I’m currently reading Principles and Practice of Electronic Music by Gilbert Trythall, which is a non-fiction technical book, so it would be a bit difficult to give a “plot summary” of it. (As far as I know, most of you would probably not want one anyway.) I find it interesting because it combines two of my favorite things – electronics and music. Like I said, it is technical in nature, so you end up learning all these musical, acoustical, and electronic terms. These terms are in bold on the outer side of the page, a bit like the Cornell note-taking system, for those of you familiar with it. There are parts that confuse me a bit at first, but it helps that there are illustrations, so I can sort of see what’s going on. I can tell from the way it is written that it is probably a textbook of sorts, not something most people would read for fun, unless they were interested in the topic presented, which I am.
The copyright date is 1973, so it’s quite dated in some respects. (For example, it discusses phonograph cartriges and magnetic reel-to-reel tape recorders – neither of which are commonly used anymore.) However, there are parts that are still relevant to today – for example, it discusses capacitors, resistors, inductors, and other components that are still in use. But I think it’s interesting to read about older technologies, even if they’re obsolete. It’s interesting to see how they worked.
Being mostly technical, it’s largely short on abstract, ethereal ideas. However, the foreword (by no less than Robert A. Moog, a well-known authority on the subject) and the introduction do go into more philiosophical territory regarding the subject of music and aesthetics. However, from Chapter 1 to the point I’m at as I write this, it’s mostly concrete rules governing acoustics and electronics. It’s a bit strange to see these abstract, philiosophical ideas in the same book as all these concrete rules and formulas.
Joshua,
ReplyDeleteAgain, an excellent musing on your reading. You describe what the writing is like, and you give specific examples to illustrate your points. I can sympathize with your enjoyment of a subject some people would find boring or obtuse. I can also sympathize with the reading of a textbook just for the information, and not because you have to.
In addition to the combination of philosophical theories and concrete rules and formulas, I imagine it might be strange to have the science governing acoustics and the science of electronics side by side. One has to be an electrical engineer, a physicist, and an artist at the same time.
Of course, any discussion of electronic music raises the question, "Is it music?" I gather you think it is. Does the introduction offer any insight into this conversation?
josiah