Electronic Shock
This past weekend I attended a concert where a work for electronic media was presented. The piece had been realized in the composer’s studio and was delivered via two speakers on the stage. I found the experience of sitting in a crowd and looking on the concert stage at a set of speakers to be quite strange. I found myself missing the human interaction that comes from a performer making music in front of me.

I left this concert, wondering if I would ever present any of my electronic pieces for two speakers in a concert setting again. I’m just not sure a concert is the best method for disseminating these types of pieces any longer.

The experience was a little surprising to me, because I’m an advocate for electronic music. I like creating it and I like listening to it. No matter how creative a composer is with classical instruments, at a certain point, there are limits to the instruments' coloristic possibilities. With electronic music, there are an infinite quantity of sounds that can be created and combined through computer software, a whole new set of instruments with which to experiment and forge new art with.  

I hope composers continue to create works for electronics alone, but I strongly feel they should distribute them via different channels - primarily through the web, in CD/mp3 format, or as installations in venues where you can move around and experience something (like looking at paintings at an art museum). There are infinite audiences for music distributed in these formats, plenty of ways to continue sharing and experiencing good art.  

This is not to say that the presentation of works for electronics and live performers in a concert setting should be abandoned. Quite to the contrary! These sorts of interactions can be very novel and exciting, because of the expanded timbral palette and the interaction between the performer and the audience. 

   
I also think that electronics-only pieces in a concert setting work when the composer is on stage manipulating faders or taking some action to manipulate the sounds in real-time.  Electronic works that involve a dancer are also quite exciting.  In both of these cases, there's a visual element and real-time physical cause and effect events that create a relationship between the performer and the audience.  

And this relationship is what is missing when pieces for electronics-alone are presented in a concert setting.  What's the difference between listening to a piece for electronics-alone and going to a concert and listening to a recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony piped through a couple of speakers?  Wouldn't that be a strange phenomenon?  Why would we gather in a location to listen to recorded music that we could listen to in the comfort of our own homes?  

I enjoy concerts, because I enjoy watching performers engage in the music, and seeing subtle things like how bowing influences the sound of the violin or how the performers physical movements create sonic changes and add an emotional depth to the musical experience.  I'm sorry, but you just don't get these sorts of experiences by looking at a set of speakers.  

I realize I’ve probably pissed off a lot of composers writing for electronics-alone. To those of you creating this way, let me say this...I sincerely appreciate your craft and your knowledge of the tools that can create cool sounds electronically.  I’ll continue to listen to and enjoy your creations through CDs and on the web, I just don’t think I’ll be checking out concerts consisting entirely of pieces for two speakers anytime soon.

And besides, what fun is a blog anyway, unless you can piss a few people off now and then!

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Posted by Ralph at 10/7/2010 2:46 PM
Categories: Music

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  • 10/8/2010 9:46 AM Brad Fowler wrote:
    I've never sat through an entire concert of *only* electronic works. The times that I've been at concerts where a Piece for Two Speakers has been presented, I've always found myself kind of looking around, wondering when it was going to stop. Admittedly, this was when I was younger and my attitude about electronic music wasn't the best (I've grown up some since then).

    I agree with you that it's oftentimes the sort of thing that, in concert, should be presented with some kind of human interaction. Otherwise you may as well be listening to it on a pair of headphones.
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    1. 10/8/2010 11:01 AM Ralph wrote:
      I've had several pieces on these all electronic concerts.  But I probably won't be partaking in them any longer.  There's some really fine music making going on in that field, I just think the delivery method is strange.  It's probably moreso, when there is one electronic piece in the middle of an otherwise acoustic concert, the contrasts are so strange. 
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  • 10/8/2010 1:14 PM Jon wrote:
    While I agree that the current presentation format is problematic, I'm not sure what kind of alternatives would be valid. An installation is fine for certain types of pieces, but for works that have a definite beginning and end, it certainly wouldn't work. And if the point is to listen while walking around looking at pieces or art or something else, it ceases to be a piece of prerealized electronic music. It becomes a multi-media presentation, and the art bcomes another component. That's all well and good, but what if the composer just wants to present a work of sonic art without external 'props?' In fact, all your suggested presentational methods (save one) change the basic premise of prerealized sonic art (e.g., 'tape', CD, 'works for two loudspeakers', etc.) by either turning them into works for live electronics, mixed- or multi-media, or live instrument plus prerecorded sound. The remaining suggestion eliminates the communal aspect of concert audition, by saying, "don't put those pieces on concerts in a concert venue---listen to them at home or in your car on your headphones or home stereo."

    What I find most interesting about this blog post is not the surface issue of prerecorded sound at concerts, but the deeper issue raised by such a question: why is it that visuals are such an important aspect in the appreciation of an art form that is supposed to be aural at its core? Why do we need to see the performer in an acoustic performance? Why do we prefer to see someone twiddle some knobs and push some buttons for electronic pieces?

    While I agree with you to a certain extent, Ralph, that watching a performer can enhance the presentation, it can often work against the composition by being distracting.

    Incidentally, 'might as well be listening on headphones' is a non-starter. With headphones, one doesn't get the complete immersion one gets with loudspeakers in a concert hall. I can listen to anything on headphones as loud as (or louder than) it would be at a concert venue, but I'm not going to feel the lower frequencies in my chest. (Funny, I just asked about why we need the visual to enhance the aural arts and then turned around and used the sense of touch to justify concertization of prerecorded sound.) And even my decent home stereo isn't going to do most prerecorded electronic pieces justice.

    Of course, I don't have a horse in this race. I haven'tcomposed a prerecorded electronic concert piece in about 12 years. But I, for one, don't have a problem with the usual presentation method. Heck, I often close my eyes to block out the distracting visuals in acoustic performances.
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    1. 10/10/2010 4:42 AM Ralph wrote:
      Good points Jon.  I especially like the one about pieces with a definite beginning and ending.  I hadn't thought about that in my installation comment - I suppose looped electronic pieces would work best for an installation.

      It's funny, sometimes if I want to really concentrate on the music at a concert, I will close my eyes as well.  If someone asked me if I learned best visually or aurally, I would say aurally, so I can't quite put my finger on why the visual component is important to me in a concert setting, perhaps it is the history of such events?  But I'm finicky too, because I don't like some aspects of that history, like clapping only at the entire end of a multi-movement work or the idea of having performers 'dress-up'.  I think jeans would be a little less intimidating to an audience.  

      Another thought on this subject, is that an entire concert of electronics-only music might be a glimpse at works that are fresh off of the press, so to speak, so that would be an exciting aspect.  It would be great if more electronic composers would band together and get some a lot of cds out, that we could keep in touch with the latest and greatest (maybe SEAMUS has something like this on a yearly basis).

      You know, if the electronics-only concert had a lecture component, where the composers gave a brief intro, I would go to that too.  Maybe it's the idea that a concert should add a little more to the experience of listening.  Like with live instruments, I can hear things more clearly than in recordings.  A lecture component would give me something that I can't get from the CD.

      Of course, some could say that a concert gives you a chance to talk with others about the works presented, but again, I could get that by having a few friends over for a listening session, like we did in the good old days! 

      Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read and respond and for your astute comments. 



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