Extending the Instrumental sound world using electronics

This chapter is concerned with music for acoustic instruments with live processing and/or fixed media. This is a genre intrinsically bound up with advances in technology, as composers have made use of new tools and ever- increasing computing speed in order to process, spatialise and interact with sound in realtime. In this chapter, rather than teasing out specific technical and perceptual issues around the performance of such work, five broad areas are investigated: Pioneers; Rethinking Interaction; Spectral Mutations; Sampling; and
Current Trends. These headings are not considered mutually exclusive, but are permeable borders within which groups of composers and aesthetic trends can be discussed.