Women and ‘Kraakgeluiden’: the participation of women improvisers in the Dutch electronic music scene

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
HELEN METZELAAR

The field of electroacoustic improvisation in the Netherlands is largely male dominated. Flutist, improviser and composer Anne La Berge signalled this and other problems related to gender in ‘Kraakgeluiden’, a Dutch venue for improvisation in electroacoustic music. Four possible factors contributing to gender discrimination are proposed: the stereotypical gendered concept of an improviser, differences in communicative styles, the dominance of male networks, and music technology itself. This is followed by a consideration of gendered differences in music improvisation. It is posited that male improvisers often seek to establish a hierarchy among themselves, while women performers tend to project themselves less to the forefront. Women improvisers may traditionally have a different sense of autonomy, in adherence to gender norms. While music education might offer a means to change behaviour patterns, it appears that these gender norms are internalised at a surprisingly young age. While concentrating on electroacoustic improvisation, this essay also includes relevant experiences of other improvisers. Gender discrimination in electroacoustic music improvisation is a complex issue deserving more research.

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Eliot Britton

This article applies a genre level approach to the tangled discourse surrounding the points of convergence between avant-garde electronica and electroacoustic music. More specifically the article addresses related experimental practices in these distinct yet related fields of electronic music-making. The democratisation of music technology continues to expand into an increasingly diverse set of musical fields, destabilising established power dynamics. A flexible, structured approach to the analysis of these relationships facilitates the navigation of crumbling boundaries and shifting relationships. Contemporary electronic music’s overlapping networks encompass varying forms of capital, aesthetics, technology, ideology, tools and techniques. These areas offer interesting points of convergence. As the discourse surrounding electronic music expands, so must the vocabulary and conceptual models used to describe and discuss new areas of converging artistic practice. Genre level diagrams selectively collapse, expand and arrange artistic fields, facilitating concrete, coherent arguments and the examination of patterns and relationships. Through the genre level diagram’s establishment of distinct yet flexible boundaries, electronic music’s sprawling discourse can be cordoned off, expanded or contracted to suit structured analyses. In this way, this approach clarifies scope and facilitates simultaneous examination from a variety of perspectives.


2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
Matt Rogalsky

Abstract In conversation with Matt Rogalsky, composer István Anhalt discusses his association with Hugh Le Caine and the National Research Council laboratories in the 1950s, the founding of the electronic music studio at McGill, and his early experiences learning tape music and analog and digital synthesis techniques. The composer describes his early electronic works, the use of electroacoustic elements in his later music, and the importance of electroacoustic music in music education.


2021 ◽  
pp. 265-274
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein

This chapter reflects on the curriculum outlined in the book and how it fits into the larger music education landscape. While project-based electronic music may not be appealing to all music teachers, the benefits of this approach to music education generally are broad and substantial. An open-enrollment music technology course creates a culture of inclusion that can lend a school’s music program greater cultural authenticity and demographic inclusiveness. When students are able to create music in their preferred styles, it validates their musical identities and helps them build toward lifelong learning. There are racial politics underlying the gulf between “school” music and “popular” music, and the chapter discusses the opposition that each successive form of African-American popular and vernacular music has faced in the academy. Critical popular music studies animated by antiracism can serve to both advance social justice goals, and to strengthen and enrich music programs.


Author(s):  
Matthew D. Thibeault

In this article, I explore John Philip Sousa’s historic resistance to music technology and his belief that sound recordings would negatively impact music education and musical amateurism. I review Sousa’s primary arguments from two 1906 essays and his testimony to the US Congress from the same year, based on the fundamental premise that machines themselves sing or perform, severing the connection between live listener and performer and thus rendering recordings a poor substitute for real music. Sousa coined the phrase “canned music,” and I track engagement with this phrase among the hundreds of newspapers and magazines focused on Sousa’s resistance. To better understand the construction of Sousa’s beliefs, I then review how his rich musical upbringing around the US Marine Band and the theaters of Washington DC lead to his conception of music as a dramatic ritual. And I examine the curious coda of Sousa’s life, during which he recanted his beliefs and conducted his band for radio, finding that in fact these experiences reinforced Sousa’s worries. The discussion considers how Sousa’s ideas can help us better to examine the contemporary shift to digital music by combining Sousa’s ideas with those of Sherry Turkle.


Author(s):  
Marina Gall

In this chapter, adopting an autobiographical perspective, I reflect upon the use of music technology within English school classrooms during the last 50 years. The chapter illustrates that this has become so important—particularly for creative work—that formal music technology examination syllabi for older students now exist alongside courses that focus on “traditional” music skills. The chapter also discusses the less positive position of information communications technology within the music curricula for primary school children and secondary students aged 11–14, and offers thoughts on the future of music technology within the English education system. As a backdrop to the discussion the chapter presents a short reflection on music technological developments in society during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The chapter also includes the perspectives of music educators from a wide range of European countries, during the period 2008–2011, on the position of music technology within their own educational contexts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 1117-1127
Author(s):  
Hakki Cengiz Eren ◽  
Emine Kıvanç Öztuğ

This study investigates the implementation of virtual choir recordings in a choir class during distance learning. In this particular study, a virtual choir is defined to be a computer-generated sound recording that emulates a realistic choir sound. Students practiced their parts using virtual choir recordings for a period of eight weeks; each student received a recording that excluded his/her own part but included the rest of the parts. After eight weeks of progressive study, students recorded their own voices on top of the virtual choir recordings and submitted them as final projects. Student opinions regarding the virtual choir recordings were obtained through a 12-question survey. In addition, two experts evaluated the final submissions turned in by the students. The data suggests that virtual choir recordings can be helpful to students with efficiency of practice and can provide a suitable audio environment to foster conscious-listening, accurate intonation and perception of pacing. Improvements are suggested to make the virtual choir recordings also more encouraging of musicality, highlighting its future potential not only as a reliable distance education tool, but also as a supplementary device for real-life choir classes, when in-person learning resumes.   Keywords: music education, distance learning, choir, virtual choir, music technology


Author(s):  
Sameen Masood ◽  
Muhammad Farooq

It is believed that the economic participation of women in Pakistan has been intensively affected by an enduring male-capitalist social system. Moreover, the history of gender discrimination has been linked with the medieval cultural values that uplifted and empowered men over women in every sphere of life, especially in the economic realm. A typical case is believed to be the Pashtun culture. This chapter investigated indigenous values of Pashtun culture where women are underrepresented in the economy. Women did not see themselves as underprivileged. Rather, they perceived themselves as a vital and prestigious part of the family and the wider Pashtun society. For educated women in Pashtun society, the values system is guided by social structure, which is accounted for by stability and unity in society. Cultural values are operationalized as the mechanism of division of labor. The findings redefine female empowerment and propose a new paradigm in the global context. The indigenous value system guides the social structure which leads to stability and unity in the society.


2021 ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein

Research has shown the need for new types of music classes that emphasize amateur music production and popular music. The new types of programs contrast with traditional classical and performance-based music programs. Digital audio production offers an unprecedented opportunity to support students in active, culturally authentic music-making. A successful music technology program requires a change from the teacher-led ensemble model to a creative workshop structure. Furthermore, it requires the recognition that current popular styles have their own distinct aesthetics and creative approaches. Project-based learning also requires teachers to develop their own pedagogical creativity. This approach can attract students who do not currently participate in or identify with school music, but who nevertheless consider themselves to be musicians. The constructivist philosophy of music education, using teaching strategies that support students’ agency in their own learning, fosters self-motivation and a critical stance toward popular culture.


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