Contemporary Electronic Music

What is MIDI?

MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface

The MIDI language allows different electronic instruments and computer interfaces to "talk" to each other. Before the invention of MIDI, musicians had a difficult time syncing up their instrument set-ups because the instruments were not compatible with each other. MIDI was developed in 1982 and was shared freely as open source. Today most music studios and professional software programs operate off of MIDI. At first MIDI sounds were limited to 127 specific sounds that you would most likely recognize from some of the earliest video games of the 1980s.

Ghostbusters Atari Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJDjALoIeKU

Composers like Laurie Anderson took MIDI and found new ways to express music and art through technology like the Drum Suit, samplers, CD-Rom, vocoder, and video.

Puppet Motel CD Rom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPYOSLqN5Ns

O Superman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd7XnOnSkkA

Pamela Z BodySynth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLDUQs7mkVQ

Contemporary Electronic Music

Technology, the Internet, computers, microchips, virtual reality, sensors, etc. have all revolutionized music technology and electronic music. Composers from all around the world use technology to compose and perform their works. There are a variety of new musical styles in the contemporary electronic genre.

Electronic instruments and music technology in general has helped composers and musicians create many musical sounds in a variety of situations:

Film composers can create entire orchestras and choirs using computer software
MIDI instruments like the Malletkat and electronic drum sets allow a percussionist to become a string orchestra
Dancers can "compose" music through their dance movements in a live concert through sensors using MIDI data
Composers can have a computer transcribe their music and send copies to an orchestra with a single click of the button
Indie musicians can share their newest album without having to worry about an agent through the internet
Music students can listen to music from all over the world without leaving their home
Musicians can collaborate internationally with musicians across the ocean
Music teachers can create fun music activities with music education software
Difficult to find instruments like bagpipes or full organs can be played on a keyboard in live performance
Video, video games, and audiovisual technology is combined with electronic music in a variety of hybrid arts.

Where does classical music end and technology begin?

You can read more about the importance of Music Technology in this article: http://iawm.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/in-defense-of-music-technology-adapt-or-die/

Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir Piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs

Interactive MIDI Sequencer using MaxMSP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O70FrnH2JU&feature=related

Turing Machine Opera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jPlIvoS1t8&feature=BFa&list=PL270BA342E9103AD8&index=10

The Manekin "I'm Table Live": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdcEJFHId1I&feature=related

Synthesized work: h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh0jZisqUeg

iPhone Orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADEHmkL3HBg

laptop orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUeBXRWg0pA

Musical Tesla Coils: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEj6nSpD778&feature=related

Here is a sample of a vocal synthesizer singing using Vocaloid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rsBLRFONEs&feature=related

The animated character singing is called Miku Hatsune, and she is actually a virtual music superstar!

The You Tube Symphony Orchestra is only one example showing how the internet has changed the classical world. Comprised of 100 members who auditioned online through YouTube, the You Tube Symphony Orchestra premiered at Carnegie Hall with a work by composer Tan Dun (composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Beijing Olympics).

"Internet Symphony" by Tan Dun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZhXMA62eNA&feature=relmfu

Top 10 Mistakes When Writing for Percussion

Top 10 Mistakes When Writing for Percussionby Sabrina Young
10. Indicating the wrong mallets for an instrument.Brass mallets on vibes? Try a hammer on a violin!

9. Writing the glockenspiel part as heard.You shouldn't have to climb a ladder of leger lines to read a glock part. Keep it in the staff.

8. When in doubt, adding more suspended cymbal.This is a huge mistake made by arrangers. Yep, cymbals add automatic intensity to a piece, but so can a bass drum roll, a rousing hand drum part, exciting mallet licks, or a hundred other combinations. Well-written percussion parts stand out in the band and church repertoire.

7. Better means more complicated, right?This is my main mistake. A percussion part can be simple enough for a middle school, but it is the ability to use the different tone colors of the percussion palette properly that indicates a maturity in writing, not that impossible part for the timpanist that has them playing timpani, gong, crash cymbals, and triangle in the span of…

Music Industry Insider: 50 Ways to Make Money as a Musician

50 Ways to Make Money as a MusicianWant to have a musical career but not sure how to make money as a musician in today's market? Well, first you need to redefine your goals as a musician and realize that like any job, being a musician involves a lot of work, perseverance, and talent. And in today's Digital Age, you need to be able to combine your skills to help you make a living as a musician. You will probably need to select at least a dozen forms of income and micro-incomes in order to make a full time living as a musician or choose a primary steady gig and add on other projects (what most musicians have done for centuries).

Each method of making money has a $, $$, $$$ or S for work that will make you a little pocket money ($), possibly significant money - hundreds to thousands ($$), at least part time or possible full time work ($$$), or is steady work (S). Notice that none of these options involve making millions of dollars so you can drive around in a diamond-crusted limo…

Women in Multimedia and New Music bios, unedited

INSTRUCTIONS: Use your computers "FIND" feature to locate artist names in this document.

This is a short BIO list I made for my thesis "The Feminine Musique: Multimedia and Women Today" in 2005. It is a shortlist of bio info on composers and artists involved in interdisciplinary media work, with an emphasis on new music. References to specific web pages are given. The thesis can be checked out through interlibrary loan at Florida International University. I plan to post most of the information of my thesis online in time.

Rebecca Allen

http://www.aec.at/de/archiv_files/19991/1999_440.pdf
Rebecca Allen (USA) is an internationally recognized media artist, inspired by the potential of advanced technology. Central to her work is the study of motion as a form of communication and creative expression. Allen has produced a number of commissioned works in Europe and the U.S. including computer animated films, interactive installations and large-scale multimedia performances. H…

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