Electroacoustic music: updating the library collection

The Authors

Ana Dubnjakovic, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a variety of current resources associated with electroacoustic music suitable for updating academic and large public library collections.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken in the paper is to identify resources meant to provide guidance in locating appropriate resources and to identify specific resources regarding electroacoustic collections that are grouped in several categories for ease of reading.

Findings – The complexity of definition of electroacoustic music and its interdisciplinary nature has had a negative impact on availability of collection development guides for electroacoustic music. Furthermore, resource formats associated with this type of music are heavily dependent on technology and change with great frequency which makes them challenging to keep up with.

Originality/value – The paper offers practical advice about updating electroacoustic music collections.

Article Type:

Literature review

Keyword(s):

Academic libraries; Collections management; Music; Public libraries.

Journal:

Collection Building

Volume:

27

Number:

3

Year:

2008

pp:

104-107

Copyright ©

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

ISSN:

0160-4953

Although there is still some contention among music theorists and composers about the subject, today the term electroacoustic music survives as a description of tools and processes used in its creation much like piano music or harp music and not a reference to the various composition idioms.

Since its inception in the late 1940s electroacoustic music has become a regular part of most academic library collections in at least some shape or form, which is not surprising considering the fact that most music programs in the USA with a composition program also teach the electroacoustic component. Looking at the catalogs of close to 200 music collections across the USA, it is clear that libraries continue to collect in this area. It is then surprising that there are virtually no recent guides on how to collect materials associated with it.

Some of the reasons for the absence of formal guides may be the sheer volume of materials or perhaps even more importantly the fact that by the very nature of electroacoustic music they tend to be scattered over a wide range of disciplines outside of music such as computer science, engineering and mathematics to mention a few. Another reason that comes to mind is the ever-accelerating obsolescence of some formats of these materials as well as the variety of different compositional approaches all brought under a single term. This can be traced through the evolution of the term for electroacoustic music itself.

The movement had its beginnings in the experiments of Pierre Schaeffer who worked with natural sounds recorded on tape directly giving rise to the term musique concrete. In Cologne, the elektronische musik group in the late 1940s was experimenting with electronic sounds giving rise to the term “electronic music” which came to be to create a distinction between music composed of natural and that of electronic sounds. During the latter part of the 1950s the term evolved into electroacoustic music to better represent the coexistence of both electronically generated sounds and the natural sounds. The advent of tape as the recording medium gave rise to the rather informal term “tape music”, which is needless to say, virtually extinct now. Finally, the term “computer music” has been and continues to be used for some forms of electroacoustic music, sometimes even when computers have not been used for its generation at all. These considerations alone can be daunting since some of these terms are legitimate as they describe particular subsets of electroacoustic music.

The resources highlighted in this article are meant both as a starting point for those who are thinking about creating an electroacoustic music collection and those who merely want to update their existing collection. The list of resources covered here is not exhaustive and includes materials about as many branches of electroacoustic music as possible in the confines of a journal article. The sources included are intended for various uses- from updating online subject guides and finding places to purchase materials to aid in making purchasing decisions.

Organizations and societies for electroacoustic music

What follows is a list of societies and organizations around the world instrumental in promoting and championing electroacoustic music. They are invaluable resources to collection development librarians because of the wealth of information they offer. Most of them sponsor conferences and journals and include biographical and bibliographical information about their members who are some of the most prominent figures in the world of electroacoustic music. The list includes only the largest and more prestigious organizations as they have web sites with a large variety of useful resources for librarians, composers, music historians and students interested in electroacoustic music.

Electronic Music Foundation (EMF)

www.emf.org/

EMF's website is home to Arts Electric which hosts one of the most comprehensive calendars of electroacoustic music events worldwide. The foundation is also the creative force behind CDeMusic guide to books, CDs and DVDs. Another one of their many projects, the EMF Institute, offers a list of US composers with short biographies and analysis of representative works as well as timelines of evolution of electronic instruments, composition, concepts of musical sound and growing number of institutions organized around electroacoustic music. Their record label EMF Media is devoted solely to publishing electroacoustic music.

International Computer Music Association (ICMA)

www.computermusic.org/

This association is the sponsor of the International Computer Music Conference which is one of the most prestigious conferences in electroacoustic music world. Useful resources on their website include: a searchable directory of all works performed or commissioned by the ICMC, an online newsletter ARAY complete with a CD, book and conference reviews, and a list of resources which includes lists of publishers, academic and research organizations, radio stations, composers, exhibits, listservs, and recording companies to mention a few.

Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)

www.ircam.fr/?L=1

IRCAM is based in France and was founded by Pierre Boulez. Their web site supports both English and French languages. The institute sponsors a multimedia library whose catalog is available online. More importantly, the concert notes of all IRCAM concerts, which are invaluable resources for electro-acoustic music CD collectors, are also available online in PDF format. Other valuable resources include a fully accessible database of contemporary composer biographies and music analysis in French, select scientific and music articles, a catalog of films, CDs and other sound recordings with publisher information, and an extensive list of useful internet resources.

Society for Electro-acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS)

http://seamusonline.org/

This organization sponsors a newsletter and journal, SEAMUS, which, in addition to topics of value chiefly to performers and composers, offers information about new technologies associated with electro-acoustic music which can otherwise be challenging to follow and consequently collect resources for. In addition, the members create an essential list of CDs each year titled “SEAMUS CD Series” which later becomes available for purchase through the society's web site. The organization has partnered with University of Texas in sponsoring a national archive of electroacoustic literature covering over 1,500 titles. Currently, they are in the process of creating a user driven directory of electroacoustic music performers and composers.

Journals, magazines and newsletters

The following list is composed of currently published journals and newsletters devoted to various aspects of electroacoustic music. Some deal with contemporary music in general, but include articles and resources for electroacoustic music. Most are available in both print and electronic formats, and some are available free of charge. The list is not comprehensive but includes the more commonly known periodicals suitable for academic library collections.

Amazing Sounds

Published in English and Spanish this online journal covers current events in electroacoustic, ambient, new age, world music and other contemporary music genres.

Regular features include: news, biographical articles, feature articles, interviews, and an extensive list of album reviews. Links to additional web resources include artist pages, labels, news groups and mailing lists.

Contemporary Music Review

This journal covers all aspects of contemporary music composition. Topics covered include composition techniques, its aesthetics and technology and its relationship with other disciplines and currents of thought. Each issue focuses on a specific topic or composer, e.g. Earle Brown. Some articles also include useful discographies.

Computer Music Journal

This is one of the most important journals for electroacoustic music since it is the only one to fully concentrate on computer generated sound and its implications. It is a quarterly journal with an annual DVD/CD. Regular features include four to five feature articles; sometimes several on a specific topic and a review section includes events, publications, recordings, and products. There is also an occasional interview.

Electronic Musician

This is a good source for music studios and those producing music from home. Topics range from articles about recording gear, electronic musical instruments, music software, multimedia, and business tips for working musicians to live performance and overviews of related music technologies.

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

This interdisciplinary journal covers all aspects of sound and is aimed at physical scientists, life scientists, engineers, psychologists, physiologists, architects, musicians, and speech communication specialists. Broad list of subjects includes: linear and nonlinear acoustics, aeroacoustics, underwater sound and acoustical oceanography, ultrasonics and quantum acoustics, architectural and structural acoustics and vibration, speech, music and noise, psychology and physiology of hearing, engineering acoustics, sound transducers and measurements, bioacoustics, animal bioacoustics and bioresponse to vibration.

Journal of the Audio Engineering Society

Devoted to audio technology this journal contains highly technical papers by audio engineers about various aspects of audio technology as well as features about the society conferences, members and new product reviews.

Journal of Mathematics and Music

This is another interdisciplinary journal devoted to exploring the use of mathematical modeling in musical theory. The language is fairly technical, and the journal is aimed at music scholars, composers, mathematicians and computer scientists as well as graduate students from those disciplines.

The Journal of Music and Meaning

This journal covers a wide range of subjects such as: philosophy, mathematics, physics, musicology, medicine, acoustics, neurology, theology, literary studies, philosophy of science, music pedagogy, computer science, semiotics, sociology, linguistics, religious studies, anthropology, psychology, biology, education studies, music therapy, culture studies and their impact on conceptions of meaning in music. It includes published papers as well as reviews and recent publications sections.

Keyboard Magazine

The magazine covers all issues related to electronic keyboards and their use. It also includes CD and keyboard accessories reviews.

Leonardo Music Journal

Leonardo is a forum for those interested in the application of contemporary science and technology to the arts. Each issue comes with a CD of works relevant to the issues discussed in the journal.

New Music Box

Published by the American Music Center this multimedia e-magazine offers discussions, profiles and articles about living American composers with commentary on new books, upcoming performances and a portal to Counterstream radio station it sponsors.

Organized Sound

This peer-reviewed journal focuses on impact of contemporary technology in fields such as multimedia, performance art, sound sculpture and electroacoustic composition. The journal comes with an annual DVD.

SEAMUS Newsletter

This newsletter is available online and covers a wide range of electroacoustic music topics from articles about instruments, members, festivals to CD reviews.

Vibro

Vibro is a multimedia online magazine published twice a year. It is also available in a CD format on a subscription basis. The aim of mostly volunteer publishers is to chronicle the experiments in electroacoustic music and make them available to international audiences. Each issue consists of short articles about individual composers and their work being presented as well as the streamed version of the work itself.

CD/DVD vendors

Because of the recent trend toward self-publishing, electroacoustic music recordings have been increasingly difficult to locate. Established electroacoustic music composers with works on popular labels can sometimes be found through large commercial sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The following list includes smaller, specialized company web sites selling, in most cases, only electroacoustic music recordings.

Online streaming services

DRAM

www.dramonline.org/

This service covers music of American composers on labels such as Composers Recordings, Inc. and New World Records in various genres including electroacoustic music and is available only through institutional subscription. Most recordings come with full liner notes, and the recordings are streamed at near CD quality.

Contemporary World Music

http://womu.alexanderstreet.com/

This new addition to Alexander Street Press streaming databases covers a wide spectrum of music genres from pop to jazz and folk from around the globe. While there is no specific electroacoustic music category in this database, many pieces are performed using synthesizers, sequencers, and computers. The database is available through institutional and consortia subscription.

Electro Sound

www.netaudio.ru/electrosound/

Based in Russia, this net label describes itself as covering emotional electronic music. Each recording is accompanied by a brief description of the piece and information about the composer. The tracks can be listened to individually or mixed. The service is free and requires no subscription.

SONUS

www.sonus.ca/

SONUS is a Canadian based streaming service created by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. Listening lists are arranged by year and by composer. The service is free, and the complete works can be downloaded free of charge in MP3 format.

Score vendors

Although techniques and procedures used in electroacoustic music traditionally do not lend themselves to notation, interplays of textures and gestures rather than harmony, rhythm and pitch play a significant role in its creation. The scores and more importantly performance notes do exist for some of the music. The scores are more common for pieces which make use of sometimes modified traditional instruments in addition to their electronic counterparts.

Just as there are few composers who limit themselves to composing solely in electroacoustic medium, there tends to be no publishers specializing in publication of this music. One of the ways to locate these materials is through large national presses. Ricordi in Italy for works of Luigi Nono and Samfundet in Denmark for works of Ejnar Kanding are great examples. Some composers such as Pamela J. Marshall and Larry Polansky choose to self publish them. In most cases the best approach is to start with the individual composers and locate their publishers.

Recent books

There is an excellent bibliography of seminal works about electroacoustic music from 1950s to late 1990s in the Grove Dictionary. The following list is composed of significant works published in the past eight years suitable for academic library collections. Particular emphasis is placed on works dealing with electroacoustic music analysis, individual composers, sub genres, software and hardware, and historic overviews.

Analysis and theory

Historical overviews

Composers

Sub genres

Software and hardware