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Music & Technology I: Electronic

Terminology

! Electronic/

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

!

!

! Stochastic music

!

! Digital Interface (MIDI)

! Interactive composition

! Acousmatic composition

! Radiophonic Art

! New media: webcasts, podcasts 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 (early-20th century)

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

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

! : “” (1913)

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

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

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

Sound Poem by Filippo Marinetti. Futurism

Luigi Russolo (with fellow futurists Filippo Marinetti and Ugo Piatti) and instruments. Futurism Luigi Russolo: The Art of Noise (1913) Russolo outlined the following categories of sounds:

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

! Whistles, hisses, snorts.

! Whispers, murmurs, mumbles, grumbles, gurgles.

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

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

! Voices of animals and men: shouts, screams, groans, shrieks, howls, laughs, Luigi Russolo (with fellow futurists wheezes, sobs. Filippo Marinetti and Ugo Piatti) and intonarumori instruments. Luigi Russolo: Score to Awakening of a City (1914) Early Electronic Instruments

! Tellharmonium: invented by Thaddeus Cahill in 1902.

! : invented by Leon Theremin in 1920.

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

"Theremin

#Ondes-martenot

!Tellharmonium Early Electronic Instruments

Leon Theremin with his eponymous instrument. "Theremin , illustrating the popularity of this instrument.

$Thereminist

VIDEO Camille Saint-Säens: The Swan performed by Clara Rockmore on theremin Maurice Martenot and his instrument the ondes-martenot ondes-martenot : Post-WWII Developments

! Following World War II, studios associated with radio stations began to flourish throughout Europe: • Radiodiffusion-Télévision Françaises (RTF), : founded by and • Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), Cologne: founded by and • Studio di fonologia, : founded by and

! In the , were affiliated with universities : • Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, City: founded by and (Columbia); and and (Princeton). • University of Illinois Studio, Urbana-Champaign: founded by . • Center for Computer Research in Music and (CCRMA), : founded by . • Other major centers include those at UC San Diego (CRCA), UC Berkeley (CNMAT), MIT, and University of North Texas (CEMI). Musique concrète

! Associated with RTF studio and Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. ! and are the primary tools: pre-recorded sounds are manipulated (via loops, speed change, tape direction) and recombined in various ways. ! Sound originally drawn from “non-musical” sources; later broadened to include manipulated recordings of musical instruments/voice. # Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) # Pierre Henry (b. 1927)

Pierre Schaeffer: Étude aux chemins de fer (1948) Musique concrète

$Pierre Schaeffer at the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Françaises (RTF), later known as the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM).

"François Bayle at GRM. Elektronische Musik

! Associated with NWDR Studio and composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Herbert 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 , because the had total control of the sound at the timbral level.

! Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and the NWDR Studio Karlheinz Stockhausen: Studie II (1954) Edgard Varèse with assistant in the Philips Studio (Eindhoven, Netherlands). Edgard Varése and Le Corbusier at the Brussels World Fair (!) and in front of the ("), c.1958.

Edgard Varése and Le Corbusier Le Corbusier: Philips Pavilion; Brussels, Belgium (1958) Sketch for Le Corbusier!s Philips Pavilion Sound pathways for the 425-speaker configuration used for Varèse!s Poéme électronique in the Philips Pavilion. Edgard Varèse: Poéme électronique sketch Edgard Varèse: Poéme électronique score (detail) Advertisement for first performance of Varèse!s Poéme électronique. Bruno Henk Maderna Pierre Badings Schaeffer

Mauricio Luciano Kagel Berio

Karlheinz Stockhausen

John Cage

Composers at Brussels World Fair (1958) Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center Milton Babbitt (b. 1916) with the RCA Mark II Computer, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and composers Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening (front row); unidentified person, , , and (1970)

" Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934) Synchronisms No. 5 (1969) Merrill Ellis (1916-1981)

Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI), formerly the Electronic Music Center (EMC), at the University of North Texas (founded 1963). (") and Donald Buchla (#) with their eponymous synthesizers. Buchla synthesizers Carlos! “Switched-On Bach” (1969), realizations of Bach keyboard works on the Moog .

Wendy (Walter) Carlos (b.1939) (1975-91)

Yamaha DX-7 (1983-86) Yamaha Disklavier (1987- ) Notation of Electronic Music a. Karlheinz Stockhausen: (1958-60) Notation of Electronic Music b. Mario Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 1 (1963) Notation of Electronic Music c. Milton Babbitt: (1964)

Avant-Garde Mobile

From , New Directions in Music $Thomas Edison and his (1878).

"An early recording session Futurism

Luigi Russolo (left) with Ugo Piatti and intonarumori

Russolo!s intonarumori used in an ensemble of traditional instruments. Futurism

Umberto Boccioni: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1915) Early Electronic Instruments

Thaddeus Cahill!s (c. 1904)