| Electronic Article | An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. In contrast, the term electric instrument is used to mean instruments whose sound is produced mechanically, and only amplified or altered electronically - for example an electric guitar. Usually the instrument will have some way of controlling the sound, such as by adjusting the pitch, frequency, or duration of each note. All electric and electronic musical instruments can be viewed as a subset of audio signal processing applications. Simple electronic musical instruments are sometimes called sound effects; the border between sound effects and actual musical instruments is often hazy. French composer and engineer Edgard Varese created a variety of compositions using electronic horns, whistles, and tape. Most notably, he wrote Poeme Electronique for the Phillips pavilion at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. Electronic musical instruments are now widely used in most styles of music. The development of new electronic musical instruments continues to be a highly active and interdisciplinary field of research. Specialized conferences, notably the International Conference on New interfaces for musical expression, have organized to report cutting edge work, as well as to provide a showcase for artists who perform or create music with new electronic music instruments.
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