Electroacoustic mythmaking
James Andean · 2018
Electroacoustic musicology is a relatively young field, at least when compared to the far broader canvas of Western musicology more generally. Historical narratives of electroacoustic music regularly extend the primary imagined foundational conflict, until one find works by composers as diverse as Jonathan Harvey, Michael McNabb and John Cage being defined retroactively as finally &s;bridging the divide&s; between musique concrète and elektronische Musik . Which one can read as the Americans and the British finally &s;making peace&s; between the French and the Germans. A focus on various forms of power as a defining factor in the development of electroacoustic music is not without its relevance, but requires contextualization and closer examination. Today&s;s electroacoustic map is no longer nationally-oriented, or studio-oriented: it is a web of communities, many of them centred around important teachers and centres of teaching. And so a focus on pedagogical figures might lead us to a more accurate and fuller image of the changing electroacoustic landscape.