WHY IS MUSICAL ANALYSIS STILL IMPORTANT IN THE MUSIC TECHNOLOGY ERA?
Musical analysis and the rise of computer music
Is musical analysis, which is a discipline mainly practiced by scholars, segregated from musical performance? No, musical analysis is not an accidental attribute of music, because the constant questioning of analysts tends to provide performers with strategies for music listening and interpretation. Thus it leads to new ways of experiencing music, especially nowadays, due to the appearance of electronic instruments and mixed music, which is made of sounds made by both electronic and traditional instruments.
Actually music technology is combined with the rise of new musical sensibilities, be it those of composers, performers or listeners. It now coexists with more ancient developments in the history of music. Let us notice that, as musical instruments did not disappear with sheet music, sheet music did not disappear with computers. And music technology has not suppressed the will to understand personally what a musical work is. Moreover, analysts, while working, are making successive micro-decisions that continue to shape each of their analysis. But music technology has undoubtedly brought new aesthetics with it.
Continuous renewal of musical forms and musical analysis
It all began with music recordings: for the first time, people could experience the benefits of music without doing it, on a regular basis. And music could be brought into each home, which led to the form of cultural capitalism known as the music industry, where producers and consumers are clearly distinct. In traditional societies, capitalism cannot be adopted: everybody produces what they consume. But that cultural capitalism is unceasingly contributing to the creation of new forms of music.
That is why musical analysis becomes, in fact, more and more frequent, be it analysis of music compositions or analysis of musical practices, leading notably to musical collaborative design, a process whose target is to design new music production tools, uniting music composers, analysts, software developers and listeners. And when it comes to attributing a meaning to music, everyone contributes: composers and performers of course, but also programmers, analysts and listeners.
Analysts are not only trained in music theory and musicology, but also in various listening practices. And musical analysis is a form of expanded or augmented listening. Studying the relationships between music technology, compositional processes and listening practices, analysts create new pieces of musical knowledge that can be exploited by all sorts of music industry agents, from composers to marketeers. They contribute to making music understandable by a higher number of listeners. Thereupon, it may happen that listeners, being more aware of the musical content transmitted through sounds, pay them more attention. And as music is more accessible than in the past, it is a very good thing that people take care instead of considering music as a simple commodity. Analysts are thus on a mission to bring musical meaning to listeners.