13.2 Electronics outside of classical music

be without. For my generation (I am born in 1952) who can still remember struggling with unstable and clumsy early computers, the crippling lack of memory and wavering Internet connections over slow modems, today’s personal computers are a miracle. For younger generations the device is a fact of life, as are safety belts and airbags in cars. I have been driving around for years without them. Although, as a student, I have worked for a number of years in the electronic studio at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague under the legendary Dick Raaijmakers, I took the first serious steps after 2000, when the transition of the analogue studio to a fully digital one was in full swing. I do not consider myself an expert in the field of electronics like I do in the field of acoustic music; otherwise I would never have dared to write this book. Fortunately, there is an excellent book by Peter Manning: Electronic and Computer Music (Oxford 2004). For answers to questions about technique and reading material I always refer to this book. My own contribution is limited to a brief overview of the role of electronics in music and in the modern ensemble.

13.2 ELECTRONICS OUTSIDE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC From the very beginning, the development of electronic190 tools has been in the hands of commercial companies. And from that same beginning there has been a strong mutual influence between the commercial world and the music world. For example, the development of the Hammond organ has a lot to thank to the enthusiastic reception of this instrument in jazz and gospel, and in the pipe-organ players’ scene as a home instrument.

Commercial jazz and the advent of pop music were the most important incentives. Electronics are the most prominent component of pop music, allowing for the often considerable sound volume of this music and facilitating a completely different form of singing. Compared to classical singing, that of the pop artist may be technically limited, but this is compensated for by the fact that the microphone bridges the distance between the singer’s voice and the listener’s ear. It makes the singing intimate, strongly physical, and makes audible an effort, a struggle of ‘pushing’ the music from the body. Compared to that, classical singing is remote and aesthetic, depending on the beauty of an impeccable technique.

190‘Electrical’ means that something is set in motion by electricity, or produces light or heat (incandescent bulbs, sewing or mowing machines, electric heaters). ‘Electronic’ means that relays are involved (transistors, chips) that control all sorts of things (radios, TVs, and so on).

The reproducibility of music by electric means, the gramophone record, and later the compact disc caused revolutions in the music industry. It is now possible to bring music to the world market as a small, easily digestible product (the song) and to create pop artists with the status of megastars, equalled only by soccer players and movie stars: incredibly rich, hot on publicity and usually rather empty-headed.

Pop music largely replaced folk music as a form of musical expression. In general, performers of any form of folk music still had to be skilful players of their instruments191, but with the abundance of electronic means this was no longer necessary in pop music. This lowers the threshold for beginning pop musicians, although of course there are very good players and singers around in the field of pop. There are many electronic devices available that can reproduce amazing sound effects live and the electric guitar is one of them. Electrical amplification, ranging from loud to hearing-impairing, lends its own quality to all results of playing an instrument: limited and clumsy becomes rough and nihilistic (Punk), monotonous and very limited becomes a black wall of sound (Metal), truly amateurish becomes cheeky and energetic (all forms of Garage pop).

The sometimes ear-damaging loudness of pop music is perhaps the main element dividing classical and pop listeners. There is a strong push from clubs and concert halls to play pop music very loud, which is mostly to the disadvantage of the music itself: instead of hearing more, one hears less because all detailing is lost. The first concerts by the Beatles were not loud at all, by the way, they did not have the equipment for it. Only when the public reduced themselves to one big screaming hysterical animal, they had to turn up the volume in order to at least hear themselves play.

The market has created or hijacked many styles (for instance Neopunk), resulting in a mass of predominantly young buyers who could satisfy their need for an indentity by choosing a style and defending it as if their country's honour was at stake. The market also created an industry with plenty incentive to keep developing equipment and instruments.

Jazz is a form of music that presumes a high level of virtuoso playing and this is exactly why here the need for electronic means was less strongly felt. The microphone for the singer did become standard equipment, as well as amplification for the double bass, which does not pro-

191… and an adolescent will have more success with this audience when singing ‘Baby, don’t leave me now’ from the thundering sound of newly bought loudspeakers than by producing, after years of practice, the Flambée

Montalbanaise.