The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music

by Nick Collins (Editor), Julio d'Escrivan (Editor)

Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies. The fast-paced changes wrought by electrification, from the microphone via the analogue synthesiser to the laptop computer, have led to a wide range of new musical styles and techniques. Electronic music has grown to a broad field of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrète and elektronische Musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica. The first edition of this book won the 2009 Nicolas Bessaraboff Prize as it brought together researchers at the forefront of the sonic explorations empowered by electronic technology to provide accessible and insightful overviews of core topics and uncover some hitherto less publicised corners of worldwide movements. This updated and expanded second edition includes four entirely new chapters, as well as new original statements from globally renowned artists of the electronic music scene, and celebrates a diverse array of technologies, practices and music.

Genres: Music

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2007

Reviews

[Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

took me over a year to finish bc it's technical / im dumb but it's solid.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers electronic music from its historical beginnings at the dawn of the 20th century to the present. The focus is on art music, and the perspective is very European. In addition to the usual scholarly chapters, there are two sections of short statements by various electronic music composers. I especially enjoyed the chapters on the history and context of electronic music, as well as those on live computer music, computer generation and manipulation of sounds, and the psychology of electronic music. The composer statements were often very interesting and enlightening. although some of the discussions of aesthetics got very arcane, I appreciated how the book resisted getting into the technical weeds of specific equipment or software.