Joel Chadabe

Interview by Giorgos Frangiskos

Composer, author Joel Chadabe is a pioneer in the development of interactive music systems. His music has been performed in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin, Linz, Stockholm, San Francisco, London, and other cities worldwide; and recorded on EMF Media, Deep Listening, and other labels. He is the author of  'Electric Sound', a history of electronic music. His articles have been published in leading journals. As president of Intelligent Music, he oversaw the first publications of interactive music software. He has received grants from NEA, New York State Council on the Arts, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Fulbright Commission, and other organizations, and he is the recipient of the SEAMUS 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mr. Chadabe is currently Professor Emeritus at State University of New York, faculty at Manhattan School of Music, visiting faculty at NYU; and president of Electronic Music Foundation.

In what ways do you use technology in your music? How did your relation with technology begin and how has it evolved since?
I create interactive instruments and then interact with them, so that performing and composing become acts of exploration, and the resulting music is more than I could have done in a non-interactive way. I began by being asked to establish a studio in 1966 at the State University of New York at Albany. I used Bob Moog's equipment and in fact designed some systems with him. As I look back now, even at that time my interest was in exploration and dynamic interactive processes.

Technology is no more the prerogative of the rich or the computer specialists; Does this make music sound more uniform? How difficult is it to be different today?
People have a general tendency to be conventional in whatever field they work in. But there are always original people too. It's no more difficult to have an original idea today than it's ever been.

Electroacoustic music appears to speak to the hearts of limited audiences in relation to other electronic music genres; do you think this is the case and why?  Can listeners be "educated" to  appreciate  the less popular genres? Is this a good idea in your opinion?
I find that electroacoustic music is everywhere, on television, in films, in popular music, and that it's ubiquitous. But most of it is familiar and easy and intended to be successful for a mass audience, People generally have trouble with new ideas or unfamiliar idioms, but yes, I think it's a good idea to educate people.

Electroacoustic music is often used within other art forms, such as video or theatre. Do you feel that this is maybe where its future lies? Is this a way to attract more people to it or will this be to its detriment?
No, I think that we need to continue to build audiences by producing concerts, encouraging young people to participate, and by making it possible for the audience to meet the artists. But a lot of digital art is inter-disciplinary, which is quite normal, and video can benefit from sounds as much as sounds from video.

Most of the artistic creations we'll be seeing and hearing in Electromedia works '08 will be made with the help of modern technology. Has technology opened up the doors of Art to more people, creators and audience?
Yes, more people have computers and use them creatively. The use of technology, including computers and the internet, is becoming very widespread.

Live electronics, live improvisation or jamming between electronic musicians, performers and even “laptop orchestras” seem to be becoming more and more popular. Could this approach of electronic music, incorporating the 'band feeling' bring more people into the this scene (in contrast to the more introverted 'acousmatic' music?
Absolutely. To make performance with computers a social event is great. It becomes a lot more fun when people play together.

Electroacoustic music is in a sense more democratic than pop music: You don't need a tremendously expensive studio to compose your music and no huge international record companies are likely to promote your works, so composers from around the world have more equal chances of being heard. Do you find interesting differences in the electroacoustic music composed in different parts of the world?
Actually, the world is becoming more international, and it's getting harder and harder to differentiate between music from different countries. But different cultures seem to incline towards different kinds of musical processes. Music in the US seems 'looser', more intuitive, than music in Europe, for example. But there are so many composers in different countries that have similar styles that it does reinforce my idea of an 'internaional' culture. It's not so surprising when we think of travelling, of the internet, and of all the possibilities for experiencing other cultures.

Have you worked with any Greek composers of contemporary or electroacoustic music? Are you interested in such a cooperation?
I knew Xenakis pretty well, and worked with him on one or two presentation projects. I know he lived most of his life in france, but yes, I'm always interested in international collaborations and contact.

What are your current interests and your future plans? Are you planning any cooperation with electroacoustic composers?
As president of Electronic Music Foundation, we 're working on programs to bring composers together from many countries. We certainly invite a lot of composers from abroad to present their work in New York. And I do hope that this will lead to collaborative projects.