Hugh Davies’s International Electronic Music Catalog: a preliminary exploration of its classification system and subsequent influence

In this paper I suggest that Hugh Davies’s Répertoire International des Musiques Électroacoustiques / International Electronic Music Catalog (1968)—which lists every work of electronic music up to April 1967—is more than just a list of compositions, and that it in fact expresses a particular view—encapsulates a particular narrative—of electronic music. I also show some of the ways in which that particular narrative has been carried forward in subsequent writings that have referenced the Catalog, as a way of indicating how the Catalog—and by extension Davies’s narrative—has shaped subsequent discourses on electronic music and its history. To do this I refer to the systems of classification used in the Catalog, through the theoretical lens provided by Bowker & Star in their book Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences.