Music and Technology: What Impact Does Technology Have on the Dramaturgy of Music?

This article provides a philosophical perspective on how technology may impact on the dramaturgy of music, especially contemporary music1. It proposes a new categorisation for the general concept of music‟s dramaturgy and further investigates how the impact of technology can be perceived from different perspectives, including those of the creator, the performer and – mainly – the listener. With regard to the point of view of the listener, Delalande‟s article “Music Analysis and Reception Behaviours: Sommeil by Pierre Henry ” (Delalande 1998) is briefly mentioned, acknowledging the six listening behaviours (three main and three subsidiary) discussed in it. The present work will propose an additional seventh behaviour. Furthermore, the article poses questions about the impact of technology in music perception nowadays and proposes answers to some of them, categorising different emergent types of music creator2. The article concentrates on how composers and performers approach technology and how this approach can be ultimately perceived by an audience in the context of music dramaturgy. It deviates from current research like The Intention/Reception Project (Landy and Weale) by not applying a test-subject based research method. By proposing a categorisation in terms of music dramaturgy instead, the main focus is on what happens in the mind of listeners (reception) during a performance and afterwards, rather than on the creator‟s perspective (intention). Unlike The Intention/Reception project in its first phase, it deals not only with acousmatic music, but with other types of technology-dependent music as well. 1