AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

From technical to technological: the imperative of technology in experimental music composition.(Critical Essay)

Perspectives of New Music

| January 01, 2002 | Hamman, Michael | COPYRIGHT 2002 Perspectives of New Music. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

INTRODUCTION

PHILOSOPHER ARTHUR DANTO used the term "post-historical" to refer to a period in art--roughly from the late 1950s to the present--in which "art was no longer possible in terms of a progressive historical narrative" (Danto 1992, 9). For Danto, a work like Andy Warhol's Brillo Box--a large packing box for then-ubiquitous brillo pad cleaning items--best captured that moment when art became "philosophical." In order to even begin to see a work like Brillo Box, one had to understand it within the context of its social and historical framework; the work was in fact this very framework. Such a notion of visual art challenged the traditionally held idea that visual artworks present "significant forms" predicated primarily upon "retinal experience" (Foster 1996, 4). Since then, the "content" of visual artworks have increasingly concerned the means by which they are made, both in terms of the social and historical context in which they obtain meaning (their epistemological framework) and of the technical means by which they are produced.

A similar holistic approach has energized advanced music composition. Musical works are viewed not simply as machines for aural experience, exhausted in the listening experience they engender; rather, they are understood as knowledge systems, as sources for analysis, discussion, extrapolation. The sensual experience they elicit is but one aspect of their existence as works of art--they also exist as social, political, and technological agents. Sustained by this overall view is an appreciation for the procedural dimension of music composition-technique has been elevated, not merely as a means toward an end, but as an end in itself Electronic systems for sound and music composition empower this approach to composition, since the composer's work includes radical reformulation of the very techniques by which material is generated. The technical difficulties encountered within the early electronic music studio, for instance, focused composers' attention toward the dialectical nature of their compositional process, empowering them to see the object of their musical activity (the musical work) as contingent upon the particular manner in which its musical problems were articulated and framed.

The idiosyncratic musical forms and materials produced in these studios testify to a radical interpretive attitude regarding the technical devices employed in their composition. This radical approach to music composition was greatly advanced with the introduction of the computer. The computer provided the kinds of tools that allowed the composer to explore, more deeply, the very conceptual frames in which musical ideas might be imagined and realized. It enabled the composer to critically examine and assess the musical result, the means by which that result came about, and how the two are conceptually and generatively related.

In recent years, compositional technique has been derided, regarded as an "elite" holdover from the experimental days of the 1950s and 1960s. This overall derision comes during a time when the computer tools used in music composition have increasingly emphasized ease-of-use over representational flexibility. This has generated, arguably, a more productive composer while, by precisely the same process, transforming the computer from a tool for experimental composition into a tool for increasing musical production.

The aim of this paper is to articulate an approach to understanding music technology that favors its experimental imperative over its merely productive capability. Such an approach would focus on technique, understanding technique as the locus of any experimental activity. Toward this end, I begin by discussing technology more generally and, due to its ubiquitous presence in computer technology, the computer interface more particularly. In doing so, I wish to counter technological determinism with technological hermeneutics. Technological determinism views technology as a deterministic frame, only minimally permeable to social, cultural, and political concerns. By contrast, technological hermeneutics views technology as an interpretive frame in which humans model the materials and forms by which domain-specific activity is defined. Viewed as interpretive frame, technology overtly invites and includes the participation of humans in designing the representations through which domain-specific thought and activit y is conceived, understood, and realized. In designing the representations through which domain-specific thought and activity is conceived, understood, and realized, humans participate in designing the larger social and political frames according to which artifacts (e.g. works of art) are produced and propagated. In doing so, humans participate in the design of their own ontological, cognitive, and epistemological experiences. The computer may therefore find its most compelling use, not in modeling already known historical frameworks, but in positing as-yet unknown models (Laske 1989). Viewed in this manner, the computer becomes a valuable tool for composers who view compositional technique itself as an end, not merely a means to an end. Such an interpretive stance regarding the computer acknowledges its subversive potential: as a means for negating--in the dialectical sense--the performative principles that otherwise direct technology research and the commercial imperative that drives that research.

THE COLONIZATION OF TECHNIQUE

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
Andy Warhol: Brillo Box. (silkscreen on wood)
Magazine article from: Artforum International Danto, Arthur Coleman September 1, 1993 700+ words
...philosophy of art must move on. This was what Brillo Box meant to me the moment I saw it, in...the Kantian question was: how was Brillo Box possible? Its impossibility was assured...but in asking how art is possible. Brillo Box, in any of its many exemplars, made...
Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective.(Brief...
Magazine article from: Publishers Weekly July 20, 1992 700+ words
...s view, artists' feelings of belonging to a continuous tradition vanished around 1965, one year after Andy Warhol's Brillo Box. In the current "post-historical" epoch, he writes, postmodernists make pathetic stabs at reconnecting with the past...
Henninger Media Services Unveils 2nd Music Composition Suite At Henninger...
Press release article from: Business Wire September 17, 2002 700+ words
...henninger.com) has installed a second music composition suite at Henninger Arlington for...they continue to handle the original music composition needs of clients from throughout...creative capabilities of our second music composition suite are second to none," said...
Famous Chinese Musician Joins Qin Dynasty Cultural Dinner Show for the Music...
Press release article from: PR Newswire February 7, 2006 700+ words
...music composers in China, for the music composition and musical drama design of the Qin...Fang Li will be responsible for the music composition and musical drama design of the Dinner...his achievements in the field of music composition and musical drama composition. About...
Grawemeyer award for music composition; the first twenty years.(Brief...
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News May 1, 2007 700+ words
9780810856943 Grawemeyer award for music composition; the first twenty years. Little, Karen R. and Julia...submissions from 1985 to 2005 for the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, given by the U. of Louisville, and where the competition...
VirtuosoWorks and Bitstream Announce Agreement to Bring High-Quality Fonts to...
Press release article from: Business Wire May 23, 2005 700+ words
...high-quality fonts for use with NOTION(TM), their music composition and performance software. VirtuosoWorks selected the font...bring a variety of high-quality fonts to their innovative music composition software." About VirtuosoWorks NOTION(TM) is a product...
'National Music Composition Competition' organized.
Newspaper article from: Turkish Daily News February 21, 2002 700+ words
The Culture Ministry will organize a "National Music Composition Competition" for 2003 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Turkish Republic's founding and the signing of the Lausanne Treaty...
Creative music composition; the young composer's voice.(Brief Article)(Book...
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News August 1, 2006 700+ words
0415974666 Creative music composition; the young composer's voice. Wilkins, Margaret Lucy. Routledge 2006 288 pages $95.00 Hardcover MT40 Basing her ideas on...
Professor of Music Composition: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. (Portrait).(Florida State...
Magazine article from: Florida Trend Smith, Patrick A. August 1, 2002 700+ words
...Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, still widely regarded as one of America's top composers. After receiving BA and MA degrees in music composition from FSU--and a doctorate from the Juilliard School--Zwilich was asked to join the American Symphony Orchestra under...
EA and the GRAMMY Foundation(R) Announce GRAMMY Pro Session: Video Game Music...
Press release article from: Business Wire August 31, 2005 700+ words
...about the creative process and gain practical experience in music composition and non-linear sound design for videogames. The Pro...Designer at EA, and special guest Michael Giacchino, whose music composition credits include Medal of Honor(TM), as well as TV shows...
For more facts and information, see all results

Source: HighBeam Research, From technical to technological: the imperative of technology in...

©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA