This edited book does precisely what is on the cover: expands the analysis of electroacoustic music. Not only does that apply to the tools and methods of analysis, but this book also employs these methods for a broad definition of music-making with technology. The text approaches analysis from a fundamentally esthesic perspective (listening and listener-based), while allowing for ‘poietic leakage’, that is, the occasional analysis of the work’s objective construction without regard to reception. As such, it sets itself apart from other books on methods or analyses (e.g. Simoni Reference Simoni2006) that come primarily from the poietic vantage.
The editors divided the contents into four parts. The first part provides a broad approach for analysis. It posits that an analyst should ask a four-part question: For which users (of the analysis, not the music)? For which works/genres? With what intentions (of the analysis, again, not the music)? With which tools and approaches? The editors then provided these questions and a series of headings as a template to the authors of the fourth part. In Part IV, each chapter is a detailed analysis of an exemplary work of a particular practice. This part addresses acousmatic music to some degree, which already has some history of analysis. More importantly, Part IV includes analyses on electronica, turntablism, interactive/improvised electronics, game audio, sound art and soundscape music.
In Part II, authors provide methodologies. In Part III, authors present three software tools – arguably two software tools and one online community – to enable analysis. While it is not clear that Part II contributed to Part IV in any ostensible way, many of the analyses relied on the EAnalysis software described in Part III.
The book’s presentation is very well organised. The index is extensive and helpful in locating ideas within the whole. There is an accompanying website where figures are presented in colour. Other media on the site includes sound examples and movies of animated analyses (mostly of EAnalysis exports). Having said that, not all chapters have online colour figures, and that is quite detrimental in some cases; for example, Ben Ramsay’s investigation of Foil by Autechre (Chapter 10).
All chapters are extraordinarily well referenced, clearly contextualising the ideas or analysis within existing literature, while contributing new perspectives on their subject. This critical reflection extends to the book itself; Raúl Minsburg’s approach to form in texture (Chapter 5) specifically addresses shortcomings in John Young’s ideas on moment and morphic forms (Chapter 3) as esthesic structures. While the book focuses on the esthesic experience, Tae Hong Park asks important questions about the consequence of poietic knowledge when listening (Chapter 6).
Although the authors all individually strove to precisely define the terminology they used, the book is overall inconsistent with the use of the word ‘tool’. Though the third part is clearly about software tools and community tools for analysis, the authors in the other parts occasionally call upon techniques and methodologies tools, which may lead to confusion about what an individual author might mean by a tool. This is only particularly apparent because language is otherwise so carefully designated.
The analyses in the fourth part clearly demonstrate the usefulness of the template and the four-part question. Some authors address them explicitly, while others only implicitly, but this provides invaluable entry points for musics that would otherwise suffer from a one-size-fits-all template. Their proposed template provides the relative applicability of its components. On the other hand, the nine additional headings provided by the editors are never explicitly addressed. Details in the analysis chapters can be categorised by these headings, but they are not organised by them.
The way each author handles the challenges that each genre presents is remarkable and makes for a thoroughly fascinating and insightful read. It is abundantly clear in the depth and nuance of analysis that the authors care deeply, perhaps even personally, about their listening experience of the work they are analysing.
One particularly interesting chapter is Leigh Landy’s analysis of Trevor Wishart’s Children’s Stories II (Chapter 9). This analysis is aimed at listeners aged 11–14. The content is quite perfectly pitched, though the language is perhaps on the advanced side. This chapter would be immensely useful to teachers of this age range looking to bring their students into the genre of acousmatic music.
Given the diverse selection of techniques, methodologies, tools and genres, I found the lack of Minimalist or Post-minimalist works rather pronounced. I wondered throughout the book how different authors would address the process music of Steve Reich or Alvin Lucier, or the drone music of Éliane Radigue. Though I could imagine ways for those cases, I could not for noise music. Of course, no text could be thoroughly complete, even as the editors say themselves. But it does seem like a missed opportunity.
Another missed opportunity comes from a pair of related chapters. Michael Young points out that interactive and improvised music can not be thoroughly understood by one performance, that a single performance is merely representative, not definitive (Chapter 4). However, John Robert Ferguson investigates two performances (different works) by Michel Waisvisz (Chapter 12). He looks at the two works independently, but perhaps a comparative analysis of the two would highlight the similarities that may lead to definitive aspects of Waisvisz’s work.
The only serious criticism I have arises in Manuella Blackburn’s chapter on Diana Salazar’s La voz del fuelle (Chapter 14). This chapter is explicitly about cultural appropriation, though neutrally labelled ‘borrowing’. It even discusses the compositional ways a composer can ‘take ownership’ of material from other cultures. Blackburn additionally cites plunderphonics. The problem here is that there is no discussion of the sociocultural ethics of appropriation, and it ignores the inherent violence of plundering another culture. Plundering the work of powerful, capitalist, institutionalised, popular music from one’s own culture is not the same as appropriating iconic sounds from an Other. There is, of course, a great deal of literature and cultural theory that goes back and forth on this issue, but Blackburn makes no reference to it in any way. Regardless, Blackburn’s study of integrating material foreign to a work’s vocabulary is quite insightful and could be of use to many composers trying to cross genres or cultures.
On the whole, I feel this book is an excellent approach to listening carefully and intently, with a mind towards understanding. Clearly, the target audience is listeners of many interests and even ages. The tools, techniques and methodologies are demonstrably useful for a wide range of musics. As a composer, I must also add that this book has given me a lot to think about in the construction of work inasmuch as the reception of it, perhaps an unintended consequence of a thorough, broad text.
