Between air and electricity : microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments /

Composer and scholar Cathy van Eck (Bern Univ. of the Arts, Switzerland) examines microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments in their own right in this original contribution to the literature. She begins by tracing the history of recorded and amplified sound, paying particular attention to how these technologies were first perceived in relation to the experience of live music. Van Eck puts forth four categories of microphone and loudspeaker uses: reproduction (recorded sound), support (transparent amplification of live sound), generation (music created without the use of traditional musical instruments or performance), and interaction (microphones and loudspeakers as objects through which music can be performed). She focuses on this last category as one of particular interest and uses the concept to discuss and further categorize a number of pieces of music that are generated solely through microphone and/or loudspeaker interactions or that use this approach toward amplified sound in conjunction with other means of music making. Though using microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments has been discussed by other authors, this well-written volume is the first to focus solely on the topic and it offers many important new perspectives and insights. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Ben Allen Hunter, University of Idaho