The Electric Guitar: an Augmented Instrument and a Tool for Musical Composition
Résumé
The electrification of the guitar is probably the most important modification the instrument has undergone in the twentieth century (Séguret, 1997). It gave birth to a hybrid instrument integrating an acoustic sound source, electromagnetic pickups, amplification, as well as analog and digital signal processing. The electric guitar has been a precursor of technological innovation in music (Garfoot, 2006). Nowadays, it can be considered as an augmented instrument, defined as a network of sound production and processing units, spatially extended and configurable by the player according to the desired sonic results.
The electric guitar is a key instrument of the musical and cultural evolutions of the past sixty years. Its vigorous development was initially fuelled by its use in popular music. Subsequently, the electric guitar's use has extended to other repertoires, making its way into the contemporary music instrumentarium and as a tool of sonic avant-garde (Bennet & Dawe, 2001). The early phase of the electric guitar's integration to the contemporary orchestra was marked by the stylistic heritage of rock and jazz genres. Today, in the context of contemporary creation, the electric guitar has gained its own sonic and aesthetic signature, fully integrating a network as a module, a source for sound processing and an interface converging with digital programming and composing tools for live electronic such as Max/MSP (Quintans, 2010).
Our goal is to study the distinctive features of the electric guitar as an augmented and modular instrument, in relation to its uses as a tool for contemporary music composition.
The electric guitar's hybrid lutherie spans from acoustic to electromechanical and digital domains, enabling extended sonic possibilities. By its timbral versatility and its modular, user-configurable nature, the electric guitar challenges the notions of instrument, composition and instrumental praxis in a resolutely contemporary manner. Our study is conducive to the articulation of the complex network that the electric guitar represents today. In this context, compositional work integrates the totality of the instrumental environment, its modular constituents and signal networks. An example of a composition process based on the emergent properties of the network-instrument is discussed, showing how extended guitar playing techniques, analog and digital signal processing, and multi-temporal processes give rise to a variety of sound organisation strategies. By its augmented and modular aspects, the electric guitar appears as an emblematic example of an instrument that is intimately connected to the present-day live electronic music praxes, thus presenting a significant case study for numerous aspects of contemporary (mixed) music.