Daniel Santos Rodríguez – Polytechnic University of Madrid.

Plaza de Lavapiés nº6 - +34 658197419 – dasantos@alumnos.upm.es

The Electric Guitar. Forms of augmentation and their use in the contemporary repertoire.

The electric guitar was created in the 1930’s being one of the first augmented instruments in
history. This type of guitar applies the principles of electromagnetism to achieve sound
amplification. The development of the instrument responds to the historical need to enhance the
volume of the guitar to balance its sound within the instrumental ensembles. However, as a
consequence of amplification, the timbre also undergoes modifications, so that the performers and
composers have to manipulate it using a range of electronic setups, amp and pedals. Furthermore,
the appearance of some kind of noises and sounds derived from electromagnetic phenomena leads
to a new aesthetic perception of the instrument. This whole process involves an important change in
the way the sound is produced, mostly due to the fact that previously the modifications of the
instrument timbre were made from the gestures and control of the interpreter together with the
acoustics of the space. In the electric guitar this equation has the addition of various electronic
sound amplification and modulation devices. Unlike other instruments, whose organological
evolution was applied to the field of classical music, the electric guitar was first led to popular
music and afterwards absorbed by the tradition of academic music. This particularity crystallized in
a different development of the instrument's augmentation compared to other classical instruments.

This article analyzes the evolution of the augmentation processes in the electric guitar by
comparing five works belonging to different approaches and periods of contemporary music, from
the 1980’s to the end of the 2010’s, i.e., Vampyr! (1984) by Tristan Murail, Electric Counterpoint
(1987) by Steve Reich, Trash TV Trance (2002) by Fausto Romitelli, Anomaly Momentum (2017)
by Elliot Sharp, and Not I (2018) by Stefan Prins. The aim is to show the variation in its electronic
configuration and also the different degree of autonomy of the interpreter when integrating
electronics, that is, the dependence on external musicians or technicians that control the sound and
effects. In no case it is intended to analyze the work, but to describe the role of electronics in the
works and how it is possible to configure it to perform the compositions.

In practice, the augmentation of the instrument gathers different configurations: the basic set
(electric guitar and amplifier), the basic set and electronic fixed part, the basic set and electronic
pedals without fixed part, the basic set with electronic pedals and computer, and, finally, a
configuration in which the participation of another interpreter is necessary, intervening in the
production of the sound. From all these approaches, the complexity of setting up the necessary set
to interpret the music can be extracted, and also the possibility of using different solutions to
interpret the same work.

KEYWORDS: Augmented Instruments, Electric Guitar, Contemporary Music Performance.