Between air and electricity : microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments / Cathy van Eck

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1 Beyond the curtain: the "true nature" of microphones and loudspeakers. An empty stage: listening according to the Konzertreform ; A concert at home: the invention of sound reproduction technologies ; Storage of air pressure waves ; Transportation of air pressure waves ; Amplification of air pressure waves ; Between air and electricity ; A standard, almost perfect amplifier and loudspeaker ; Microphones and loudspeakers: the musical instruments of our age? ; The "true nature" of microphones and loudspeakers ; 2 Reproducing {u2013} supporting {u2013} generating {u2013} interacting: four approaches towards microphones and loudspeakers. Made for music: concepts on musical instruments ; Violins, mixing desks and spoons ; Piano lessons or a phonograph: how sound reproduction technologies entered the living room ; The instrumental phonograph and the reproducing radio ; Semantic acts of sound creation ; Hearing voices through the noise: completely satisfactory recordings in 1902 ; Electricity, bodies and diaphragms ; Reproducing: one sound system for all music ; Supporting: the same sound but louder ; Transparent technology ; The record as a copy of the concert and the concert as a copy of the record ; Generating: music without musical instruments ; Interacting: resonance and resistance ; 3 The sound of microphones and loudspeakers. Acoustic feedback: an electro-mechanical oscillator ; The tuning fork: an early sine wave generator ; Transforming sound into a researchable object ; Hermann von Helmholtz: tuning fork experiments ; Hermann von Helmholtz: tuning forks reproduce human vowels ; The tympanic principle and the tuning fork principle ; Alexander Bell: metal rods reproduce sound ; Alexander Bell: metal plates reproduce sound ; Richard Eisenmann: an electric piano with tuning forks ; George Dieckmann: a piano string oscillator ; Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst-piano: piano, radio and gramophone through the same loudspeaker ; 4 Movement, material and space: interacting with microphones and loudspeakers. Acoustic feedback: from mistake to music ; MOVEMENT. Quintet by Hugh Davies: changing the distance between microphone and loudspeaker ; Pendulum Music by Steve Reich: introducing silence ; Bird and Person Dyning by Alvin Lucier: listening as a performative act ; Green Piece by Anne Wellmer: interacting with another sound source ; Mikrophonie I by Karlheinz Stockhausen: amplification only ; Speaker Swinging by Gordon Monahan and Three Short Stories and an Apotheosis by Annea Lockwood: moving loudspeakers ; MATERIAL. Coffee making by Valerian Maly and 0'00'' by John Cage: everyday actions amplified ; Inside Piano by Andrea Neumann: musical instruments and contact microphones ; Apple Box Double by Pauline Oliveros and Shozyg by Hugh Davies: new instruments through amplification ; Nodalings by Nicolas Collins: acoustic feedback through objects ; Rainforest by David Tudor: every loudspeaker a different voice ; Aptium by Lynn Pook, and Merzbow: the audible becomes feelable ; SPACE. Music for piano with amplified sonorous vessels by Alvin Lucier: interaction between microphones and small spaces ; Loudspeakers in brass instruments and focused loudspeakers: interaction between loudspeakers and small spaces ; {u2026}..sofferte onde serene{u2026} and Guai ai gelidi mostri by Luigi Nono: interaction between loudspeakers and performance space ; Acousmonium by François Bayle: loudspeaker orchestras ; Performances by Eliane Radigue and Der tönende See by Kirsten Reese: sound unified in space and dispersed in space ; Audible EcoSystemics by Agostino Di Scipio: closing the acoustic feedback loop again ; 5 Composing with microphones and loudspeakers. Beyond musical instruments: a hybrid of approaches ; The Edison tone tests: no difference ; Nothing Is Real (Strawberry Fields Forever) by Alvin Lucier: a piano in a teapot ; Windy Gong by Ute Wassermann: singing through the gong ; snare drum pieces by Wolfgang Heiniger: invisible beating ; tubes by Paul Craenen: musicians, dancers and technicians ; Open Air Bach by Lara Stanic: speeding up a sonata ; Resistances and resonances of microphones and loudspeakers ; The future of microphones and loudspeakers: between air and electricity ; Appendix ; Biographies ; Bibliography

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