Musical interfaces: the question of the "voiceless instruments"

At the beginning of the XXIst century, our reflection is based on various aspects of the last decades and on the contemporary developments of electronic instruments. This work intends to define an ontological approach of what is commonly called a "musical instrument" by analyzing the contents of the new organological categories of "virtual" and "voiceless" instruments. The apparition of musical controllers rises the crucial questions of the relation between gesture and sound (that we call "g-son") and of the durability of new instruments. In addition to the organological innovation itself, different cultural aspects seem indeed to actively participate in its belonging to the instrumental field and to give it an unquestionable status of "musical instrument".