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Title:
Electronic music : systems, techniques, and controls FORWARD When in 1972 the first edition of Allen Strange's Electronic Music Systems, Techniques and Controls was published, the magenta, blue and white covered book rapidly became ubiquitous. It was the first comprehensive and useful guide to the subject, and was relatively easy to obtain. It had occasional errors of detail, and was involved in the technological tumult before general standards were agreed upon, so that some of the illustrative graphic symbols became relics. Nonetheless, that edition proved quite robust. At least two factors explain the first edition's survival for nearly a decade. Firstly, Allen Strange organized the relatively new and complex material so that it evolved with pedagogical sensibility. Secondly, his explanations of conceptual matters were lucid. This lucidity may be due to a balance in the author's own world. He is an experienced performer of electronic and acoustical instruments, a versatile composer, a historian-theorist of diverse cultural background, and a very effective teacher. In the ensuing years several other books on the subject appeared. Some contributed updated material, and others devoted more attention to certain areas, though often at the expense of others. In spite of the example set by Allen Strange's book, none of the others seems to have achieved his balanced presentation. And few matched his marvelous attitude towards the subject, an attitude which induced the reader to be alert to the many possibilities of a rapidly developing creative medium. This second edition, as the author notes in his preface, is in many respects a new book. But it repeats that most important achievement of the earlier edition: it is a comprehensive, detailed, and clearly organized guide to working with the instruments and technical procedures of electronic music. Besides the expected updating which includes many devices and procedures developed during the 1970s, the author continues his method of explaining details within the context of general operating principles. This makes the book applicable to virtually any analog electronic music apparatus. In its relatively short history—a bit more than half a century—music made with electronic and electro-acoustic means is well on its way to becoming as pluralistic as that produced during many centuries with purely acoustic resources. It already has both "cultivated" and "vernacular" traditions, which are widely disseminated by broadcasting and recording throughout every part of the world. A major part of recent popular and commercial music would not exist without synthesizers and the creative use of multi-track recording. The recording studio, whether the relatively simple home-variety or a multi-million dollar commercial facility, has itself become a musical instrument; in Brian Eno's words, "a compositional tool." Electronic music has even developed "folkloric" aspects. Electronic sensors originally designed to detonate anti-personnel weapons are now used as components of public-access electronic-music environments in shopping centers and galleries. This is certainly analagous to the use of cast-off oil drums in the making of steel-band music. As with Allen Strange's earlier book, this new edition will continue to be an important text for schools and universities. But perhaps more important, in a time of declining support for arts innovation in educational institutions, this book will be vital to creative people who develop their work independently. |