The Effects of Technology on Music
The Effects of Technology on Music
M any consider that music is not really a technical subject. They prefer to think of it as purely expressive. Any hint of 'technology' will send them into a panic - or simply cause their minds and critical faculties to turn off. Alternatively, other musicians - often young and 'progressive', will have none of 'traditional' music, preferring 'modernity' and seeing technology as being fundamental to 'their' music. As so often with such polarisations, neither extreme is really useful.
It could be suggested that one of the reasons for the increase in new age and spiritualistic views is technology itself - technology has enable scientific idea, and specifically those related to physics, to develop well beyond the realms of 'common sense', which has meant that in order to appreciate these ideas, considerable knowledge and understanding is required. Instead of even attempting to undertake this learning (or maybe as a result of a failed attempt at it), people will commonly reject the whole area and because science has already undermined the Christian faith, lead people towards this rather vague mixture of superstition and convention.
Palindromic forms are based on the MIDI model - that a melody sung 'backwards' will sound 'the same' as it does forwards... Of course, this is not true in absolute terms - what it means is that the order of the notes is reversed - the notes themselves are 'sounded' forwards. This is a common misconception in music which can lead to many other misconceptions and goes some way to highlighting differences between MIDI and audio approaches to manipulating sound.
Of course, in reality all musical instruments, except perhaps the voice, are technological to some extent. The technology may not seem particularly advanced to us now, but this does not make them any less technological achievements. effects and influence of traditional technology
One of the aspects of composition with which I have found most difficulty has been the lack of 'standard' electroacoustic instruments in the sense that there are no 'flutes', 'clarinets' or 'pianos' in the electroacoustic world. It could certainly be argued that some software, hardware or 'methods' are becoming more standard over the years, but there are certainly no direct analogies.
Why is this? Is it because electroacoustic development is still relatively young? Or is there a fundamental difference between the two media?