A concert of electro-acoustical music presented last night in the Top of the Hop by Dartmouth faculty and graduate students posed many difficult questions, which ultimately involved the meaning of music itself.
The difficulties of the performance first out of its virtual lack of performers. The entire concert consisted of pre-recorded music played through speakers connected to a series of boxes.
The concert was also ambiguous in its faithfulness to the original score, since in most cases, no printed score exists. During the two pieces where there was live playing, I can only assume that I was hearing was the composers truest intentions and was, therefore, was left to decide how, and indeed if, it was music.
My conclusion is that the concert yielded examples of both music and of computerized sequences, devoid of the powerful affectation which we commonly associate with music. I do not mean to define "musical" and "non-musical" in the grounded, technical sense, but in the way we say that, for example, Mahler is "musical" while Meyerbeer, an equally fine "musician," is not. It was truly astonishing how that within the span of approximately one hour the program yielded such powerful examples of both.
The evening's first piece, conveniently titled "Opening," came complete with a mathematical diagram of it's "tuning space" -- quite an intimidating thing for any non-engineering major to look at before listening to a piece of music. Whether it was composer Devin Hurd's intention or not, this piece had the feeling of being programmed by a computer. The rhythmic pattern was monotonous and unmusical, not because of the necessities of following canon form but because of the conscious musical choices made by the composer.
The considerable amount of colors and near infinite tones, which are assets of computerized music, remained for the most part untapped in last night's show. Some of the composers felt that by starting with arbitrary sounds and tone generation they could achieve the same effectiveness by imposing form around them.
Amidst music-by-algorithm style of last night's concert were a few refreshing examples of how electro-acoustic music is truly beneficial. The most promising of these came from Professor John Appleton (the maestro of electro-acoustic music, himself). His "Dima Dobralsa Damoy" was not only the performance's most captivating work but also its most satisfying blend of electronic, natural, real and imagined sounds. In this piece, Appleton sampled the voice of a Russian singer Dmitri Pokrovsky and used it as a sort of leitmotif: changing it, re harmonizing it and effecting it's timbre. All this while he used folk tunes, not as applique, as other samplers risked doing last night, but part of the music's organic whole.
Appleton gave an exhilarating look into the potential benefits of this new approach to music, while proving his understanding that true music making arises out of a dialogue with the past and moves forward within recognizable and proven tenets. It only takes the best works to prove the validity of a new medium; hopefully, Appleton recognizes this and will continue to lead the way.
