Dack's research area is contemporary Musicology/History of Ideas. He is concerned with the identification, evaluation and explanation of theoretical concepts evolving from musicians' interaction with a variety of analogue/digital technologies. There are two principal subject areas: 1) The works of the Frenchman Pierre Schaeffer and the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris; 2) The development of serial thought in the Westdeutscher Rundfunk studio in Cologne. Dack's exegeses and translations of French texts are a major contribution to the increasing awareness of Schaeffer's musical theories in the English-speaking world. Moreover, his work is integral to research currently pursued within the Lansdown Centre. The Schaefferian research into interactivity and technology has significant implications for evaluating Sonic Arts/Music performance practices. Furthermore, his historical/aesthetic investigations into the articulation of space in Sound Diffusion and Installation Art clarifies interdisciplinary concerns common to Fine Art and Music.
Dack was invited to write this chapter by the volume's editor: Prof. Elena Ungeheuer of the Technische Universität, Berlin. The 13-volume series: ‘Handbuchs der Musik' has become a standard reference work in German-speaking countries and reflects the growing interest in the study of sound in contemporary culture. Volume 5 has been re-printed and is entitled: ‘Elektroakustische Musik' (Electroacoustic Music). Other authors are academics working in German, Italian or American universities; Dack is the only English contributor. Dack was asked to summarize and present his continuing research into French electroacoustic theory (an area with which the German scholarly community is frequently unfamiliar). His chapter described and evaluated the principal concepts of Schaefferian theory such as the ‘acousmatic situation', ‘value and characteristic', ‘permanence and variation' and Schaeffer's ‘Programme of Musical Research'. He then located these electroacoustic concepts within a generalized music theory. Dack also described the ‘British connection': the assimilation of Schaefferian theories by the British-based composer Denis Smalley
