ABSTRACT
Musicians have performed for audiences for centuries. Before the electrical stage of microphones and amplifiers, music came in direct acoustic form, clearly caused by musicians’ actions, so a rich understanding of musical cause and effect has developed. Liveness is fundamental to giving meaning to and establishing the appeal of live performance events, leading to the exchange of energy and the other factors that make live performance events so exciting and vital: the immediacy, uniqueness, and authenticity of the moment. The chapter introduces the rudiments of liveness theory to give broader context and critical awareness to the techniques. The audience-to-performers arrow indicates less energy exchanged than performers-to-audience as the performance is listened to and observed. Technology for music production has developed to the point where once incredible and seemingly impossible processes are now commonplace. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
