Bosma: Who Makes Electronic Music?

Who Makes Electronic Music?
Vocalists, Composers, Gender and Electronic Music Technology

Text by Hannah Bosma

This paper was originally written for Switch.

Electronic sound technology has influenced the development of music in many ways. For example, the emphasis on timbre or sound color in modern instrumental music is often related to experiences and ideas that were developed in electronic music, as is the case with for example the music of Gyrgy Ligeti. On the other hand, timbre was already becoming more and more important in instrumental music, as for example in the music of Edgard Varëse (1883-1965). But, significantly, Varëse was indeed dreaming of the possibilities of electronic or electroacoustic music - a dream that came true at the end of his life with the composition Dèserts (1954). The alternation of instrumental and electronic parts in this composition can be considered as a metaphor for the intertwining of social, cultural and technological factors in the development of techno-cultural phenomena like electronic music. Technology does not determine itself in an inevitable way, but is made by humans, men and women, in a social environment. Nor does technology inevitably determine cultural or social developments. Technology can be used and developed in many different ways. It is important to watch out for the fallacy of technological determinism. When the consequences of technology are presented as inevitable, often interests, discrepancies, disagreements and power relations are concealed. Feminist studies of gender and technology often discover the refrain 'new technologies, old stories': new technologies as vehicles for old gender patterns.

In relation to electronic sound technology, I have a nice techno-optimistic dream. Like most dreams, it is not so fantastic at all, and it can be observed in real life to some extent. One of the most important aspects of electronic and digital sound technology, that is, the recording of sound, can not only contribute to the emancipation of timbre, but also to a positive change in the role of the vocalist. And because vocalists are mostly female whereas composers are mostly male, this implies a positive change in musical gender roles.

The character of performance is overwhelming presence and evanescent process: impressive at the moment itself, lost afterwards. This contrasts with the work of the composer: he creates a musical score which lasts in time, after the composer's death, and which can be multiplied and distributed around the world. Scores don't vanish the moment they come into existence, but patiently lie on one's desk to be studied again and again. But scores need performers to become sounding music; composers essentially need performers, although they often complain about them. Roughly speaking, composers compose notes and performers create a subtle play with sound, timbre and timing. If one looks into histories of Western music and in musicological curricula, one finds composers and their works, and almost no performers. To a large extent, this is quite understandable: we still have access, more or less, to parts of the work of composers - their scores (directing, organising and performing were often also part of the work of a composer, and of course we don't have direct access to these past activities). Performances, that is, sounding compositions or improvisations, are lost. For example, the past sound art of past famous singers is lost for ever, but not the scores of their contemporary composers.

Sound recording changes the status of the musical performance. When recorded, the musical work of a singer is repeatable, distributable and long-lasting, after the moment of performance and after the death of the singer. It can be listened to and analysed again and again. Through sound recording, the music of the singer can be perceived beyond the reach of the singer herself. Recorded, the creative work of the performer can get a status comparable to a composition: permanent, reproduceable and authoritative. Moreover, sound recording technology not only makes it possible to record a performance of a score or an improvisation, but also to compose directly with sound (e.g., voice) on tape. With a recording of a performance or an improvisation or with a tape-composition of her vocal sound, a singer becomes a creator of a permanent creative art object. Whether she made it on her own or coproduced it with others, the work of the vocalist is an inextricable and essential part of a musical piece consisting of recorded vocal sounds. In this kind of music, the roles of singer and composer are changed or merged. As a (co-)creator of a permanent recorded object consisting of an interpretation, improvisation or tape-composition, one can assign the vocalist an authoratitive status comparable to that of a composer.

And indeed, examples of this techno-optimistic dream can be found. Take for example CD's called 'Maria Callas', 'Kathleen Ferrier', 'Enrico Caruso' or likewise. On these CD's, not the composers but the singer is presented as the main figure. And, of course, in pop/rock music some performative aspects like sound and timing are inextricably part of the recorded product and the singer is often considered as the main figure. Significantly, in pop/rock music there is not a standard way of singing - the special sound of a particular voice is a very important, identifying element. Also for singer-composers like Joan La Barbara, Diamanda Galas or Laurie Anderson, sound recording is very important for their work; especially so, because extended vocal techniques, a special timbre or a special way of speaking or singing (timing, intonation) are all features wich cannot be notated adequately and which are essential in their work. In this way, sound recording technology has contributed to the extension and proliferation of the work of the (often female) vocalist. (But of course other influences were also important, for example, the search for new sounds in avant-garde music, performance art and feminism.)

But my dream, although partly come true, is not the only possible effect of the technology of sound recording. Although the art of vocal performance-interpretation or improvisation is now available as a lasting object of analysis (for example for comparing different performances of the same composition, or analysing an improvisation), musicology is still predominantly concerned with scores, i.e. the work of composers. And though one can argue that in pop, rock or avant-garde tape music the work of the composer and the work of the vocalist/instumentalist are essentially intertwined, the distinction between composer and performer still lies at the basis of the laws for musical copyrights. Regarding copyrights, it is the composer who owns most. Moreover, sometimes the work of vocalists seems to dissappear when it is part of a tape piece. A very significant example of this is Thema: Ommagio a Joyce (1958) by Luciano Berio. This composition completely consists of the manipulated voice sounds of Cathy Berberian, whose special timbre is an important feature of the composition. But more often than not, she is not mentioned at all in sleeve notes or musicological studies.¹ But even if the vocalist is mentioned, the composer still 'owns' the composition. Why are Berberian and Berio not considered as co-authors of Visage (1961), a tape-piece made of recordings of Berberian's improvisations and of which Berio is named as the composer? And it is possible to give many more examples of comparable cases.

Technology studies warns us to watch out for technological determinism. Technological determinism is a way of thinking which is widespread, and one can perceive it often in discourses about new technological developments in the arts. Will the Internet or multimedia change the world or the arts? Maybe changes will (and already did) occur in relation to these new technologies, but these changes are not and will not be simple, unambiguous or uniform. Technological practices are and will be social and cultural sites of contestation and multiplicity, connected to existing social-cultural practices, patterns and institutions. Gender patterns turn out to be very persistent, and often take on new guises in new media. New technologies offer many different possibilities for change, but also new possibilities for the survival of old structures. It seems important to me that both tendencies are kept in mind. Both a critical scrutinity of old and new techno-social-cultural practices and a hopeful exploration of possibilities for positive change are needed. Thus, it is important to not only speculate about the future but also to study the past and the present. In discussions about art and technology, much attention is paid to the newest and hottest technological developments; but the consequences of older, very common and very important technologies like sound recording and sound amplification still deserve much more critical and analytical attention. In the above discussion above the status of the (female) vocalist and the (male) composer in tape-music, I have tried to give a glimpse of an analytical strategy which looks for conservative as well as progressive tendencies and in which there is room for critical as well as hopeful observations.

Footnotes

¹ E.g., Berio 1959, Dreflen 1982. Griffiths (1979) as well as the sleeve notes of the CD (Boehmer) only implicitly mention Berberian as the voice in Thema, when they discuss Berio's Visage. For a more extensive discussion, see Bosma 1996.

More about the status of female voices in electrovocal music can be read in my paper 'Authorship and female voices in electrovocal music', in which a theoretical background and several compositions are more extensively discussed and which will be published in the Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 1996.

Selected Bibliography

Abbate, Carolyn
1993
'Opera; or, the envoicing of women', in Solie, Ruth A. (ed.),
Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. pp. 225-258.

Berio, Luciano
1959
'Musik und Dichtung - eine Erfahrung', Darmstadter Beitrage zur neuen Musik 1959, pp. 36-45.

Berio, Luciano & Dalmonte, Rossana
1983 (1981)
Luciano Berio: Entretiens avec Rossana Dalmonte. Original title: Intervista sulla musica; translated and introduced by Martin Kaltenecker

CD Berio/Maderna: Electronic works, Acousmatrix 7, BV Haast Records CD 9109. The sleeve notes are written by Konrad Boehmer.

Bosma, Hannah.
1995
'Male and female voices in computermusic', in: ICMC'95 Proceedings. San Fransisco: ICMA; Banff: ICMC'95. pp.139-143.

Bosma, Hannah
1996
'Authorship and female voices in electrovocal music', Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 1996, forthcoming.

Bradby, Barbara
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Cipriani, Alessandro
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Griffiths, Paul
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McCartney, Andra
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McCartney, Andra
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McClary, Susan
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Osmond-Smith, David
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Simoni, Mary
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Stoôanova, Ivanka
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Thèberge, Paul
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Wajcman, Judy
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Comments welcome to: Hannah Bosma