Conférence d’introduction de Mark J. Butler

Résumé

Mark J. Butler : Professor of Music theory and Cognition at Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University, Chicago.

Bodies, Instruments, Interfaces: Theorizing the “Material” in Electronic Dance Music Performance

Music theory has conventionally sought to formulate abstractions about music, through the devising of theoretical systems, arguments about underlying “structure,” and other means. But music is far more than an aural phenomenon: it comes into being through the actions of fleshly bodies; it is represented, communicated, and stored through ink on paper, grooves on wax, and digital circuits; and it is mediated through interfaces, both traditional and novel. What might a music theory that seriously engages these aspects of musical creativity look
like? Drawing energy from the recent “material turn” in the humanities, my talk considers this question from a variety of angles. Topics to be explored include instrumentality, embodiment, interfaces, and mediation between creative processes and their results. Material for discussion will be drawn from my research on electronic dance music as well as recent music-theoretical and musicological scholarship on instrumentality.