Contemporary Practices of Extending Traditional Asian Instruments Using Technology

Abstract

Ongoing development of audio and informational technology has had an impact on almost every aspect of the musical arts. Cultures and subcultures have cross-pollinated through the rapid exchange of information and have metamorphosed into new fields of technology-based art forms, one of which is the integration of technology in Asian ethnic musics. This article specifically focuses on the integration of technology with the traditional music of India, Indonesia, China, Japan and Korea. By reviewing the history of this metier, we explore the various applications of technology in traditional Asian music and its future.

The North Indian Sarode and Questions Concerning Technology

“…There is a small but growing discourse on electroacoustic music using non-Western instrumentation. This discourse ranges from broad surveys in an Asian context (He, Kapur and Carnegie 2014) to more specific cases dealing with traditional Chinese instrumentation (Keyes 2005), Japanese sonic aesthetics (Ishii 2018), collaborations involving traditional instruments from areas such as Brazil (De Souza 2005), Malaysia (Blackburn and Penny 2014) and the electronic extension of traditional Persian and Jewish instruments (Gluck 2004(Gluck , 2005(Gluck , 2007(Gluck , 2008. These discussions range in their scope and focus but one thing that they have in common is a challenging of assumptions that the aesthetics of electroacoustic music transcends cultural boundaries (Gluck 2008).…”