Unsunk Chin Thesis

CHAPTER 2 AN INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC MUSIC The influence of electronic music is the distinguishing characteristic of ChinÕs piano etudes. Regarding electronic music Chin (2009, October 20) said, [It] is a genre that holds the most important meaning in contemporary music. As much as German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen once predicted that instrumentrendered music will eventually disappear in the future and only computer-generated electronic music will remain, my faith in electronic music is strong (para. 6). Her faith in electronic music is shown not only in her electroacoustic compositions, but also in many of her instrumental compositions, including the six piano etudes. Although there is an increasing number of piano pieces associated with electronic music, the topic of electroacoustic music is rather foreign to most pianists. In  KlavierstŸck IX (1954/61) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, there appear special notations for pedaling to create sounds that simulate electroacoutic music. According to Luciane Cardassi (2004), the una corda pedal in  KlavierstŸck IX  was used for a special diminuendo effect which is associated with the filtering technique 6 in electroacoustic music; depressing the damper pedal in rapid succession is associated with Òan effect of sound unnaturally cut-offÓ (p. 16) in electronic music. To a pianist who is unfamiliar with electroacoustic music, it would be difficult to communicate these passages effectively. To help understand ChinÕs etudes better, I will first discuss electroacoustic music and show how it developed.

Definition of Electronic Music The term electronic music, more generally known today as electroacoustic music, can include music that involves live acoustic sounds as well as purely electronic sound. Chambers 21 st  Century Dictionary (2011) defines electroacoustics as: ÒThe technology of converting sound into electrical energy, and electrical energy into soundÓ (para. 1). Arnold Whittall (2012), in the Oxford Companion to Music , adds that electroacoustic music uses such technology for artistic, creative use. The development of electroacoustic technology led composers to significantly expand the possibilities of sound in musical composition.

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Filtering technique: by setting the boundaries of the frequency, only the frequency that is within the boundary comes through. The resultant frequency is less than the original. 21