Every day we hear and experience music that has incorporated music technology, through electronic components and instruments, to positively contribute to the listener’s overall musical experience. Electro-Acoustic (EA) music is now widely accepted in music – in both production and performance – from scores created for screen and stage, to popular music, and even the professional classical orchestra stage.
As technology becomes a more important part of the daily life of our students and can create new palates of sound in our music, educators must embrace technology as part of our sound and our curriculum – much the same way as it already has been in most other areas of music. The New Band Electro-Acoustic Music (N-BEAM) consortium aims to add three new pieces of EA music to the school concert band repertoire.
In 2018, N-BEAM v1.0 released it’s first composition to its members – TECHNO BLADE, by Benjamin Taylor. This was followed in 2019 with Daniel Montoya Jr.’s composition AXE TO GRIND. In 2020, the N-BEAM consortium met the goal of introducing three new pieces of EA music to the school concert band repertoire by the addition of Alex Shapiro’s OFF THE EDGE.
With N-BEAM v2.0, the New Band Electro-Acoustic Music consortium project looks to build on this success with the addition of three more EA pieces to the wind band repertoire.
Beginning in early 2021, N-BEAM v2.0 consortium members will receive the first of three new pieces of concert band literature, graded between 2 and 2.5, each including an audio component. Those components may be live or interactive, using an electronic instrument or computer/tablet to create sounds; or may be fixed, like an accompaniment audio track that is played throughout the composition. Each of these compositions will be created in a way that will allow any school (and their director), the “plug and play” ability to perform each composition easily and effectively, regardless of their experience with technology, their level of access to sound reinforcement equipment or their technology/instrument budget.
At least 30 schools will have an opportunity to join a consortium that funds the creation of those three pieces. And each consortium member will receive performance benefits for being part of this project.
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