Electronic Music: The Difference Between Electronic And Orchestral Music

Electronic and Orchestral music represent a broad spectrum of music, contrasting in their instrumentation, complexity, and the audience that listens to them. The time periods they hold lineage to have given distinct characteristics that indicate much about the audience of the time, and what they enjoy the most in the large category of music. One difference between the two, and the one most apparent audibly, is the instrumentation. Electronic music uses digitally created sounds through the use of programs and oscillators not familiar to the ears to create an other worldly sound, very effective at capturing abstract emotions and feelings. Electronic music is also comparatively young to orchestral music, and much of the choice in instrumentation …show more content…
Digital musics ' complexity is only limited by this factor, and how far the artist is willing to develop the sound. However, complexity not only lies in having many melodies and harmonies overlaying each other to create a large sound, but in the simplicity of a single, perfect part. A concentrated riff not deterred by many different sounds and analogs is clearly rung out, and in many cases is more effective at conveying the mood of a piece than a large amount of instruments playing patterns hard to individually distinguish. It is on this note, however, that digital music has a large downfall; the simplicity and predictability of it. Many digital artists have found a formula that rings well with the vast majority of the electronic music community, and can be recreated very easily with very few distinctions between it and the last song preceding it. This is frowned upon by the artists who do seek to make creative, invoking music, but it shows the darker side of an industry run by creative greed. Music for orchestra on the other hand is thoroughly complex, with many parts combining to create an elegant, unique whole. While it may be an acquired taste, the music heard from a symphony orchestra is a sound forged by fire over many years, by such greats as Bach, Chopin, and Mozart. The many unique patterns and sequences you will hear through years of listening to orchestral music will insure …show more content…
The electronic music communities ' audience is often portrayed as a rambunctious, partying crowd, and while I don 't deny that some of the community is that way, not everyone is the same in that regard. Since the burgeoning of the electronic music movement and the start of the internet happened simultaneously, the culture has settled into it 's home within the internet. Due to the wide reach of the internet, people of many walks of life listen to electronic music, creating a widely diverse audience. For this reason, many different styles of electronic music can touch with many different types of people, insuring a large audience as well as subdivisions within the community. The audience of orchestral music however is much more uniform, but not without it 's small differences. Due to the largely determined roster of the orchestra, the albeit beautiful sound is unlikely to change any time soon. It is here, though, that a unique aspect of the audience of orchestral music Is brought to light; the amount of creativity of the composers. After the mainly commissioned years of the Baroque and post-Baroque period, many composers have dived into their own particular style, not trying to appease any audience. The audience, however, will always be there, as it has for centuries past, as