ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at ways of approaching live electronic music across several genres. It also looks at a range of aesthetics of the 'live' from all the options – from the human gesture centre stage to the laptop performer who may give no outward indications of action. The chapter suggests ways of approaching the field that will be helpful for both the composer and the listener and to balance what composers might do with what listeners might actually hear. Pierre Boulez's criticism of Pierre Schaeffer's aesthetics stems from his belief that the sound world of noise has too great a relation to 'everyday life' to be brought under complete compositional control. 'Live electronic music' has often meant both music produced and performed through real-time electroacoustic activity of some kind and music which combined live performers and fixed electroacoustic sound. One tradition of instrumental amplification in mixed music concerns pieces in which the instrument 'aspires to the condition of the acousmatic'.
