Some thoughts about the "unheard music"

1. Terminology

The term for the genre of music we are talking about, will be found in the data record of the IDEAMA catalogue under instrumentation, as it is the use in traditional instrumental music (like chamber, choir music, etc). Like in traditional music cataloging the instrumentation has to be defined later on in the record (piano, flute, etc.) This analogy between the category systems takes into account that genre is defined traditionally by the instrument, which produces and modulates the sound. In instrumental music, however, this is identical. In our genre of music often sounds are produced or recorded by specific instruments/machines and then modulated, processed, mixed, etc. by other "instruments". In addition, the location(s) of creation of the sounds (and perhaps sother more for structuring) normally are not the locations where the music is heard (loudspeakers instead of acoustical instrument). The three different locations and steps of the production (the sound source, the modulation and composition, the performance) of our kind of music was just identical in instrumental music and not worth to be discussed, therefore.

We agreed after numberless discussions with national and international experts and partners to use a genre term, which covers all these steps and locations: electroacoustic music. This is, as far we can imagine, the most wide and overall term for every kind of music that uses electronic or electric facilities to be produced, processed and played. In addition, this term defines a border line to the region of pop music, because no pop producer or performer would use this term for his music - he/she normally uses the term: electronic.

2. Analysis of electroacoustic music

If we have to analyze and compare traditionally notated and instrumental performed music, we have an amount of musicological and historical methods and categories to reach this aim. The same is not true for electroacoustic music.
a. Traditional analysis uses the score of a work, which is, at the same time, a graphical representation and an acting instruction for the performer. The traditional three-step-transforming process of a musical idea (from the composers head to the score - from the score to the performer - from the performer to the public) is not necessary and not intended in electroacoustic music. The composer is his own performer - his musical intention comes directly through (more or less neutral) loudspeakers to the public. Because of this aspect, electroacoustic music reaches much more directly the ear of the listener then traditional music - and we do not have (in most cases) written notes as a base for analysis.
b. The procedure of composition of an electroacoustic music piece is mostly very different from the procedure of composing an instrumental work. The instrumental work (especially for larger ensembles) has to be constructed in a way "dry" or abstract. The composer has to create without listening at the same time. In opposition to that, the composer of electroacoustic music in our days mostly is able to listen immediately or very fast to the sounds and structures he has created. So the interaction with the sounding material can be much more closer then before. The possibility to control, to change during the composition process, to rearrange, etc. is nearly infinite.
c. Because of the possibility of permanent control be the ear of the composer and because of the closeness to the material he deals with, the composition process can be much more playful, associative and improvising. In many cases you will later on, when the work is finished, never find out where a single sound really comes from or which procedures have been made to make it sounding like it does. The other way around, electroacoustic possibilities of calibrating each parameter of a sound enables composers to fullfill the infinite realization of serial methods. In both ways, which mark antagonal borderlines, an electroacoustic work is much more hermetic then traditional music.
d. The electroacoustic composer has available the full and non-calibrated field of sounds. He does not have to care of tuned tones, of the human possibilities of performing (breath, fingersets, fastness, rhythmic complications, etc.) not even if he uses a tone or a noise or whatever. Therefore he has available a continuum of every possible (that does not mean: thinkable) sound in any manner he wishes. For this kind of freedom there are no categories and no criterias in traditional music.

Before I try to approach some thoughts about equivalent methods for analyzing an electroacoustic piece, let me ask: What aims a traditional analysis to find out about a musical work, what is the purpose of an analysis? To keep it general: Analysis tries to make musical sense evident. Scientifical research never claims to explain, but to describe. And to describe something adequately, the methods of analysis and especially the language of describtion must be coherant to the analyzed object. For the best, the categories and criterias should be condensed out of the analyzed object itself - in correspondence to other comparable objects.

The first step in analysis mostly is to find out which way a piece was com-posed (componere = put together sensefully). That could mean technical issues such as general form, instrumentation, performing techniques, etc. The next step in the analysis looks for more musically inharent aspects such as the treatment of a theme, the modulation of keys, etc. A later step tries to explore more inside structures of a work such as different characters or to find hidden structures and proportions inside the piece. Categories like denseness, atmosphere or variability may come up much more later on, if they come up at all. The highest level (which is reached not very often - and that depends, naturally, on the intentions of the composer) could be to find structural or formal secrets in the work, the composer sometimes even himself does not know, but which are although there and evaluable.

Unfortunately the information that is "normally" wanted or given about an electroacoustic piece is mostly a technical one. This means, that talking about an electroacoustic piece, takes place at a low level, at the first step of possible analysis. The main reason for that might be, that we don"t have a binding terminology to talk about pieces. And a main reason for this is, that through the emancipation of compositional practice there are no conventional forms and also no binding procedures to produce an electroacoustic piece. Unfortunately, the analysis of EAM did not emancipate like the music itself. But in history it always took some time to be able to analyze pieces on the same advanced level on which they are composed. Adequat analysis and theory were established most times after the works themselves.

For the first time in the history of music we are confrontated with the possibility of composing the uncalibrated richness of every possible sound, presenting itself in an everflowing, only by the listening subject measured - better: experienced time. So we have to follow the historical logic of emancipation of artifical possibilities and thereby, the requested emancipation of listening and try to establish a phenomenological discipline of new methods to do research in electroacoustic music. The same is true for instrumental contemporary music, which is often influenced by electroacoustic philosopies and ideas.

At this point of discussion I would like to introduce the "Four criterias of electronic music" (1972) from Karlheinz Stockhausen as a base of argumentation. He introduced as criterias: 1. Composition in musical time continuum, 2. De-compositon of sound, 3. Composition of multi-layered three-dimensionality and 4. Equality of sound and noise. Those criterias do not refer on a technical process of production (although, of course, they are inspired by the musical possibilities new technology offers) but on inharent methods of composing musical time. This means in fact, that these four criterias are not a matter of technique but a matter of musical philosophy and creativity. Stockhausen says in the same lecture: "It does not matter, where a sound comes from - the point is, what you really do with it." And that"s the point we should aim to reach with a co-creative process an analysis should be.

Apart from former traditional forms we have to create (as a composer) or to re-create (as an analyzer) musical sense to evaluate a piece and to discuss this certain "unforseeable understanding" of a musical structure that an interesting composition provides. Well, the sense of a musical sound comes out of the context wherein it is used - like in spoken words. And we can, as well in electroacoustic as in traditional music, analyze the musical context, proportions of parts, groups, layers, sounds, etc.

The main problem might be, that there are no really common forms of composition in our days. It is, in fact, a part of musical philosophy that each piece should create its own logic and its own musical universe. So we first have to try to find out which logic, which main purpose(s) might be intended with a piece. To reach this aim, Stockhausen"s crieterias could be very helpful. I guess, we have to go the classical way of an anlysis - from the whole to the parts, and then to single events and to single sounds. That means we have to listen and listen again. Let me name the instruments of analysis of an electroacoustic piece today: A media, which provides fast and exact access to special parts, a watch to bring experienced time into relationship to objective time and some paper to make notes, to write down describtions and perhaps make some graphical respresentations of what we have heard. And now we may research categories like solo and tutti, single point or fluctuation, variation(s), abruptly breaks or other forms to go from one event to another, gradual difference or similarity of musical events, or also categories like denseness, atmosphere or variability,

So you see, I do not suggest to throw away the methods and instruments of traditional analysis, but we have to change, to enwiden and to enrich them. We will have to name the changes and developments of musical thinking and practices and then transform this knowledge into new methods, categories and terms of description.

The task of emancipation and adequacy of the analysis of electroacoustic music, will be supported by the IDEAMA project and the possibilities this collection provides - to find existing forms and categories by comparing and evaluating many different pieces from various countries and historical states. And all researchers are invited to work together to reach this aim.

IDEAMA

The survival of important works of electroacoustic music is threatened by the deterioration of the materials and equipment used to create, play and store them. The International Digital ElectroAcoustic Music Archive (IDEAMA) is dedicated to collecting, preserving and disseminating this repertoire. IDEAMA, founded in 1990 is a collaborative effort between Zentrum f/r Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) and Stanford University"s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). The following institutions are collaborating as Partner Institutions: Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA/GRM), Paris; Institut de Recherches et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris; National Center for Science Information Systems (NACSIS), Tokyo; Groupe de Musique ExpIrimentale de Bourges (GMEB); Stiftelsen Elektro-Akustik Musik i Sverige (EMS), Stockholm; New York Public Library (NYPL), Instituut voor Sonologie, Den Haag and Instituut voor Psychoakustika een Elektronische Muziek (IPEM), Gent.

An initial target collection of electroacoustic works and auxiliary materials of the early days, accompanied by a databased catalogue, will be established within three years and transmitted to the affiliated institutions. Supplements will then complete the collection step-by-step, up to the most recent compositions.

As a "paperless" archive, IDEAMA will store all materials entirely in digital form. Recordings, scores, and other auxiliary materials will be digitized and returned to their owners. The IDEAMA collection will be publicly accessable in compliance with the rights of the owners at the Founding, Partner and other Affiliate Institutions.

An international advisory board participates in the formulation of the archive"s policies. Regional selections committees at each archive branch help identify and locate music for inclusion in the archive. The European selections committee met in May 1992 at the "Karlsruher IDEAMA-Symposium " and decided on the final list of European compositions to be included in the target collection. There are approximately 400 music titles on. Together with about 400 pieces of the selections committee at CCRMA the IDEAMA target collection in total contains circa 800 pieces up to 1970. This selection offers a representative overview on the internationally most important early electroacoustic music titles.

Thomas Gerwin 9/94

Référence: http://nic.savba.sk/logos/mca/cecm/ifem94/papers/Gerwin.html