Dissonance, sex and noise: (Re)Building (Hi)Stories of Electroacoustic Music

This article presents a reflection on some ideological problems that surround the creation of a history of electroacoustic music. The analysis of the role and evolution of a musical concept through the history of a musical tradition can show the strategies used in the creation of a historical narration. As an example of these rhetoric devices, the article briefly tracks the presence of dissonance and noise in diverse musical traditions through the last century. Thus, two parallel historical narrations are presented. Some apparent differences between them are questioned when the concepts of dissonance and noise are regarded as ‘the other’ for each respective musical tradition. An analogy connecting music and sex (as different ways for contacting ‘the other’) is also discussed. The concept of ‘the other’, standing for what is and must be usually hidden and repressed, works as a limit for the identity of any ideological construction, including the Western subject. The analysis of ‘the other’ and how it is repressed or emancipated can therefore reveal important aspects of the identity of a musical tradition.