Peter Donhauser , Elektrische Klangmaschinen. Die Pionierzeit in Deutschland und Österreich (Electrical Sound Machines: The Pioneering Era in Germany and Austria). Böhlau, Wien, 2007. ISBN 978-3-205-77593-5.

Abstract

especially those of the basic acoustics of the system. This section is poorly edited: standing waves need to be explained early on in the process; some explanations (of formants, for example) are confused. ''These regions of high pressure are known as formant frequencies ...'' (p. 152)-no, but I kind of understand-only that's not good enough for teaching or research, I'm afraid. Transfer functions do not add, they multiply (Figure A1.19)-and so on. Trevor Wishart has a welcome strong presence in the book, but On Sonic Art is consistently misdated and confusedly referenced, and Red Bird is conflated with Anticredos in the work list. These are, sadly, examples of poor editing and checking which are noticeable throughout. Missing is a discussion on notation for extended techniques. There are plenty of examples in the book and it could never be standardised. It would be useful to bring some ideas and commonalities together for composers to see what has been done. Edgerton strangely uses some simple western music transcriptions of sound (not music) production that are not on the CD-especially in the discussion of multiphonics in Chapter 7-which render them hardly functional. The CD included with the book has 99 tracks ranging from the shortest of sound examples to (near) whole works. Given the difficulty of obtaining the vast majority of the contemporary works referred to this is really useful. In fact, the book would have been impossible without it as no number of words can replace the sound directly perceived. Furthermore, there is an element of 'I don't believe that's possible' in some of the descriptions, which only the example explicates. My criticisms of this book are born of a frustration that there is much of merit and use here, but poorly edited and presented so as to detract from this achievement. There is a vast amount of material here, painstakingly assembled. It is difficult to use, but may be of great benefit to someone already interested in extended vocal production of any kind.