Negotiating Musical Creativity in a Technological Age
Description
With refreshing optimism, Automatic Artistry takes on the fears around imperiled authenticity, dehumanization, and lost labor that accompany major moments in the long history of musical automation. From the player piano to Yamaha's Vocaloid software, Alyssa Michaud shows how makers, users, critics, and musicians have navigated evolving concepts of playing versus operating while remaking ideas and ideals of realness and creativity.--Emily I. Dolan, author of The Orchestral Revolution: Haydn and the Technologies of Timbre Through accounts of carefully selected music technologies spanning over a century, Michaud reveals cyclic patterns of both anxiety and creativity as technicians, musicians, and audiences have continually navigated the sometimes uneasy relationship between humans and their technologies. Automatic Artistry demonstrates that while the machines we use may be constantly changing, the ways in which we think about and interact with new technologies are often very familiar. In the end, it seems, humans will always continue to create---with passion, ingenuity, and humanity--no matter the tools at their disposal.--Paul Sanden, author of Liveness in Modern Music: Musicians, Technology, and the Perception of Performance
