Sampling composition: how Year 12 music technology students use sample-based processes to compose electroacoustic music

Abstract

Composing with music technology is often perceived and documented to introduce the additional challenge of technological mediation to the composition process, especially when the technology is viewed as a tool which enables students to expand their creative musicianship as hyphenated musicians. In this article, I present a case study which outlines the particular processes and features behind four Year 12 music technology students’ electroacoustic compositions (a genre which only exists due to the creative utilisation of music technology), and consider the effectiveness of a pedagogical approach which I term a ‘semantically informed pedagogy’. Findings highlight the importance of catering for the students’ different musical roles and placing the listening experience at the heart of the composition process, in order for the human skill and determination behind the work of art to remain fundamental when threatened by the potentially mediating effects of music technology.