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Between Air and Electricity

Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments

  • Overview
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Other Examples

Category: Other Examples

Posted on June 9, 2017July 5, 2017

Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

In Sound in a Jar (2016) by Ronald Boersen three performers— Ronald Boersen himself, Dganit Elyakim and Hadas Pe’ery—move three different microphones back and forwards to a very small loudspeaker placed in a jar. As Ronald explained me, this piece … read more

Posted on June 1, 2017March 3, 2019

Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

In Transducer (2013), you may easily recognise all kinds of “classical” playing techniques for microphones and loudspeakers, twisted in surprising and clever ways. This results in a performance which reinvents and expands known pieces such as Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music… read more

Posted on May 16, 2017March 3, 2019

Speaker Feedback Instruments by Lesley Flanigan

The speaker feedback instruments by Lesley Flanigan are a beautiful example of combining acoustic feedback and musical instruments.  What makes the technology of these instruments exceptional is their use of so-called contact microphones (simple piezo-ceramic elements) instead of a … read more

Posted on May 2, 2017March 3, 2019

Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

Some objects seem particularly suitable for use in preparing loudspeakers. Perhaps ping pong balls were favored objects for this due to their lightness and characteristic sound. Comparing several of these set-ups reveals that—fortunately!—using a similar technology can still result in … read more

Posted on April 21, 2017March 3, 2019

Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras

With the rise of laptops in music in the 1990s, and more musicians using laptops on stage, it did not take long before the first laptop orchestra was founded. Nowadays there are many of them and there is even an … read more

Posted on April 10, 2017March 3, 2019

Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt

Carola Bauckholt has written several pieces in which the imitation of bird sounds plays an important role. Examples are Lichtung (2011), for string quartet, and Zugvögel (2011/2012), for five wind instruments. In her piece Doppelbelichtung (2016), for the first time, … read more

Posted on March 28, 2017March 3, 2019

Tonewood by Hugo Morales Murguía

Tonewood I (2011) and Tonewood II (2015) by Hugo Morales Murguía use small tactile transducers with corks attached to their cones. Five musicians play their instruments with these transducers. The transducers do not sound at all, as long as they … read more

Posted on March 24, 2017March 3, 2019

Klangflug by Lara Stanic

In her performance Klangflug (2006 – 2013, several versions) Lara Stanic looks for ways to transmit the airiness and volatility of sound itself to the heavy loudspeakers, needed to produce sounds. By simulating sounds of an airplane taking off on … read more

Posted on March 17, 2017March 3, 2019

A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç

In Chapter Three of my book I discussed several early attempts of creating electric piano’s during the end of the nineteenth century. Often these efforts made use of electromagnets and feedback to keep the piano strings in vibration. The Neo … read more

Posted on March 10, 2017March 3, 2019

An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

Through his intensive occupation with recording and reproducing music, the conductor Hermann Scherchen (1891-1966)  became aware of the enormous amount of people listening to music through loudspeakers. He was concerned with the difference between the complex sound diffusion during a … read more

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Between Air and Electricity

  • Table of Contents
  • Cathy van Eck
  • introduction

key words

  • (acoustic) feedback
  • (hemi)spherical loudspeakers
  • contact microphones
  • everyday objects
  • flute
  • flying loudspeakers
  • movement
  • percussion
  • phonograph
  • piano
  • pick-ups
  • prepared loudspeakers
  • prepared microphones
  • sound reinforcement systems
  • space
  • tactile transducers
  • ten or more loudspeakers
  • trumpet
  • tuning fork
  • violin family
  • voice
  • walking
  • water
  • wearable

time line

  • 1950s and earlier
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s

Recent Posts

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  • Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

  • Kkwaenggwari and Bambusoides by Ji Youn Kang

  • acoustic resonators by Jeff Snyder

  • Ohr-Weide — Salix aurita by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler

  • Drohnenmusik by Genoël von Lilienstern

  • Echo Moiré by Matteo Marangoni

  • Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

  • 112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert

  • Transduction and Acoustic Radiator by Kristen Roos

  • Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff

  • Points of Contact by Erfan Abdi

  • Vestiges of Discomposition and other works by Simon Whetham

  • The Springboard by Eric Leonardson

  • Touche Nature by I-lly Cheng

  • Small Movements by Adam Basanta

  • Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki

  • Apart by Oscar Bettison

  • Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

  • Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

  • Speaker Feedback Instruments by Lesley Flanigan

  • Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

  • Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras

  • Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt

  • Tonewood by Hugo Morales Murguía

  • Klangflug by Lara Stanic

  • A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç

  • An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

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