The Digital Musician (Second Edition)
RMIT University (Australia)
The second edition of The Digital Musician is an expansive book reflecting more than ten years of research by the author and examining the complex nexus of creativity, cultural awareness, performance and sound production. In this volume, Andrew Hugill argues that the development of an individual creative voice is an essential ingredient of musical creativity, far more significant to creating innovative music than whatever tools or techniques one might use. As noted in the preface, the title of the book refers to all musicians working creatively with sound. This broad definition embraces EDM creators.
Since its first edition (2008), the book has been intended as an educational tool. The second edition has been redesigned and expanded to be of further significance to university and college students of music technology courses, covering both theoretical and practical approaches to electronic and electroacoustic music. The title of the book might lead potential readers to believe that the subject matter focuses on developments in music production technologies. Yet this is not the case and the author quickly dispels such misconceptions. As Hugill explains, the book is not a reference manual for computer music production (xiv), and he dutifully leaves such investigations to other authors and numerous books that already exist. Instead of technical advice, the book is a vast resource of creative projects that can expand the imagination of digital musicians. These suggested projects are categorised in relation to the level of complexity, and as such can be used by educators for classroom exercises or source material useful in designing course assignments. In addition, the book features an expansive list of annotated listening examples, which illustrate each of the discussed topics. These help to validate cultural, artistic and philosophical issues discussed in the text, and have the added benefit of providing historical context for each chapter. The educational aspect of the book is further exemplified by the inclusion of reading suggestions and discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
An important feature of The Digital Musician is the companion website, intended to expand the book's content by providing additional material as well as web links to discussed music and other relevant websites. However, several of these links are now invalid or expired. Despite this shortcoming, the website features a wealth of material that complements the book, and includes expanded information on the case study artists and suggestions for further projects, the latter being of particular educational use. The new version of the book brings some revisions of the content featured on the companion website—for example, the first edition was accompanied by MusiMoo (Adkins 2009, Hugill 2005a), an interactive online educational environment, which has now been removed.
The revised edition features a new layout and structure. New chapters have been added and now the book consists of four distinct parts: Engaging, Creating, Knowing and Being. The first part poses questions related to forging one's creative identity and expanding aural awareness. This is a logical starting point, as the above-mentioned elements are fundamental in shaping the unique voice of musicians working with digital technologies. The second part, Creating, is the largest in the volume and examines such topics as performance, sampling, synthesis, the compositional process and instruments. The chapter on synthesis exemplifies the analytical focus that permeates the book. In this chapter, Hugill does not offer an investigation into how to program a synthesizer, instead he focuses on aesthetics as well as on defining various types of synthesis available (103). In past research, Hugill examined creative uses of the Internet in music education, collaborative composition projects and the use of virtual environments (Hugill 2005b), and he continues to emphasise the benefits of networked sound and collaborative online work (81–3, 162–65), which is particularly relevant given the growing importance of the network space for music creation.
The third part, Knowing, discusses various issues related to critical judgement. In addition, this part outlines the cultural context for music with discussion of key critical theories and their application in "identifying certain cultural tendencies and phenomena" (203), and how this knowledge can assist in self-evaluation as a musician. The final part, Being, concentrates on examining practical aspects of being a digital musician with discussion on careers, promotion and business. It is also here that Hugill discusses the changing landscape of music education and training. He suggests that it should no longer be limited to formal musical training, since "a digital musician will benefit from education in a wide range of areas, and not just 'music'" (256). This illustrates the significant challenge facing electronic musicians nowadays, as the demands of the marketplace require proficiency in a wide range of digital technologies as well as in conventional music. Aiming to "build up a picture of shared ideas and practices in digital music" (258), Hugill has collected qualitative data through interviews with sixteen international musicians with a range of experiences behind them. Through these interviews, artists reflect on key themes explored in the book, and this provides the framework for the final part of the volume.
The broad reach of Hugill's selected topics occasionally might leave readers craving more in-depth information. For example, the description of the "rhythm" musical tradition and the argument that various heavy-metal scenes are defined as belonging to a tradition having a "relative lack of interest in pitch" (4) seems to demand further justification. However, it could also be argued that more controversial statements can become starting points in debates, and are particularly useful in a classroom setting.
I had the opportunity to implement some of the book's recommended listening and suggested projects in the classroom for an undergraduate course in computer sound production, and found this content to be effective in the educational context. The scope of the book is a reflection of the vast array of issues that a contemporary electronic musician needs to reflect upon and address. While there is no shortage of books on many of the topics covered in Hugill's text, The Digital Musician is an important summary of key issues concerning music practitioners using digital technologies. As an electronic musician, I found the volume stimulating and as potentially prompting further investigation into the field. Indeed, the continuous encouragement to reach further, via a rich provision of additional reading and music resources, is one of the major strengths of the book. Hugill's avoidance of focusing on technical matters overcomes the challenge of fading relevance, which faces many publications that discuss digital technologies. The book skilfully combines discussions on aesthetics, musicianship and technology, and encourages further investigation of issues that have not been covered in depth due to lack of space. A large number of suggested project ideas, the sheer breadth of the covered topics and generous additional online material encourage experimentation and further study, and also foster creativity. The Digital Musician is a stimulating resource for students, educators and artists looking to expand their skills and examine their inspirations and motivations.
Adkins, Mathew. 2009. "Andrew Hugill, The Digital Musician". Organised Sound 14(1): 109–17.
Hugill, Andrew. 2005a. "From Online Symphonies to MusiMOO: Some Creative Uses of the Internet in Music and Education". Contemporary Music Review 24(6): 527–40.
———. 2005b. "Internet Music: An Introduction". Contemporary Music Review 24(6): 429–37.
———. 2008. The Digital Musician. New York: Routledge.