Research Data Leeds Repository

Silicon Luthiers: a component-level history of electronic music

Teboul, Ezra (2016) Silicon Luthiers: a component-level history of electronic music. University of Leeds. [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/160/08

This item is part of the Alternative Histories of Electronic Music collection.

Dataset description

This submission focuses on the devices that make a music electronic and their authors. From David Tudor to Martin Howse, modern electronic music and sound art practitioners have focused heavily on how approaching composition from inside electronics could produce new, unique and forward-thinking music. This desire to acknowledge the literal makers of electronic music is inspired by Pinch’s social vision of technological systems, and Piekut’s application of actor-network theory to the Cagean experimental music world: if it is important to understand all the actors and network of actors in the development of technological systems or musical movements, what can considering the devices in electronic music, their sub-systems, their components, and all their respective authors or makers bring to the table when trying to accurately describe and contextualize the music they permitted? By presenting selected examples, the case will be made for linking design and manufacture methodologies with musical ones. Electronic music instruments serve a different purpose than most consumer electronics. These examples all serve to illustrate that the self-taught engineers of musical electronics each create a personalized and effective approach to making their instruments. This translates directly into the music made with those instruments. If it has been natural for some musician to embrace do-it-yourself electrical engineering and tinkering practices, interdisciplinary visions of musicology and music history appear as best in attempting to contextualize and discuss their musical products. Working from some of Collins’ remarks in Handmade Electronic Music, Vinck’s Everyday Engineering, and adapting Dunne’s concept of post-optimal objects to present electronic music instruments as catalysts of poetic expression, an interdisciplinary framework for discussing the importance of these widespread and multifaceted do-it-yourself practices in a musical context is offered for further critique and refinement.

Subjects:

W000 - Creative arts & design > W300 - Music
W000 - Creative arts & design > W300 - Music > W310 - Musicianship/performance studies > W316 - Electronic/electro-acoustic music performance

Divisions:

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures > School of Music

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