excuse to point a few electronic composers that I admire and find worth to listen to: Michael McNabb, William Schottstaedt, Tod Machover. Some CDs you could check out include:

 

Michael Mc Nabb: "Invisible cities" (Wergo)

 

William Schottstaedt: "Leviathan", from "Computer Music Currents, vol.3" (Wergo)

 

Tod Machover: "Flora" and "Valis" (Bridge)

 

Also check the work of Michelangelo Lupone.

 

marino