Development of electronic music in Ukraine: emergence of a research methodology. Alla Zagaykevych National Academy of Music Kyiv, Ukraine allazag@list.ru Ivan Zavada University of Sydney Sydney Conservatorium of Music NSW, Australia i.zavada@usyd.edu.au Abstract In this article the authors will make an overview of the current situation in Ukraine, with regards to the question of analytical terminology applied to new methods of creation in electronic music composition. The article will establish the differences and the similarities between the analyses of instrumental and electronic music structures, while considering the role of technology in the creation of new electronic music works. This paper will also establish a link between the origin of current analytical processes, and electronic music practice in Ukraine, taking into account the function of a given terminology and its characteristic elements relating to a local geographical and cultural context. We will underline the importance of integrating new music forms in academic circles and discuss external influences in the development of new musical systems. This will be demonstrated by exposing selected musical materials, which can be considered representative of the creative and theoretical processes found in the field of electronic music in Ukraine. 1. Introduction Electronic music locates itself in a very specific area of contemporary music systems in terms of the function and nature of the creative process. On the one hand, its appearance in music history is a direct and logical consequence of the development of twentieth century avant-garde movements, and to some extent, embodies the combined experiences of contemporary music thinking. On the other hand, from its inception in the twentieth century, electronic music operated within different parametric structures and acoustic materials, within a redefined artistic model – the world of synthesis, relying on new aesthetic realities derived from the integration of technology in the process of creating experimental art music. Electronic music usually evolved ‘ad marginum’, outside conventional contexts and has found itself at the crossroads of two different artistic philosophies, mainly, contemporary academic art music as an extension to more traditional compositional approaches, and synthesised media art forms mostly reliant on technology and non- conventional use of source materials. Electronic music has thus progressively become an independent sphere of musical activity, where the constant transformation of the methods used to compose such music have created the need to reflect upon, question and redefine the fundamental notions of music theory and practice. These notions include aspects of musical production, performance, analysis and perception. A number of questions arise when attempting to characterize the underlying structures of a formal school of thought in a locally defined geographic, political, cultural and social context. How do the formal structures of ‘electronic music schools’ emerge? Which genres and stylistic preferences take precedence within these structures? How is the knowledge of previous electronic music pioneers integrated and assimilated - how is electronic music culture valued and regarded in academic music environments? What are the overall influences of the electronic music period on music studies in general and more specifically, music analysis methods? We will try to establish a link between these questions with a brief comparative overview of selected musical works, which may be considered representative of some of the creative and theoretical processes found in the field of electronic music in Ukraine. 1.1 Context The eclectic nature of electronic music has conditioned the area of analytical research where in particular, conventional music analysis coexists with a wide range of disciplines such as computer music, musical acoustics, psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology and music sociology. Naturally, most theoretical works in the field of electronic music are concerned with technical aspects of the creative work (modification and implementation of various synthesis techniques, theory of algorithmic composition, sound spatialisation and localisation, integration of virtual instruments etc…), but theoretical notions about the process of creating and the aesthetics of electronic music remain relatively incipient. In the larger scale of music history, the current ‘electronic music period’ occupies a relatively small portion of time, however this small timeframe is not representational of the florescence and significance of electronic music innovations. Notably, early electronic music experiments in Russia coincided with a period of experimentation with electricity and noise elsewhere in Europe and North America, and it is therefore possible to retrace the early stages of experimentation with non- conventional instruments back to the first uses of a new ‘instrumentarium’ derived from non-musical applications at odds with traditional artistic intents. The creation of instruments relying on a different paradigm of sound production (electricity and magnetism) has had a great influence on the conceptualisation of new methods of musical creation. From this perspective, Eastern European countries have also joined the quest for compositional innovation, but with various levels of adaptation and implementation. In some cases, research