Music & Technology I:Electronic Music

Terminology

! Electronic/Electroacoustic Music

! Tape music (fixed media): musique concrète, elektronische Musik

! Computer Music

! Algorithmic composition

! Stochastic music

! Synthesizers

! Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)

! Interactive composition

! Acousmatic composition

! Radiophonic Art

! New media: webcasts, podcasts

Technology

Technology

Some Historical Precedents:

! Crook system on brass instruments (mid-18th century)

! Introduction of valve system on brass instruments (early-19th century)

! Double-action harp (early-19th century)

! Böhm key system on woodwind instruments (mid-19th century)

! Invention of tuba and saxophone (mid-19th century)

! Pedal mechanism on timpani (early-20th century)

! Player piano (early-20th century)

Conceptual Precedents:

! Ferruccio Bussoni: “Outline for a New Aesthetic of Music” (1907)

! Luigi Russolo: “The Art of Noises” (1913)

! John Cage: “Credo: The Future of Music” (1937)

! Edgard Varése: “The Liberation of Sound” (1936-62)

The definition of “music” was questioned in unprecedented ways:

Umberto Boccioni: !The City Rises (1910-11);"Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1915)

Futurism

Sound Poem by Filippo Marinetti.

Futurism

Luigi Russolo (with fellow futuristsFilippo Marinetti and Ugo Piatti) andintonarumori instruments.

Futurism

Luigi Russolo: The Art of Noise (1913)

Futurism

Russolo outlined the followingcategories of sounds:

Luigi Russolo (with fellow futuristsFilippo Marinetti and Ugo Piatti) andintonarumori instruments.

! Rumbles, roars, explosions, crashes,splashes, booms.

! Whistles, hisses, snorts.

! Whispers, murmurs, mumbles,grumbles, gurgles.

! Screeches, creaks, rustles, buzzes,crackles, scrapes.

! Noises obtained by percussion onmetal, wood, skin, stone, terracotta, etc.

! Voices of animals and men: shouts,screams, groans, shrieks, howls, laughs,wheezes, sobs.

Luigi Russolo: Score to Awakening of a City (1914)

Early Electronic Instruments

"Theremin

!Tellharmonium

! Tellharmonium: invented by Thaddeus Cahill in 1902.

! Theremin: invented by Leon Theremin in 1920.

! Ondes-Martenot: invented by Maurice Martenot in 1928.

#Ondes-martenot

Leon Theremin with his eponymous instrument.

Early Electronic Instruments

$Thereminist Clara Rockmore

"Theremin ensemble,illustrating the popularity

of this instrument.

Camille Saint-Säens: The Swanperformed by Clara Rockmore on theremin

VIDEO

Maurice Martenot andhis instrument the

ondes-martenot

ondes-martenot

Electronic Music: Post-WWII Developments

! Following World War II, studios associated with radio stations began to flourishthroughout Europe:

! In the United States, electronic music studios were affiliated with universities :

• Radiodiffusion-Télévision Françaises (RTF), Paris: founded by Pierre

Schaeffer and Pierre Henry

• Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), Cologne: founded by KarlheinzStockhausen and Herbert Eimert

• Studio di fonologia, Milan: founded by Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna

• Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York City: founded byVladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening (Columbia); and Milton Babbitt and

Roger Sessions (Princeton).

• University of Illinois Experimental Music Studio, Urbana-Champaign:founded by Lejaren Hiller.

• Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), StanfordUniversity: founded by John Chowning.

• Other major centers include those at UC San Diego (CRCA), UC Berkeley(CNMAT), MIT, and University of North Texas (CEMI).

Musique concrète

Pierre Schaeffer: Étude aux chemins de fer (1948)

# Pierre Henry (b. 1927)# Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995)

! Associated with RTF studio and composers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry.

! Microphone and tape recorder are the primary tools: pre-recorded sounds aremanipulated (via loops, speed change, tape direction) and recombined in variousways.

! Sound originally drawn from “non-musical” sources; later broadened to includemanipulated recordings of musical instruments/voice.

"François Bayle at GRM.

$Pierre Schaeffer at the Radiodiffusion-TélévisionFrançaises (RTF), later known as the Groupe deRecherches Musicales (GRM).

Musique concrète

Elektronische Musik

! Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and the NWDR Studio

! Associated with NWDR Studio and composers Karlheinz Stockhausen andHerbert Eimert.

! Oscillators and sine-tone generators are the primary tools: sounds are created“from scratch” then recorded and combined on tape.

! Consistent with the aesthetics of integral serialism, because the composer hadtotal control of the sound at the timbral level.

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Studie II (1954)

Edgard Varèse with assistant in thePhilips Studio (Eindhoven, Netherlands).

Edgard Varése and Le Corbusier

Edgard Varése and Le Corbusier at the

Brussels World Fair (!) and in front ofthe Philips Pavilion ("), c.1958.

Le Corbusier: Philips Pavilion;Brussels, Belgium (1958)

Sketch for Le Corbusier!s Philips Pavilion

Sound pathways for the 425-speaker configuration used forVarèse!s Poéme électronique in the Philips Pavilion.

Edgard Varèse: Poéme électronique sketch

Edgard Varèse: Poéme électronique score (detail)

Advertisement for first performanceof Varèse!s Poéme électronique.

Composers at Brussels World Fair (1958)

HenkBadings

MauricioKagel

EarleBrown

JohnCage

KarlheinzStockhausen

LucianoBerio

BrunoMaderna

HenriPousseur

PierreSchaeffer

Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening,Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

Milton Babbitt (b. 1916) with the RCA Mark IIComputer, Columbia-Princeton Electronic

Music Center.

The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center andcomposers Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky, OttoLuening (front row); unidentified person, Pril Smiley,Mario Davidovsky, and Alice Shields (1970)

" Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934)Synchronisms No. 5 (1969)

Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia(CEMI), formerly the Electronic Music Center

(EMC), at the University of North Texas(founded 1963).

Merrill Ellis (1916-1981)

Robert Moog (") and DonaldBuchla (#) with their eponymous

synthesizers.

Buchla synthesizers

Wendy (Walter) Carlos (b.1939)

Carlos! “Switched-On Bach” album (1969),realizations of Bach keyboard works on the

Moog synthesizer.

Yamaha DX-7 (1983-86)

Synclavier (1975-91)

Yamaha Disklavier (1987- )

a. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontakte (1958-60)

Notation of Electronic Music

b. Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 1 (1963)

Notation of Electronic Music

c. Milton Babbitt: Philomel (1964)

Notation of Electronic Music

Avant-Garde Mobile

From David Cope, New Directions in Music

$Thomas Edison and his phonograph (1878).

"An early recording session

Luigi Russolo (left) with UgoPiatti and intonarumori

Futurism

Russolo!s intonarumori used inan ensemble of traditional

instruments.

Umberto Boccioni: Unique Forms ofContinuity in Space (1915)

Futurism

Thaddeus Cahill!sTelharmonium (c. 1904)

Early Electronic Instruments