Translating Sound: Soviet Guitar Electronics

About the author:

Abstract:

The sounds which constitute music may in themselves be considered as conveying meaning, insofar as they are a key factor in the listener’s apprehension of any given work. Specific sounds, including certain types of “noise”, evolve in a similar way to accents, within and sometimes beyond identifiable geographic boundaries. They may thus be viewed as a parameter in the intercultural communication of musical meaning.

The verbal and visual means by which sounds may be represented constitute both a metatext and an intersemioticity which are further complicated through translation when terms, schematics or indeed components are adapted to meet the needs of foreign users. The article addresses these questions through examples from the field of electric guitar effects and their adaptation for the Soviet market in the 1970s.

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