Computer-based resources permeate the music worlds of composition, theory, musicology, performance and education. These resources are transforming the nature of contemporary music making, whether one considers concert, radio, television, film, multimedia or interactive immersive contexts. The variety of perspectives offered by the contributors to this issue of Contemporary Music Review reflect a diversity and individuality of approaches in the musical application of new technological resources. As a compilation, they provide an opportunity to examine the "state of the music", and to critically examine our goals for future development. In establishing both a historical perspective and a vision into the future, we can clarify and respond to the challenges which face us in the present.
In soliciting articles for the issue the authors were encouraged to offer personal views regarding the impact of new technological resources on their evolution as artists and practitioners. The contributors have experience crossing multiple disciplines and several generations of musical and technological evolution, dating back to the analog electronic era. They reveal the lattice of connections among musical applications which contribute to the development and assimilation of new musical instruments and resources. The focus on musical and technological challenges exposes our placement on a developmental course that still has a long time to play out. In tackling such topics as compositional process, performance practice, music languages, and instrument/resource development, the articles clearly demonstrate that connectivity among musical applications is an evolutionary imperative in order to achieve successful integration into the fabric of society.
Mort Subotnick explores connections between new instrument development, performance practice and the assimilation of new musical materials in an interview with Tod Machover, another composer deeply involved in developing new resources. Steve Reich's "My Life With Technology" exemplifies the application of new resources rising out of creative challenges, demonstrating his personal evolution through a series of seminal works.
David Rothenberg examines the development of computer-based musical instruments in the context of the evolution of society's musical instruments as extensions of human intention. He addresses the abyss resulting from severing the connection between interface and sound production, and points in the direction towards emulating the characteristics which attract both performers and audience towards new music and new instruments. Robert Rowe articulates many of the challenges that we face in developing effective, interactive performance-based instruments, and proposes concrete areas for future development. Roger Dannenberg probes the nature of structured computer languages and indicates how we can benefit by applying their unique features to new resources for music representation.
Denis Smalley probes the challenges that we face in the uncharted territory of the electroacoustic realm, and he proposes listening strategies in "The Listening Imagination: Listening in the Electroacoustic Era". My article "Configuring Hospitable Space - Fantasy and Fantastic Media" explores the creative process, and the impact of new technological resources on creativity and the creative environment. I offer a view into the future, when new resources for sound and music are integrated into an immersive, multimedia environment.
Stephen Pope's "A Computer Music Taxonomy" reflects the current state of an ongoing process of refining our understanding of the disparate fields which comprise activity in the computer music realm. The taxonomy clearly exposes the diversity hidden within the expression "computer music", substantiating the necessity for developing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary view towards understanding the topic. Deta Davis provides a selective bibliography relating to composition in computer music. This is a subset of her well-known bibliography on computer music, "Computer Applications in Music". Readers are also directed to bibliographies which appear in the authors' articles for additional sources.
Musical resources evolve in concert with music's practitioners, audience and social context. The success of our endeavor in the development of new resources for musical activity, or creative activity of any kind, is linked to the vision that we carry with respect to the reasons that we are developing them, and the way that we incorporate them into the socialization process. If success is measured in terms of the gradual integration of electronic media in the commercial and popular media arts, one need only listen to the audio tracks in television and film to find support of advances in recent years. The articles in this collection reflect a perspective of computer music which, even in its vitality, has yet to achieve the fusion of elements resulting in a fully-integrated musical instrument. The views presented point to both the promise and the problem of exploring new ground, and the implications with respect to the expressive capabilities of a new technology. It is my hope that this issue of Contemporary Music Review reflects a historical perspective that acknowledges how far we have come, contains a vision of where we are going, and provides a lucid view regarding the work that lies ahead in order to achieve the vision.
I would like to express my gratitude to Tod Machover for his help in creating this issue of Contemporary Music Review. Tod was involved in establishing the list of contributors, and in conducting the interview with Mort Subotnick.