Contemporary electronic musical systems often possess immense symbolic and sonic freedom while remaining phenomenologically unsatisfying as instruments. This paper argues that the historical success of acoustic instruments does not primarily arise from their capacity to generate notes, but from their structure as embodied energetic systems coupling discrete symbolic action to continuous regulation of resistive physical processes. Using the bayan and related bellows instruments as a central analytical case, the paper distinguishes between symbolic control paradigms and energetic paradigms of musical interaction. Bellows instruments are shown to externalize this distinction with unusual clarity: pitch selection remains largely discrete and organ-like, while musical expressiveness emerges through continuous energetic negotiation involving pressure, resistance, airflow, inertia, and consumption. The analysis is extended through comparison with the theremin, folk harmonicas, bagpipes, and modern MIDI controllers. It is argued that many electronic instruments fail not because of insufficient expressive parameters, but because they eliminate energetic reciprocity and haptic stabilization. The paper concludes by proposing the concept of post-acoustic energetic instruments: systems preserving embodied energetic continuity while abandoning historical acoustic mechanisms.
Alexey POLOVINKIN (Tue,) studied this question.