From 1950 electronic music developed on its own path with the complex and time-consuming process of analogue technology. In 1956 the first real masterpiece arrived in the form of Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge. With the composition of his Mixtur in 1964 the path was established for the development of works which combined electronics with orchestral instruments in performance. Stockhausen explains: ‘In this way it becomes possible to obtain in conjunction with the use of instruments a differentiated composition of timbres such I had hitherto only been able to achieve in the realm of electronic music.’ This is the point in the evolution of electronic music when the conductor enters the arena. With the arrival of digital technology later in the century the new resources were deployed in a vast range of possibilities and with much greater facility in the composition process, making the conductor’s role more and more challenging.

There are two main categories for music which combine orchestral instruments or voices with electronics. If the electronic element involves prerecorded audio on any analogue or digital support without treatments on live instruments the works are categorised as With Tape. When electronic devices such as computers, keyboards, synthesizers or samplers are combined with instruments or voices on stage the works are categorised as using Live Electronics. The nature of this relationship between a computer and live instruments has also created the term ‘interactive’. There is no absolute necessity to have expertise in the technology involved in order to conduct music which involves combining orchestral instruments or voices with electronics. But such works demand that the aural perception of the conductor can fully comprehend what is implicit in the electronic element of the music, especially when the sound sources are complex.