ABSTRACT

During the twentieth century, electronic technology enabled the explosive development of new tools for the production, performance, dissemination and conservation of music. The era of the mechanical reproduction of music has, rather ironically, opened up new perspectives, which have contributed to the revitalisation of the performer’s role and the concept of music as performance. This book examines questions related to music that cannot be set in conventional notation, reporting and reflecting on current research and creative practice primarily in live electronic music. It studies compositions for which the musical text is problematic, that is, non-existent, incomplete, insufficiently precise or transmitted in a nontraditional format. Thus, at the core of this project is an absence. The objects of study lack a reliably precise graphical representation of the work as the composer or the composer/performer conceived or imagined it. How do we compose, perform and study music that cannot be set in conventional notation? The authors of this book examine this problem from the complementary perspectives of the composer, the performer, the musical assistant, the audio engineer, the computer scientist and the musicologist.

part I|66 pages

Composition

chapter 1|29 pages

Dwelling in a field of sonic relationships

‘Instrument’ and ‘listening’ in an ecosystemic view of live electronics performance 1

chapter 3|22 pages

Collaborating on composition

The role of the musical assistant at IRCAM, CCRMA and CSC

part II|112 pages

Performance

chapter 4|18 pages

Alvise Vidolin interviewed by Laura Zattra

The role of the computer music designers in composition and performance

chapter 5|30 pages

Instrumentalists on solo works with live electronics

Towards a contemporary form of chamber music?

chapter 6|29 pages

Approaches to notation in music for piano and live electronics

The performer’s perspective

chapter 7|12 pages

Encounterpoint

The ungainly instrument as co-performer

part III|112 pages

Study

chapter 9|22 pages

Authorship and performance tradition in the age of technology

(with examples from the performance history of works by Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen) 1

chapter 10|13 pages

(Absent) authors, texts and technologies

Ethnographic pathways and compositional practices 1

chapter 12|22 pages

Fixing the fugitive

A case study in spectral transcription of Luigi Nono’s A Pierre. Dell’azzurro silenzio, inquietum. A più cori for contrabass flute in G, contrabass clarinet in B flat and live electronics (1985)

chapter 14|15 pages

Experiencing music as strong works or as games

The examination of learning processes in the production and reception of live electronic music