Electronic and Computer
Music History of Electronic Music
1
HISTORY
OF ELECTRONIC AND COMPUTER MUSIC INCLUDING
AUTOMATIC INSTRUMENTS AND COMPOSITION MACHINES
1898
Valdemar Poulson
(1869-1942) patented his "Telegraphone," the first magnetic recording
machine.
1906
Thaddeus Cahill
invented the Dynamophone, a machine that produced music by an
alternating current
running dynamos. This was the first additive synthesis device. The
Dynamophone was
also known as the Telharmonium. The instrument weighed over 200
tons and was designed
to transmit sound over telephone wires; however, the wires were
too delicate for
all the signals. You can sort of consider him the 'Father of Muzak.' The
generators produced
pure tones of various frequencies and intensity; volume control
supplied dynamics.
Articles appeared in McClure's Magazine that stated "democracy in
music...the musician
uses keys and stops to build up voices of flute or clarinet, as the
artist uses his
brushes for mixing color to obtain a certain hue...it may revolutionize our
musical art..."
1920
Leon Theremin,
Russia, invented the Aetherophone (later called the Theremin or
Thereminovox).
The instrument used 2 vacuum tube oscillators to produce beat notes.
Musical sounds
were created by "heterodyning" from oscillators which varied pitch. A
circuit was altered
by changing the distance between 2 elements. The instrument had a
radio antenna to
control dynamics and a rod sticking out the side that controlled pitch.
The performer would
move his/her hand along the rod to change pitch, while
simultaneously
moving his/her other hand in proximity to the antenna. Many composers
used this instrument
including Varese.
1922
Darius Milhaud
(b. 1892) experimented with vocal transformation by phonograph speed
changes.
1926
Jorg Mager built
an electronic instrument, the Spharophon. The instrument was first
presented at the
Donaueschingen Festival (Rimsky-Korsakov composed some
experimental works
for this instrument). Mager later developed a Partiturophon and a
Kaleidophon, both
used in theatrical productions. All of these instruments were destroyed
in W.W.II.
1928
Maurice Martenot
(b. 1928, France) built the Ondes Martenot (first called the Ondes
Musicales). The
instrument used the same basic idea as the Theremin, but instead of a
radio antenna,
it utilized a moveable electrode was used to produce capacitance variants.
Performers wore
a ring that passed over the keyboard. The instrument used subtractive
synthesis. Composers
such as Honegger, Messiaen, Milhaud, Dutilleux, and Varese all
composed for the
instrument.
1929
Laurens Hammond
(b. 1895, USA), built instruments such as the Hammond Organ,
Novachord, Solovox,
and reverb devices in the United States. The Hammond Organ used
91 rotary electromagnetic
disk generators driven by a synchronous motor with associated
gears and tone
wheels. It used additive synthesis.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
2
1935
Allegemeine Elektrizitats
Gesellschaft (AEG), built and demonstrated the first
Magnetophon (tape
recorder).
1930s
Plastic audio
tape was developed.
1941
The Ondioline
was built. The Ondioline, a monophonic vacuum tube instrument,
consisted of a
single oscillator and a small eight octave touch sensitive keyboard
(switchable through
six octaves and tuneable via an octave transposer). It was possible to
create complex
waveforms via a series of filters and the sound wave could be shaped
with the use of
a touch wire, effecting the attack with a vertical finger movement or
adding glissando
or modulation by horizontal movement. The overall volume of the
machine was controlled
by a knee lever.
1944
Percy Grainger
and Burnett Cross patented a machine that "freed" music from the
constraints of
conventional tuning systems and rhythmic inadequacies of human
performers. Mechanical
invention for composing "Free Music" used eight oscillators and
synchronizing
equipment in conjunction with photo-sensitive graph paper with the
intention that
the projected notation could be converted into sound.
1947
Bell Labs developed
and produced the solid state transistor.
The Solovox and
the Clavioline were created. The Clavioline was a monophonic,
portable, battery
powered keyboard instrument designed by M. Constant. Martin in 1947
at Versailles,
France. The Clavioline consisted of two units: the keyboard with the actual
sound producing
unit with controls and a box with amplifier and speaker. By using an
octave transposer
switch the single oscillator could be set within a range of five octaves
(six in the Bode
version). The keyboard unit had 18 switches (22 in the Selmer version)
for controlling
timbre ( via a high pass filter and a low pass filter ), octave range and
attack plus two
controls for vibrato speed and intensity, the overall volume was
controlled by
a knee lever.
The Solovox was
designed by Alan Young of the Hammond Organ Co and manufactured
in the United
States between 1940 and 1948.The Hammond Solovox was a monophonic
keyboard attachment
instrument intended to accompany the piano with organ type lead
voices. The 3
octave short keyed keyboard was stored on a sliding mounting under the
piano keyboard
with a knee operated volume control. On the front of the instrument
below the keyboard
there were a series of large thumb operated buttons for oscillator
range (switchable
+/- 3 octaves: 'soprano', 'contralto', 'tenor' , 'bass'), vibrato, attack time,
'deep tone', 'full
tone', '1st voice', 2nd voice', 'brilliant' and a switch for selecting
woodwind, string
sound or mute. The Solovox was able to create a range of string,
woodwind and organ
type sounds and was widely used in light music of its time.
1948
Pierre Schaeffer
(b. 1910), a sound technician working at Radio-diffusion-Television
Francaise (RTF)
in Paris, produced several short studies in what he called Musique
concrete. October,
1948, Schaeffer's early studies were broadcast in a "concert of noises."
1949
Pierre Schaeffer
and engineer Jacques Poullin worked on experiments in sound which
they titled "Musique
concrete." 1949-50 Schaeffer and Henry (1927-96), along with
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
3
Poullin composed
Symphonie pour un homme seul (Symphony for a Man Alone); the
work actually
premiered March 18, 1950.
Olivier Messiaen
composed his Mode de valeurs et d'intensities (Mode of Durations and
Intensities),
a piano composition that "established 'scales' not only of pitch but also of
duration, loudness,
and attack."
The Melochord
was invented by H. Bode- The melochord is a monophonic keyboard
instrument based
on vacuum tube technology in 1947 . The keyboard used pitches
derived from the
traditional equal-tempered 12 note scale with switches extending the 37
note range from
three octaves to seven. A foot pedal allowed overall control of the
volume and a novel
electronically operated envelope shaper could be triggered for each
key. A later version
incorporated two keyboards the second keyboard being able to
control the timbre
of the other, a technique used in later modular type synthesizers.
1940s
The following
instruments were built:
The Electronium
Pi (The Electronium was designed by René Seybold and manufactured
by the German
company Hohner GmbH in Trossingen, Germany, from 1950 onwards.
The Electronium
was a monophonic electronic instrument resembling an accordion. The
Electronium had
a 41 note keyboard with keys or buttons and 16 'registration tabs', the
overall volume
being controlled by the 'bellows' of the instrument.)
The Multimonica:
The Multimonika was a commercial hybrid electronic/acoustic
instrument manufactured
by the German company, Hohner GmbH and designed by the
German instrument
designer Harald Bode . The Multimonica was a two keyboard
combination of
a wind-blown reed harmonium instrument, controlled by a 41 note lower
keyboard, and
an electronic monophonic sawtoooth generator contolled by the upper
keyboard.
The Polychord
organ, the Tuttivox, the Marshall organ, and other small electric organs.
1951-53
Eimert and Beyer
(b. 1901) produced the first compositions using electronically-
generated pitches.
The pieces used a mechanized device that produced melodies based on
Markov analysis
of Stephen Foster tunes.
1952
The Cologne station
of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (later Westdeutscher Rundfunk)
was founded by
Herbert Eimert. He was soon joined by Stockhausen, and they set out to
create what they
called Elektronische Musik.
John Cage's 4'33"
was composed. The composer was trying to liberate the performer and
the composer from
having to make any conscious decisions, therefore, the only sounds in
this piece are
those produce by the audience.
1953
Robert Beyer,
Werner Meyer-Eppler (b. 1913) and Eimert began experimenting with
electronically-generated
sounds. Eimert and Meyer-Eppler taught at Darmstadt Summer
School (Germany),
and gave presentations in Paris as well.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
4
Louis and Bebe
Baron set up a private studio in New York, and provided soundtracks
for sci-fi films
like Forbidden Planet (1956) and Atlantis that used electronic sound
scores.
Otto Luening (b.
1900, USA; d. 1996, USA) and Vladimir Ussachevsky (b. 1911,
Manchuria; d.
1990, USA) present first concert at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York, October
28. The program included Ussachevsky's Sonic Contours (created from
piano recordings),
and Luening's Fantasy in Space (using flute recordings). Following the
concert, they
were asked to be on the Today Show with Dave Garroway. Musicians Local
802 raised a fuss
because Luening and Ussachevsky were not members of the musicians'
union.
1953-4
Karlheinz Stockhausen
(b. 1928) used Helmholtz' research as the basis of his Studie I and
Studie II. He
tried to build increasingly complex synthesized sounds from simple pure
frequencies (sine
waves).
1954
The Cologne Radio
Series "Music of Our Time" (October 19) used only electronically-
generated sounds
by Stockhausen, Eimert, Pousseur, etc. The pieces used strict serial
techniques.
Dripsody was composed
by Hugh LeCaine. The single sound source for this concrete
piece is a drip
of water.
1955
Harry Olson and
Belar, both working for RCA, invent the Electronic Music Synthesizer,
aka the Olson-Belar
Sound Synthesizer. This synth used sawtooth waves that were
filtered for other
types of timbres. The user programmed the synthesizer with a
typewriter-like
keyboard that punched commands into a 40-channel paper tape using
binary code.
Lejaren Hiller
(1924-92) and Leonard Isaacson, from the University of Illinois composed
the Illiac String
Quartet, the first piece of computer-generated music. The piece was so
named because
it used a Univac computer and was composed at the University of Illinois.
1955-56
Karlheinz Stockhausen
composed Gesang der Junglinge. This work used both concrete
recordings of
boys' voices and synthesized sounds. The original version was composed
for five loudspeakers,
but was eventually reduced to four. The text from the Benedicite
(O all ye works
of the Lord, bless ye the Lord), which appears in Daniel as the canticle
sung by the three
young Jews consigned to the fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar.
1956
Martin Klein and
Douglas Bolitho used a Datatron computer called Push-Button Bertha
to compose music.
This computer was used to compose popular tunes; the tunes were
derived from random
numerical data that was sieved, or mapped, into a preset tonal
scheme.
1957
David Seville
created the Chipmunks, by playing recordings of human voices at double
speed. Electronic
manipulation was never really used again in rock for about ten years.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
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1958
Edgard Varese
(1883-1965) composed Poeme Electronique for the World's Fair,
Brussels. The
work was composed for the Philips Pavilion, a building designed by the
famous architect,
Le Corbusier who was assisted by Iannis Xenakis (who later became
well-known as
a composer rather than an architect). The work was performed on ca. 425
loudspeakers,
and was accompanied by projected images. This was truly one of the first
large-scale multimedia
productions.
Iannis Xenakis
(b.1922) composed Concret PH. This work was also composed for the
Brussels World's
Fair. It made use of a single sound source: amplified burning charcoal.
Luciano Berio
composed Thema-omaggio a Joyce. The sound source is woman reading
from Joyce's Ulysses.
1958-60
Stockhausen composed
Kontakte (Contacts) for four-channel tape. There was a
second version
for piano, percussion and tape.
1958-9
Mauricio Kagel,
an Argentinian composer, composed Transicion II, the first piece to call
for live tape
recorder as part of performance. The work was realized in Cologne. Two
musicians perform
on a piano, one in the traditional manner, the other playing on the
strings and wood.
Two other performers use tape recorders so that the work can unites its
present of live
sounds with its future of pre-recorded materials from later on and its past
of recordings
made earlier in the performance.
Max Mathews, at
Bell Labs, began experimenting with computer programs to create
sound material.
Mathews and Joan Miller also at Bell Labs, write MUSIC4, the first
wide-spread computer
sound synthesis program. Versions I through III were
experimental versions
written in assemble language. Music IV and Music V were written
in FORTRAN. MUSIC4
did not allow reentrant instruments (same instrument becoming
active again when
it is already active), MUSIC5 added this. MUSIC4 required as many
different instruments
as the thickest chord, while MUSIC5 allowed a score to refer to an
instrument as
a template, which could then be called upon as many times as was
necessary.
The Columbia-Princeton
Electronic Music Center was formally established. The group
had applied through
the Rockefeller Foundation, and suggested the creation of a
University Council
for Electronic Music. They asked for technical assistants, electronic
equipment, space
and materials available to other composers free of charge. A grant of
$175,000 over
five years was made to Columbia and Princeton Universities. In January,
1959, under the
direction of Luening and Ussachevsky of Columbia, and Milton Babbitt
and Roger Sessions
of Princeton, the Center was formally established.
The RCA Mark II
synthesizer was built at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
(the original
version was built for the artificial creation of human speech). The Mark II
contained oscillators
and noise generators. The operator had to give the synthesizer
instructions on
a punched paper roll to control pitch, volume, duration and timbre. The
synth used a conventional
equal-tempered twelve-note scale.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
6
1960
Composers of more
traditional orchestral music began to rebel. Many composers tried to
get quasi-electronic
sounds out of traditional instruments. Bruno Bartelozzi, wrote new
book on extended
instrumental techniques.
Morton Subotnick,
Pauline Oliveros, and Ramon Sender established the San Francisco
Tape Music Center.
John Cage composed
Cartridge Music, an indeterminate score for several performers
applying gramophone
cartridges and contact mics to various objects.
1961
The first electronic
music concerts at the Columbia-Princeton Studio were held; the
music was received
with much hostility from other faculty members.
Fortran-based
Music IV was used in the generation of Bicycle Built for Two
(Mathews).
Robert Moog met
Herbert Deutsch, and together they created a voltage-controlled
synthesizer.
Luciano Berio
composed Visage. This radio composition is based on the idea of non-
verbal communication.
There are many word-like passages, but only one word is spoken
during the entire
composition (actually heard twice), parole (Italian for 'word'). Cathy
Berberian, the
composer's wife, was the performer.
1962
Bell Labs mass
produces transistors, professional amplifiers and suppliers.
PLF 2 was developed
by James Tenney. This computer program was used to write Four
Stochastic Studies,
Ergodos and others.
Iannis Xenakis
composed Bohor for eight tracks of sound.
Milton Babbitt
composed Ensembles for Synthesizer (1962-64) at the Columbia-
Princeton Studio.
At the University
of Illinois, Kenneth Gaburo composed Antiphony III, for chorus and
tape.
1963
Lejaren Hiller
and Robert Baker composed the Computer Cantata.
Babbitt composed
Philomel at the Columbia-Princeton Studio. The story is about
Philomel, a woman
without a tongue, who is transformed into a nightingale (based on a
story by Ovid).
Mario Davidovsky
composed Synchronism I for flute and tape. Davidovsky has since
written many "synchronism"
pieces. These works are all written for live instrument(s)
and tape. They
explore the synchronizing of events between the live and tape.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
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1964
The fully developed
Moog was released. The modular idea came from the miniaturization
of electronics.
Gottfried Michael
Koenig used PR-1 (Project 1), a computer program that was written in
Fortran and implemented
on an IBM 7090 computer. The purpose of the program was to
provide data to
calculate structure in musical composition; written to perform algorithmic
serial operations
on incoming data. The second version of PR-1 completed, 1965.
Karlheinz Stockhausen
composed Mikrophonie I, a piece that required six musicians to
generate. Two
performers play a large tam-tam, while two others move microphones
around the instrument
to pick up different timbres, and the final two performers are
controlling electronic
processing.
Ilhan Mimaroglu,
a Turkish-American composer, wrote Bowery Bum. This is a concrete
composition, and
used rubber band as single source. It was based on a painting by
Dubuffet.
1965
Karlheinz Stockhausen
composed Solo. The composition used a tape recorder with
moveable heads
to redefine variations in delay between recording and playback, live
manipulation during
performance.
1966
The Moog Quartet
offered world-wide concerts of (mainly) parlor music.
1967
Walter Carlos
(later Wendy) composed Switched on Bach using a Moog synthesizer.
Iannis Xenakis
wrote Musiques Formelles (Formalized Music). The first discussion of
granular synthesis
and the clouds and grains of sound is presented in this book.
Leon Kirschner
composed String Quartet No. 3, the first piece with electronics to win the
Pulitzer Prize.
Kenneth Gaburo
composed Antiphony IV, a work for trombone, piccolo, choir and tape.
Morton Subotnick
composed Silver Apples of the Moon (title from Yeats), the first
work commissioned
specifically for the recorded medium.
The Grateful Dead
released Anthem of the Sun and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of
Invention released
Uncle Meat. Both albums made extensive use of electronic
manipulation.
1968
Lejaren Hiller
and John Cage composed HPSCHD.
1969
Terry Riley composed
Rainbow in Curved Air
late 1960s
The Sal-Mar Construction
was built. The instrument was named for composer Salvatore
Martirano and
designed by him. The Sal-Mar Construction weighed over fifteen hundred
pounds and consisted
of "analog circuits controlled by internal digital circuits controlled
by the composer/performer
via a touch-control keyboard with 291 touch-sensitive keys."
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
8
Godfrey Winham
and Hubert Howe adapted MUSIC IV for the IBM 7094 as MUSIC4B
was written in
assembly language; MUSIC4BF (a Fortran-language adaptation of
MUSIC4B, one version
was written by Winham, another was written by Howe).
Music V variants
include MUSIC360 and MUSIC11 for the IBM360 and the PDP11
computers, these
were written by Barry Vercoe, Roger Hale, and Carl Howe at MIT,
respectively.
GROOVE was developed
by Mathews and F. Richard Moore at Bell Labs, and was used
to control analog
synthesizers.
1970
Charles Wuorinen
composed "Times Encomium," the first Pulitzer Prize winner for
entirely electronic
composition.
1972
Pink Floyd's album
The Dark Side of the Moon was released; it used ensembles of
synthesizers,
also used concrete tracks as interludes between tunes.
1973
SAWDUST, a language
by Herbert Brun, used functions including: ELEMENT, LINK,
MINGLE, MERGER,
VARY, and TURN.
1974
The Mellotron
was built. The instrument was an early sample player that used tape loops.
There were versions
that played string sounds or flute sounds, and the instrument was
used in movie
soundtracks and on recordings.
1976
Composer Philip
Glass collaborated with librettist Robert Wilson on Einstein on the
Beach. This was
a large-scale multimedia 'opera' in the minimalist style.
1977
Systems Concepts
Digital Synthesizer (SCDS), built by Peter Samson for CCRMA,
signal generating
and processing elements all executing in parallel, and capable of
running in real
time. There are 256 digital oscillators, 128 signal modifiers (filters,
reverb, amplitude
scalers), a scratch-pad memory for communicating values between
processing elements,
and a large memory for reverberation and table storage.
1981
Larry Austin composed
Canadian Coastlines, a composition that used a land map of
Canada in order
to determine textural, rhythmic, and melodic content.
Music V variants:
newer developments include Cmusic (by F.R. Moore), so named
because it is
written entirely in C programming language.
1985
HMSL, Hierarchical
Music Specification Language was released. The basic organization
of HMSL is a series
of data structures called "morphs" (named for the flexible or
morphological
design of the software). Within the superstructure of these morphs there
exist other data
substructures named shapes, collections, structures, structures,
productions, jobs,
players, and actions. These secondary types of morphs are used to
control aspects
of higher level scheduling and routines.
Interactor, by
Morton Subotnick and Mark Coniglio, was designed specifically for live
performance and
score-following capabilities.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
9
1986
Another Music
V variant was release--CSound, by Barry Vercoe of MIT.
Jam Factory written
by programmer David Zicarelli. He was trying to create a program
that would listen
to MIDI input and 'improvise' immediately at some level of proficiency,
while allowing
(Zicarelli) to improve its ability.
Joel Chadabe,
Offenhartz, Widoff, and Zicarelli began work on an algorithmic program
that could be
used as an improvisation environment. The performer could be seated at the
computer and shape
data in real time by "a set of scroll bars that changed the parameters
of this algorithm,
such as the size of the jump from one note to another, the lowest and
highest note,
etc." The original version was to be named "Maestro," then "RMan"
(Random Manager),
and finally, "M."
The Max program
was written in the C language and was developed at IRCAM by Miller
Puckette. It
was later scheduled for distribution by Intelligent Music (the company that
also distributed
M and Jam Factory), but it was the Opcode company that eventually
released it.
Miller Puckette's original intention was to build a language that could control
IRCAM's 4X synthesizer,
and there was no need for the graphical implementation. The
graphics were
added after a version of Max for Macintosh computer using MIDI was
proposed. Since
1989, David Zicarelli has updated and expanded the program for the
Macintosh environment.
Dolby SR introduced
R-DAT spec announced
1987
Apple introduced
MacII
First consumer
DAT decks available
1988
Steve Reich composed
Different Trains for string quartet and tape.
1989
Digidesign introduces
Sound Tools
1990
Sony introduces
writeable CD
1991
Sony develops
MiniDisc
Alesis ADAT introduced
1992
Sony announces
multimedia CD-ROM
1994
DVD introduced
1996
first MiniDisc
multitracks introduced
1997
DVD-Audio standard
develops
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Listening Guide
1. Clara Rockmore
playing the Theremin (1920) in Tchaikovsky's Valse Sentimentale
2. Oliver Messiaen's
Oraison for Ondes Martenot (1937).
3. Etude aux
Chemins de Fer- Pierre Schaeffer (1937).
4. Klangstudie
II by Hebert Eimert (1952)
5. Low Speed
by Otto Lueing (1952)
6. Dripsody by
Hugh Le Caine (1955)
7. Main title
from Forbidden Planet by Louis and Bebe Barron (1956)
8. Poem Électronic
by Edgard Verèse (1958)
9. Kontakte by
Karlhein Stockhausen (1959-60)
10. Bicycle Built
for Two by Max Mathews (1961)
11. Silver Apples
of the Moon by Morton Subotnick (1967)
12. He Destroyed
Her Image by Charles Dodge (1972)
13. Appalachian
Grove I by Laurie Spiegel (1974)
14. On the Other
Ocean by David Behrman (1977)
15. Six Fantasies
on a Poem by Thomas Champion: Her Song by Paul Lansky (1978)
16. Unfamiliar
Wind by Brian Eno (1982)
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Taken from the
web site: http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/
120 Years Of Electronic
Music Introduction
This site charts
the development of electronic musical instruments from 1870 to 1990. For the
purposes
of this project
electronic musical instruments are defined as instruments that synthesise sounds
from an
electronic source.
This definition leaves out a whole section of hybrid electronic instruments
developed
at the end of
the last century that used electronics to manipulate or amplify sounds and tape
recorders/
Musique Concrete,
it has been decided to leave in some non electronic instruments such as the
Futurists
"Intonarumori"
due to their importance in the history of modern music.
The main focus
of the site is on instruments developed from the beginning of the century until
the
1960's. The more
modern and current Synthesiser companies have been included for the sake of
'historical completeness'
but are already well documented elsewhere on the internet, a comprehensive set
of links are provided.
To browse the site it is recommended that you leave open both windows as the
main menus page
will take time to redraw, clicking on the links on the main menu will open a
page in
the same window.
'120 Years Of
Electronic Music' is an ongoing project and the site will be updated on a regular
basis
(currently v3.0
feb 1998). Most of the sections have been updated in this revision and a links
page and
bibliography have
been added.
'120 Years Of
Electronic Music' A Condensed History
The Helmoltz
Resonator
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Origins:
The origins of
electronic music can be traced back to the audio analytical work of Hermann
Ludwig
Ferdinand von
Helmholtz (1821-1894) the German physicist, mathematician and author of the
seminal
work "SENSATIONS
OF TONE: Psychological Basis for Theory of Music" (c1860). Helmholtz built an
electronically
controlled instrument to analyse combinations of tones the "Helmholtz Resonator",
using
electromagnetically
vibrating metal tines and glass or metal resonating spheres the machine could
be
used for analysing
the constituent tones that create complex natural sounds. Helmholtz was concerned
solely with the
scientific analysis of sound and had no interest in direct musical applications,
the
theoretical musical
ideas were provided by Ferruccio Busoni, the Italian composer and pianists who's
influential essay
"Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music" was inspired by accounts of Thaddeus Cahill's
'Telharmonium'.
1870-1915: Early
Experiments
The first electronic
instruments built from 1870 to 1915 used a variety of techniques to generate
sound:
the tone wheel
(used in the Telharmonium and the Chorelcello)- a rotating metal disk in a magnetic
field
causing variations
in an electrical signal, an electronic spark causing direct fluctuations in
the air (used
uniquely in William
Duddell's "Singing Arc' in 1899) and Elisha Grey's self vibrating electromagnetic
circuit in the
'Electronic Telegraph', a spin-off from telephone technology. The tone wheel
was to
survive until
the 1950's in the Hammond Organ but the experiments with self oscillating circuits
and
electric arcs
were discontinued with the development of vacuum tube technology.
1915-1960: The
Vacuum Tube Era.
The engineer and
prolific US inventor Lee De Forest patented the first Vacuum tube or triode
in 1906, a
refinement of
John A. Fleming's electronic valve. The Vacuum tube's main use was in radio
technology
but De Forest
discovered that it was possible to produce audible sounds from the tubes by
a process
known as heterodyning.
twentieth century by radio engineers experimenting with radio vacuum tubes.
Heterodyning effect
is created by two high radio frequency sound waves of similar but varying
frequency combining
and creating a lower audible frequency, equal to the difference between the
two
radio frequencies
(approximately 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz). De Forest was one amongst several engineers
to
realise the musical
potential of the heterodyning effect and in 1915 created a musical instrument,
the
"Audion Piano"
. Other instruments to first exploit the vacuum tube were the 'Theremin' (1917)
'Ondes
Martenot' (1928),
the 'Sphäraphon' (1921) the 'Pianorad' (1926). The Vacuum tube was to remain
the
primary type of
audio synthesis until the invention of the integrated circuit in the1960's.
1960-1980: Integrated
Circuits.
Integrated Circuits
came into widespread use in the early 1960's. Inspired by the writings of the
German
instrument designer
Harald Bode, Robert Moog, Donald Buchla and others created a new generation
of
easy to use, reliable
and popular electronic instruments.
1980-present:
Digital.
The next and current
generation of electronic instruments were the digital synthesisers of the 1980s.
These synthesisers
were software controlled offering complex control over various forms of synthesis
previously only
available on extremely expensive studio synthesisers. Early models of this generation
included the Yamaha
DX range and the Casio CZ synthesisers.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
120 Years of
Electronic Music
Electronic Musical
Instrument 1870 - 1990
Instrument
Inventor
Country
Date
1 8 7 0
The Musical Telegraph
Elisha Grey
USA
1876
The Singing Arc
William Duddel
United Kingdom
1899
The Telharmonium
Thaddeus Cahill
USA
1897
1 9 0 0
The Choralcello
Melvin Severy
USA
1909
The "Intonarumori"
Luigi Russolo
Italy
1913
The Audion Piano
Lee De Forest
USA
1915
The Optophonic
Piano
Vladimir Rossiné
Soviet Union
1916
The Theremin
Leon Termen
Soviet Union
1917
1 9 2 0
The Sphäraphon
Jörg Mager
Germany
1921
The Staccatone
Hugo Gernsbak
Germany
1923
The Pianorad
Hugo Gernsbak
Germany
1926
The Dynaphone
René Bertrand
France
1927
The Celluphone
Pierre Toulon
& Krugg
Bass
France
1927
The Clavier à
Lampes
A.Givelet &
E.Coupleaux France
1927
The Ondes-Martenot
Maurice Martenot
France
1928
Piano Radio-Électrique
A.Givelet &
E.Coupleaux France
1929
The Givelet
A.Givelet &
E.Coupleaux France
1929
The Sonorous
Cross
Nikolay Obukhov
France
1929
The Hellertion
B.Helberger &
P.Lertes
Germany
1929
1 9 3 0
The Trautonium
Dr Freidrich
Trautwein
Germany
1930
The Ondium Péchadre
H. Péchadre
France
1930
The Rhythmicon
Henry Cowell
& Leon
Termen
USA
1930
The Theremin
Cello
Leon Termen
USA
1930
The Westinghouse
Organ
R.C.Hitchock
USA
1930
The Sonar
N.Anan'yev
Soviet Union
c1930
Saraga-Generator
Wolja Saraga
Germany
1931
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
The "Ekvodin"
Andrei Volodin
&
K.Kovalski
Soviet Union
1931
The Trillion
Tone Organ
A. Lesti &
F. Sammis.
USA
1931
The Variophone
Yevgeny Sholpo
Soviet Union
1932
The Emiriton
A.Ivanov &
A.Rimsky-
Korsakov
Soviet Union
1932
The Emicon
N.Langer
USA
1932
The Rangertone
Organ
Richard H.Ranger
USA
1932
L'Orgue des Ondes
Armand Givelet
France
1933
Syntronic Organ
I.Eremeef &
L.Stokowski
USA
1934
The Polytone
Organ
A. Lesti &
F. Sammis
USA
1934
The Hammond Organ
Laurens Hammond
USA
1935
The Electrochord
-
USA
1936
The sonothèque
L. Lavalée
France
1936
The Heliophon
Bruno Hellberger
Germany
1936
The Grösstonorgel
Oskar Vierling
Germany
1936
The Welte Licht-Ton-Orgel
E.Welte
Germany
1936
The Singing Keyboard
F. Sammis
USA
1936
The Warbo Formant
organ Harald Bode & C. Warnke Germany
1937
The Kaleidophon
Jörg Mager
Germany
1939
The Novachord
L Hammond &
C.N.Williams
USA
1939
1 9 4 0
The Voder &
Vocoder
Homer Dudley
USA
1940
The Univox
Univox Co.
UK
1940
The Multimonica
Harald Bode
Germany
1940
The Pianophon
-
-
1940
The Ondioline
Georges Jenny
France
1940
The Solovox
Hammond Organs
Company
USA
1940
The Electronic
Sackbut
Hugh Le Caine
Canada
1945
The Tuttivox
Harald Bode
USA
1946
Hanert Electric
Orchestra
J. Hanert
USA
1945
The Minshall
Organ
-
USA
1947
The Clavioline
M. Constant Martin
France
1947
The Melochord
Harald Bode
Germany
1947
The Monochord
Dr Freidrich
Trautwein
Germany
1948
The Free Music
Machine
Percy Grainger
& Burnett
Cross
USA/Australia
1948
1 9 5 0
The Electronium
Pi
René Seybold
Germany
1950
The Polychord
Organ
Harald Bode
USA
1950
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Dr Kent's Electronic
Music
Box
Dr Earle Kent
USA
1951
The Clavivox
Raymond Scott
USA
1952
The RCA Synthesiser
I & II Harry Olsen & Hebert
Belar
USA
1952
The Composertron
Osmond Kendall
Canada
1953
MUSIC I-V Software
Max Mathews
USA
1957
Oramics
Daphne Oram
United Kingdom
1959
The Siemens Synthesiser
H.Klein &
W.Schaaf
Germany
1959
The Side Man
Wurlitzer
USA
1959
1 9 6 0
Milan Electronic
Music
Studio
director: Luciano
Berio
Italy
1960
Moog Synthesisers
Robert Moog
USA
1963
The Mellotron
&
Chamberlin
Leslie Bradley
United Kingdom
1963
Buchla Synthesisers
Donald Buchla
USA
1963
The Donca-Matic
DA-20
Keio Corp
Japan
1963
The Synket
Paul Ketoff
United Kingdom
1963
Tonus/ARP Synthesisers
Philip Dodds
USA
1964
PAiA Electronics,
Inc
John Paia Simonton
USA
1967
MUSYS Software
David Cockrell
& Peter
Grogno
United Kingdom
1968
EMS Synthesisers
Peter Zinovieff
& David
Cockrell
United Kingdom
1969
1 9 7 0
GROOVE System
Max Mathews
USA
1970
The Optigan
Mattel Inc.
USA
1970
The Electronium-Scott
Raymond Scott
USA
1970
Con Brio Synthesisers
-
USA
1971
Roland Synthesisers
Roland Corporation
Japan
1972
Maplin Synthesisers
Trevor G Marshall
Australia/USA
1973
The Synclavier
New England Digital
Corporation
USA
1975
Korg Synthesisers
Korg
Japan
1975
EVI wind instrument
Nyle Steiner
USA
1975
EDP Wasp
Chris Hugget
UK
1978
Yamaha Synthesisers
Yamaha Corp
Japan
1976
PPG Synthesisers
Wolfgang Palm
Germany
1975
Oberheim Synthesisers
Thomas Oberheim
USA
1978
Serge Synthesisers
-
-
1979
The Fairlight
CMI
Peter Vogel &
Kim Ryrie
Australia
1979
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
1 9 8 0
Simmons Drum
Synthesisers
Simmons
UK
1980
Casio Synthesisers
Casio Ltd
Japan
1981
The McLeyvier
David McLey
USA
1981
Kawai Synthesiser
Kawai Musical
Instrument
Co
Japan
-
The Emulator
Emu Systems
USA
1981
Waldorf
Germany
-
Oxford Synthesiser
Company
Chris Hugget
United Kingdom
1983
Akai Musical
Instruments
Akai Corporation
Japan
1984
Ensoniq Synthesisers
&
Samplers
-
USA
1985
Steinberg Software
Steinberg
Germany
-
GEM Synthesisers
-
-
-
Crumar Synthesisers
-
-
-
Kurzweil
Synthesisers/Samplers
Raymond Kurzweill
USA/Korea
1983
Sequential Circuits
-
USA
-
Alesis Corporation
Keith Barr
USA
1984
1 9 9 0
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Musique Concrète
In 1948 Paris,
history was made. Pierre Schaeffer, a French radio broadcaster, working for
the
Radiodiffusion-Television
Francaise (RTF), created the first electronic music studio. With a multitude
of microphones,
phonographs, variable speed tape recorders, and sound effect records he created
a new
art form, musique
concrete, and with it a world of new music opened up -- the world of electronic
music.
Schaeffer chose
to name his new art musique concrete to differentiate it from normal music,
musique
abstraite.
Music concrete
was recorded directly to tape with real (concrete) sounds, while musique abstraite
was
the traditional
way of composing by writing down the score to be played later.
Music Concrete
was based on manipulation of tape. (Although the first research involved phonograph
records, eventually
tape technology became more available, and with it the possibilities of splicing
and
pasting parts
together versus a non-re-recordable fixed format). It also concentrated on 'found
sounds' or
natural recordings
rather than electronically produced sounds such as synthesizers.
Pieces that would
last only a few minutes could take months of recording, cutting and splicing
to create.
Here are some
of the tape techniques used.
CUTTING and SPLICING
TAPE
Cutting the tape
at different angles was used to create different attacks and decays.
Attack and Delay
Cuts
A. soft attack
or decay
B. combined attack
and decay of two sounds
C. medium attack
or decay
D. hard attack
or abrupt finish
E. softer and
less abrupt than D
Not only did musique
concrete composers use the cuts shown above, but they would go so far as to
take
a long horizontal
cut , cut it into smaller calculated sizes, and splice the cuts together vertically
or at
different angles!
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Tape Loops
Creating a loop
consisted of taking tape with recorded material and splicing the ends of the
tape to make
a loop.
Short loop
Long loop
ECHO
Straight line
delay: The simplest echo effect can be created by using a 2 channel recorder.
The signal is
recorded, monitored
by the playback head, and sent back to the lower track of the record head. At
15
ips, the delay
is around 100 milliseconds.
Feedback delay:
Created by feeding the signal back into the record head of the channel originally
recorded on. It
may involve multiple channels and create a number of repetitions.
PITCH
Obviously changing
the speed of playback will affect the pitch. Lower pitch if slower, higher if
sped up.
Using 2 decks,
pitch changes can be recorded to tape. Early flanging effects were created by
lightly
touching the reel
as the track is being bounced to another track.
BACKWARDS MASKING
Reversing the
reels of recorded material and playing the tape backwards can be used to create
reverse
reverbs, attacks,
etc. Recording the reversed track to another tape deck is the easiest way, although
bouncing the reversed
track to an empty track on a multi track can be done.
Early Tape Decks
Phonogene
Schaeffer created
the phonogene. With it he was able to transpose a loop in 12 distinct steps
from using
a keyboard (this
led to the mellotron keyboard). The keyboard selected one of 12 capstans of
different
diameters, like
changing gears on a bike. A 2 speed motor allowed for octave transposition.
Morphophone
Used in the Paris
studio. It was a specialized loop deck. It had an erase head, record head, and
ten
playback heads
with an adjustable filter for each to create special timbre effects.
The lengths the
fathers of electronic music went to create a new sound is amazing. The excitement
of
pushing through
new frontiers of sound must have been exhilarating. We take the technologies
available
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
today for granted...and
perhaps in the far future, the technologies of today will be looked back on
with
the same amazement.
The Cologne Studio:
Birth Place of
Elektronische Musik
The Cologne studio
was built from a collaboration of several individuals. Each individual had different
skills and backgrounds
which contributed to the shaping of electronic music principles that grew from
Cologne.
In 1948, Dr. Werner
Meyer-Eppler, a mathematician, physicist, and director of Phonetics at Bonn
University, was
visited by Homer Dudley, a researcher at Bell Labs. Dudley had brought a brand
new
invention called
a vocoder (Voice Operated reCOrDER) which analyzed and synthesized speech. Meyer
- Eppler was impressed.
He made reference to it in an account on the history of electronic instruments
(Elektrische Klangerzeugung).
He demoed a tape of vocoder sounds at a lecture on electronic sound
production at
North-West German Music Academy. In the audience was Robert Beyer from West-
German Radio.
Beyer, an inventor
and author, was interested in the use of electronic in music production. He
and
Meyer-Eppler joined
forces and gave a lecture on ' The Sound World of Electronic Music' at Darmstadt.
Beyer concentrated
on design and manufacturing of electronic equipment, and Meyer-Eppler
concentrated on
research in speech synthesis. They were joined by composer Herbert Eimert. Eimert
was a devotee
of 12 tone music, and saw the potential of electronic sound in creating pure
12 tone
compositions,
un -encumbered by the acoustic limitations of available instruments.
In 1950, Harold
Bode brought a Melochord, a monophonic wave form generator with a keyboard,
for
them to check
out. They used it to produce music by layering tracks of tones. In 1951 they
presented
their results
at Darmstadt in a lecture entitled, 'The possibilities of Electronic Sound Production',
Beyer
wrote a paper
on 'Music and Technology', and Eimert discussed 'Music on the borderline'. Schaeffer
attended the summer
program that year and the tension between Music Concrete and Electronic Music
came to a boil.
1951. A radio
station in Cologne broadcast an evening program called 'the Sound World of Electronic
Music'. The show
featured a forum between Eimert, Beyer, and Meyer- Eppler. The director of the
station, Fritz
Enkel, was impressed and agreed to establish a studio to research electronic
music. The
studio took two
years to become fully operational. Eimert was named as the artistic director.
During the interim
that the studio was being constructed, Meyer-Eppler gave a lecture on '"The
Methods
of Electronic
Tone Generation' to around 2000 technologists in Bonn. The gospel of electronic
music
was spreading.
In 1952, composer
Bruno Maderna produced 'Musica sue due Dimensioni', which featured flute,
percussion, and
taped tones projected through a loud speaker, which was presented at Darmstadt.
In the
audience was Stockhausen
as well as other future electronic music composers such as Klebe, Koenig,
Hambraeus, Goeyvaerts,
and others. Stockhausen was also studying with Messian at this time.
Electronic and
Computer Music History of Electronic Music
Ironically, the
Maderna piece was not pure electronic as it also featured natural flute and
percussive
instruments, revealing
a softening in the hard-line principles of pure electronic music.
Beyer and Eimert
composed the first all-electronic works while the studio was still in construction.
Klang im unbegrenzten
Raum (1951-1952), Klangstudie 1 (1952), and Klangstudie II (1952-1953).
They were ironically
premiered in Paris.
The studio became
partially functional and other composers began to compose. At this time
Stockhausen became
associated with the studio. In 1953 he was appointed to assistant director under
Eimert. In 1963
he became the sole director until 1978. When he became director, the studio
was
reconstructed
to include two production rooms. One for sound and tone generation, and the
other for
recording and
playback. Music Concrete and Electronic Music began to merge as in Eimert's
Selecktion
(1959) in which
spoken text was included (although it was manipulated beyond recognition, it
still
involved found
sound).
"The first step
to real musical control of nature has been taken by electronic music. Its dependence
for
reproduction on
the loudspeaker - which moreover has brought about an as-yet-scarcely-noticed
subterranean revolution
in hearing- at last permits risking the hypothesis that the symphony fixed on
disk or tape may
be the surrogate and electronic music the true music . Here, we may surmise,
is the
point at which
the true order of music is revealed."
Tape Loops
The tape loop
is a loop spliced end to its beginning. The tape must be kept in the proper
relationship to
the heads and
cutoff sensor without benefit of the take-up or supply reels.
Tape Echo
Tape echo is developed
by the distance between the record and play heads on a tape deck. The tape
must take some
time to travel this distance. Therefore, if you are listening to the tape as
you are
recording you
hear the recorded sound a little later than the original.
Multiple echoes
are achieved by using a mixer to combine some of the playback signal with whatever
is
being recorded.
This is a feedback situation and care must be taken to see that echoes diminuendo
as
they come around
rather than build up.
The most interesting
applications of tape delay involve processing the feedback signal. This is simple
to
add, merely patch
from output to input by way of some processing device. Now whatever that device
does will be doubled
for each echo, often with startling results. I leave the various possibilities
to your
experimentation.