Andy Mackay – Electronic Music 1 comment


cover-Andy-Mackay-Electronic-MusicTitle: Electronic Music
Author: Andy Mackay
Publisher: Control Data Publishing
Year: 1981
Pages: 124

Andy Mackay, saxophonist of the Roxy Music band, here as a popularizer with a book that offers itself as a small and easy encyclopedia on electronic music.
In fact, the subtitle reports The Instruments, The Music & The Musicians, just to clarify the attempt of this publication to cover the topic from every point of view.

Electronic Music is not meant for the experienced reader looking for an in-depth, but for those who want to get an idea and are looking for an introduction to electronic music which takes into account both the art music that than popular, without forgetting the pioneering experiences of Luigi Russolo, in the early twentieth century, or the works of computer music of the fifties.

Mackay has structured the book in a very sectoral dividing by very rigid categories that facilitate reading and understanding; an important need for an area of music very articulate and particular.

History, tools, works, composers, biographies and a nice amount of interesting photographs that make it even more enjoyable to browse the pages of this publication.

This book is also about computer music, in a sparse manner, but there are also 3 pages that provide, perhaps too brief introduction on the subject, citing the work and experiences of Lejaren Hiller, John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, and launching a look at instruments such as the Fairlight synthesizer and the EMS Synthi 100. A great work, that done by Mackay, although there are many inaccuracies, but the rest is a popular work and as such should be fine.


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