scholarly journals The Hugh Davies Collection: live electronic music and self-built electro-acoustic musical instruments, 1967–1975

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mooney
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Hayes

This article concerns context-based live electronic music, specifically performances which occur in response to a particular location or space. I outline a set of practices which can be more accurately described as site-responsive, rather than site-specific. I develop a methodological framework for site-responsive live electronic music in three stages. First, I discuss the ambiguity of the termsite-specificby drawing on its origins within the visual arts and providing examples of how it has been used within sound art. I then suggest that site-responsive performance might be a more helpful way of describing this type of activity. I argue that it affords an opportunity for music to mediate the social, drawing on Small’s idea of music as sets of third-order relationships, and Bourriaud’s relational aesthetics. Third, I suggest that with the current renewed trend for performances occurring outside of cultural institutions, it is important to be mindful of the identity of a particular site, and those who have a cultural connection to it. I make reference to a series of works within my own creative practice which have explored these ideas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Emerson ◽  
Hauke Egermann

Over the past four decades, the number, diversity and complexity of digital musical instruments (DMIs) has increased rapidly. There are very few constraints on DMI design as such systems can be easily reconfigured, offering near limitless flexibility for music-making. Given that new acoustic musical instruments have in many cases been created in response to the limitations of available technologies, what motivates the development of new DMIs? We conducted an interview study with ten designers of new DMIs, in order to explore (a) the motivations electronic musicians may have for wanting to build their own instruments; and (b) the extent to which these motivations relate to the context in which the artist works and performs (academic vs club settings). We found that four categories of motivation were mentioned most often: M1 – wanting to bring greater embodiment to the activity of performing and producing electronic music; M2 – wanting to improve audience experiences of DMI performances; M3 – wanting to develop new sounds, and M4 – wanting to build responsive systems for improvisation. There were also some detectable trends in motivation according to the context in which the artists work and perform. Our results offer the first systematically gathered insights into the motivations for new DMI design. It appears that the challenges of controlling digital sound synthesis drive the development of new DMIs, rather than the shortcomings of any one particular design or existing technology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Augusto de Albuquerque Rossetti ◽  
William Teixeira da Silva ◽  
Jônatas Augusto Manzolli

In this article, an analysis of the piece Desdobramentos do contínuo for violoncello and live-electronics is addressed concerning instrumental extended techniques, electroacoustic tape sounds, real-time processing, and their interaction. This is part of a broad research about the computer-aided musical analysis of electroacoustic mu- sic. The objective of the analysis of this piece is to understand the spectral activity of the emergent sound structures, in terms of which events produce huge timbre variations, and to identify timbre subtle nuances that are not percep- tible on a first listen of the work. We conclude comparing the analyses results to the compositional hypotheses pre- sented in the initial sections. 


ICONI ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 87-97
Author(s):  
Natalia N. Petrova ◽  

The article examines performance on contemporary digital musical instruments, such as the keyboard synthesizer, the digital piano, the digital button and keyboard accordion and others, as a direction of artistic creativity in the contemporary sociocultural space on demand by numerous music lovers and professional performers. Evaluation is given to the possibilities of functioning for electronic musical creativity in the culturalcreative, communicative and educational angles. A phenomenological analysis of performance on electronic musical instruments is carried out and data is provided about the peculiarities of the sociocultural perception among various target auditoriums. The heuristic potential of electronic music-making for the young generation is highlighted in the refl ection of the demands of generation Z on poly-timbre and multi-genres in the artistic process. Examples are brought of successful attempts of realizing of individual and ensemble digital performance which has made it possible to manifest the fundamental functions of artistic culture, to create a system of moral and aesthetic values which would be relevant for society, and to form an aesthetically organized, highly technological sociocultural milieu.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 68-72
Author(s):  
Neal Spowage

The author argues that significant aspects of electronic music performance have been diminished in the rush to incorporate the latest, often discreet (as in intentionally unobtrusive) technologies. He identifies these aspects as agency, ritual and, to a lesser extent, serendipity and mess. Using references to his own work, he suggests that applying an understanding of how actors create totems to present agency and affordance is essential to regain, and possibly acclimate, these tools and practices so they are relevant to live electronic music performance practice in a contemporary technology environment.


Author(s):  
Elena Nikolaevna Piryazeva

The subject of this research is the electronic musical instrument trautonium and characteristic features of compositions written for this instrument. The advancement of electronic music and its instruments is substantiated by innovative transformation, constant emergence of new devices, their improvement and phasing out or transitions into a new generation of devices. One of such electronic musical instruments is trautonium, invented in the first half of the XX century. It did not gain much popularity, but gather its own repertoire and library of video and audio recordings. In the course of this research, the author applied the following methods: historical and systemic approaches; methods of integral, structural, stylistic, and comparative analysis. The novelty is defined consists in the subject of research, range of compositions attracted for musicological analysis, and the angle of their view. The author determines the common to compositions for trautonium concert character of performance reflected in the set of aesthetic and technological principles on various levels of musical composition.


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