A Future In The Past

Theodore Parker

A Future In the Past is a research project engaging with the application of methods from Historically Informed Performance and Media Archeology towards problems found in the practice of Live Electronic music. In doing so the project sought to expose lost discourses in the medium as viewed from the performer’s perspective. Three pieces by composer Udo Kasemets were chosen as case studies. All compositions were originally written and performed prior to the 1990’s boom in digital processing. Each case study explores themes related to Liveness, Audience Interaction, and Hyper Instruments. In developing the historical context for each work several strategies were undertaken. Kasemets’ archives were reviewed at the University of Toronto, performers of the original pieces were interviewed, and investigations into period specific instruments were conducted. Additionally, Kasemets’ own published writings were used to reference his aesthetic ambitions as well as for comparison with his contemporaries. Rehearsals were carried out with The Estonian Electronic Music Ensemble, where the historical data and performer experiences were combined to create an individual interpretation for each composition. These interpretations were then presented to an audience and alongside contemporary issues currently debated in Live Electronics

Various Problems in Live Electronics

Without question our contemporary era is saturated with an acceleration of technological affordances. Such impacts are wide and far reaching, particularly in regards to the field of music. The way music is created, consumed, distributed, and experienced in the 21^st century is dominated by this influence and there is no shortage of critique regarding its relationship with market capitalism in the cultural sphere, particularly for those involved with the production of the new.

There is perhaps no better place where such effects can be observed than in the field of Live Electronics. In this last thirty years entire new genres of music have been invented by the widening capabilities of computers, both in academic, high, and low cultural spheres. The general atmosphere of the past 20 years of electronic music can be criticized as being overly modernistic, where the focus has been on development over poetic relationship. Additionally, the pace at which technology develops exceeds artists’ capabilities for digesting, reflecting, and reacting to the ever changing cultural environment. Since the market for new technology which creates exciting user experiences appears to have no shortage of financing, and the support for cultural activities continues to stagnate, those seeking to further develop the field may be easily left behind by changes in trends, obsolete tools, and/or simply a lack of available time.

Some problems regarding Live Electronics emerged immediately with its advent in the early 20^th century. Standard Notation was unsuitable for the types of complex sounds being sought by composers. Essentially, it is poorly equipped at dealing with such concepts as spectrum, noise, or texture. Performance technique for new instruments had to be reinvented alongside whatever emerging aesthetics accompanied their use. Entirely new approaches to the taxonomy of sound were undertaken to investigate the experiences new technology provided, Pierre Schaeffer’s sound object perhaps being the most dominant example.

With more contemporary technologies, additional problems emerged. Technological affordances of the contemporary era bring about issues with defining interactivity, the concept of liveness, and a host of issues which challenge our intuitive conceptualizations of musical instruments. This happens in addition to the difficulties from previous eras, as common notational systems or performance technique for electronic instruments are still frequently investigated topics. It appears that the problematics of Live Electronic music continue to increase alongside each generation’s new inventions.

This research attempts to step back in time and provide this space for reflecting on technology and its use. Similar activities have been emerging throughout Europe, with composers and performers turning back towards the use of analog technology in artistic practice. Though motivations for this turn are diffuse and divergent, one possible question to explore is if turning to the past can help to resolve some of the problems faced in our current artistic practice.

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