Loudspeakers Optional: A history of non-loudspeaker-based electroacoustic music

Abstract

The discipline of electroacoustic music is most commonly associated with acousmatic musical forms such as tape-music and musique concrète, and the electroacoustic historical canon primarily centres around the mid-twentieth-century works of Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and related artists. As the march of technology progressed in the latter half of the twentieth century, alternative technologies opened up new areas within the electroacoustic discipline such as computer music, hyper-instrument performance and live electronic performance. In addition, the areas of electromagnetic actuation and musical robotics also allowed electroacoustic artists to actualise their works with real-world acoustic sound-objects instead of or along side loudspeakers. While these works owe much to the oft-cited pioneers mentioned above, there exists another equally significant alternative history of artists who utilised electric, electronic, pneumatic, hydraulic and other sources of power to create what is essentially electroacoustic music without loudspeakers. This article uncovers this ‘missing history’ and traces it to its earliest roots over a thousand years ago to shed light on often-neglected technological and artistic developments that have shaped and continue to shape electronic music today.

Locating Creativity in Differing Approaches to Musical Robotics

“…While these present an overview of the field, they tend to focus primarily on issues related to functional design, with little discussion of creativity. Musical robots are categorized based on how they produce sound (Kapur 2005), how they function as interactive multimodal systems , how they developed over history (Murphy et al, 2012;Long et al, 2017), and the ways that they engage in "Robotic Musicianship" (Bretan and Weinberg, 2016). 1 Based on a review of existing literature as well as the author's experience designing and composing music for musical robots, this article proposes a new classification framework based on the ways that musical robots express creativity through anthropomorphic form, capacity for sonic nuance, control, and musical output.…”

“…While these present an overview of the field, they tend to focus primarily on issues related to functional design, with little discussion of creativity. Musical robots are categorized based on how they produce sound ( Kapur 2005 ), how they function as interactive multimodal systems ( Solis and Ng 2011 ), how they developed over history ( Murphy et al, 2012 ; Long et al, 2017 ), and the ways that they engage in “Robotic Musicianship” ( Bretan and Weinberg, 2016 ). 1…”

The Design and Construction of an Expressive Mechatronic Chordophone

“…Furthermore, mechatronic instruments can engage in computer-aided algorithmic composition [2], which uses various computer music techniques-such as randomness, probability systems, or complex algorithms-that human performers cannot take advantage of as easily as machines. Finally, these instruments benefit from the use of concrete objects capable of creating complex and organic sounds that are considerably difficult to reproduce in digital systems [27].…”

The Design and Construction of an Expressive Mechatronic Chordophone

“…Furthermore, mechatronic instruments can engage in computer-aided algorithmic composition [2], which uses various computer music techniques-such as randomness, probability systems, or complex algorithms-that human performers cannot take advantage of as easily as machines. Finally, these instruments benefit from the use of concrete objects capable of creating complex and organic sounds that are considerably difficult to reproduce in digital systems [27].…”