Sound Studies Lecture am 11. Januar 2009

„There are many kinds of electroacoustic music – especially if we include the ’new wave‘ of experimental electronica, glitch, noise and so on. But many of these have a very uneasy relationship with so-called ‚art music‘. Is this because some people are uneasy with ‚rhythm and metre‘ in electroacoustic music? or maybe uneasy with quotations and ‚plundering‘ of sounds? At least we can come up with some questions even if we do not have all the answers…“

Since November 2004 Simon Emmerson has been Professor of Music, Technology and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester, following twenty eight years as Director of the Electroacoustic Music studios at City University, London. As a composer he works mostly with live electronics; recent commissions include such works for Jane Chapman (harpsichord), the Smith Quartet, Philip Sheppard (electric cello), Philip Mead (piano) with the Royal Northern College of Music Brass Quintet, Katrin Zenz (flute). He has also completed purely electroacoustic commissions from the IMEB (Bourges) and the GRM (Paris). CDs of his works have been issued by Continuum (1993) and Sargasso (2007 and 2008). He contributed to and edited The Language of Electroacoustic Music in 1986 (Macmillan, still in print) and Music, Electronic Media and Culture (Ashgate, 2000). His book Living Electronic Music was published by Ashgate in 2007. He has contributed to such as Computer Music Journal, Contemporary Music Review and Journal of New Music Research. He was founder Secretary of EMAS (The Electroacoustic Music Association of Great Britain) in 1979, and served on the Board of Sonic Arts Network from its inception until 2004. He is a Trustee of its successor organisation ‚Sound and Music‘. In 2009-2010 he is DAAD Edgard Varèse Visiting Professor at TU Berlin.