Electroacoustic Music before Language

'The Language of Electroacoustic Music' (Emmerson, 1986) has remained in print continuously since its publication. This paper examines the questions: What has changed in this time? Why has electroacoustic music practice remained so separate from other forms of instrumental contemporary music and neglected by the musicology community? Electroacoustic music has (with some significant exceptions) developed a practitioner-led musicology. Why has this musicology failed to make much impact in more mainstream discourse? This paper develops an argument that ‘language’ may not be the best word to describe relationships in this music. It may be better to relate the field to a pre- or proto- language of sound.