Misuse as Creation in Electronic Music - A History and Practical Suggestion by August Norborg

In this thesis the author explores the term ”misuse” as a methodology of composition, but also proposes to view it as an informal tradition within the history of electronic music. The author explores the possible definitions of the term ”misuse”, proposing to view it as an inherently destabilizing practice, where the practitioner must reject the defining of a strict identity. The author also highlights the shift away from mastery of technology to a more equal, exploratory relationship that occurs within the practice, as well as its ability to chart the materiality of said practice. The author proposes that this tradition re-occurs historically as both a technical, aesthetic and philosophical phenomenon, serving as a progressive force within the wider genre of electronic music and often as part of a consciously rebellious practice. The author explores how this methodology can be applied within their own contemporary compositional practice using the software Ableton Live, chronicling their own explorations of generating sound via different misuses of the software, including sound examples. Finally, the author evaluates the applicability of this method on their own artistic practice through 2 attached compositions, and gives testimony to their experience and insights working with the material.

Musique Concrète

Musique Concrète, which theory derives from French composer Pierre Schaeffer, was devised in the 1940s when Schaeffer began performing experiments on tape recordings at the Studio d'Essai de la Radiodiffusion Nationale (although it is worth noting that a very similar practice was developed by Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh, possibly preceding Schaeffer by anything from months to a couple of years⁸).
The practice involved actions like cutting and pasting audio tape containing recorded material and often using one’s hands to manipulate the playback. This made it possible to affect playback speed and pitch as well as chopping up and reversing sounds.
This practice was certainly one of misuse, and one which literally physically altered recorded material. A vinyl collector may cringe as a DJ puts their hands on the playing record to scratch it, but just imagine their reaction if the DJ brought out a pair of scissors and began cutting! What was meant to simply convey recorded material was turned into the artistic medium itself, with permanent consequence.

The theoretical reason for this music being ”concrete” is that it deals with concrete sound objects resulting in a fixed composition, rather than the abstract practice of writing notation symbolizing actions of instrumentalists. The theory also placed value in manipulating the sounds to the point where one was unable to discern what the source was, allowing the listener to take in the sound as it is, without physical or cultural context taking away from the aural experience. Even though this technique is commonly understood as what preceeded sampling, this push towards objectivity situates musique concrète neatly in modernism, in opposition to the cultural collage of modern sampling culture.
However it also reads as a practice towards understanding the world as inherently musical, placing it somewhere between the philosophy of Luigi Russolos The Art of Noises, where modern civilization was promoted as inherently full of noises worth musically exploring, and the practice of Zen meditation, where one is meant to simply take in all surrounding sound without placing value and interpretation upon them.⁹

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Excerpt "The New Sound of Music," BBC, accessed March 28th, 2022

Excerpt, "Expression of Zaar," Halim El-Dabh, accessed March 28th, 2022

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