Saturday, September 18, 2010

Some thoughts on Electronic Music

I've just returned from watching the sunrise and participating in an electronic music work written specifically for the sunrise of Sept 18. (Sunrises and sunsets always = win. With excellent company, even better WIN). Right now, I'm also taking Intro to Electronic Music. And there are some questions that I've had running through my head as we listen to different pieces - major landmarks of the development of electronic music and the "masterpieces" of specific composers. I cant seem to figure out this whole electronic music stuff yet. (And I'm talking classical electronic music .. not electronic dance/pop stuff ... for the record).

For one, earlier this week we were asked specifically if Varese's "Poeme Electronique" sounded dated. Discussion followed that led to no where (as most academic discussions do).

But this is what I think: I think it sounds like the soundtrack to a 1950's martian movie, or The Twilight Zone series, or perhaps an accompaniment to an Orsen Welles broadcast. To me, it sounds, without question, dated... But why? What specifically makes it sound so?

With electronic music, technology advances so quickly that what took someone years to create can now be duplicated in a day or less. Like Stockhausen's Studies. The sounds were incredibly interesting then (1950ish), but now, not so much.

Its like watching old space movies/tv shows. Like the original Star Trek series. Now, you see their big control boards on the ship with light up buttons, and its funny. Totally dated. And one day soon, as sweet as it looks now, Avatar's control boards will look dated. Its kind of the same view I have on electronic music. Reverb and delay were hot things to use 50 years ago. Now, those pieces that used the devices just sound like somebody in the studio today who doesnt know how to use reverb and delay well and is just playing around.

So then, is all electronic music doomed to always sound dated?

In a sense, I think so. Yes.

Or, its crossed my mind that I just dont quite understand how to listen to electronic music. I dont get it -- yet.

But as a composer, that goes against my own philosophy behind writing music. I know not everyone functions this way, but I think its important to write music that can innately be enjoyed -- that its not so academic and weird that the average listener wont be immediately confused and then immediately reject it. You can call me a people pleaser, but I like to have purpose behind my work -- The purpose being so that folks will listen to it and like it. Or, if I'm trying to elicit a certain reaction, then hopefully I'll accomplish my goal.

Anyways, that was a tangent, but I guess my biggest complaint with electronic music (that I have experienced so far), is that it feels like I'm listening to random sounds occurring at random times.. and not much beyond that. It seems that in the interest of creating "interesting sounds," electronic composers forget that they still ought to write a good work compositionally. And they dont.

So that being said, I'm wondering then if electronic music ought always to have an accompanying visual component. If you're going to compose in that style (ie randomness), then I think that in order to keep the attention of your audience, its the only way to do so. (Varese's Poeme Electronique was actually accompanied by a film). I dont think "interesting sounds" are enough to keep someone's attention/listening span for more than 30 seconds.

I dont know. I'm complaining a lot.

I have to start working on my own electronic piece now.




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