DOCSLIB.ORG

Electronic Music Technology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Music & Technology I: Electronic Music Technology 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 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: The definition of “music” was questioned in unprecedented ways: ! 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) Futurism 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 futurists Filippo Marinetti and Ugo Piatti) and intonarumori 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. ! Theremin: 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 ensemble, illustrating the popularity of this instrument. $Thereminist Clara Rockmore VIDEO Camille Saint-Säens: The Swan performed by Clara Rockmore on theremin Maurice Martenot and his instrument the ondes-martenot ondes-martenot Electronic Music: Post-WWII Developments ! Following World War II, studios associated with radio stations began to flourish throughout Europe: • Radiodiffusion-Télévision Françaises (RTF), Paris: founded by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry • Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), Cologne: founded by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Herbert Eimert • Studio di fonologia, Milan: founded by Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna ! In the United States, electronic music studios were affiliated with universities : • Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York City: founded by Vladimir 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), Stanford University: 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 ! Associated with RTF studio and composers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. ! Microphone and tape recorder 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 serialism, because the composer 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 Philips Pavilion ("), 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. Henri Pousseur Bruno Henk Maderna Pierre Badings Schaeffer Mauricio Luciano Kagel Berio Earle Brown 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, Pril Smiley, Mario Davidovsky, and Alice Shields (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). Robert Moog (") and Donald Buchla (#) with their eponymous synthesizers. Buchla synthesizers Carlos! “Switched-On Bach” album (1969), realizations of Bach keyboard works on the Moog synthesizer. Wendy (Walter) Carlos (b.1939) Synclavier (1975-91) Yamaha DX-7 (1983-86) Yamaha Disklavier (1987- ) Notation of Electronic Music 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) Avant-Garde Mobile From David Cope, New Directions in Music $Thomas Edison and his phonograph (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 Telharmonium (c. 1904).
Recommended publications
  • Report to the Friends of Music

    Report to the Friends of Music

    Summer, 2020 Dear Friends of the Music Department, The 2019-20 academic year has been like no other. After a vibrant fall semester featur- ing two concerts by the Parker Quartet, the opening of the innovative Harvard ArtLab featuring performances by our faculty and students, an exciting array of courses and our inaugural department-wide throwdown–an informal sharing of performance projects by students and faculty–we began the second semester with great optimism. Meredith Monk arrived for her Fromm Professorship, Pedro Memelsdorff came to work with the Univer- sity Choir as the Christoph Wolff Scholar, Esperanza Spalding and Carolyn Abbate began co-teaching an opera development workshop about Wayne Shorter’s Iphigenia, and Vijay Iyer planned a spectacular set of Fromm Players concerts and a symposium called Black Speculative Musicalities. And then the world changed. Harvard announced on March 10, 2020 that due to COVID-19, virtual teaching would begin after spring break and the undergraduates were being sent home. We had to can- cel all subsequent spring events and radically revise our teaching by learning to conduct classes over Zoom. Our faculty, staff, and students pulled together admirably to address the changed landscape. The opera workshop (Music 187r) continued virtually; students in Vijay Iyer’s Advanced Ensemble Workshop (Music 171) created an album of original mu- sic, “Mixtape,” that is available on Bandcamp; Meredith Monk created a video of students in her choral class performing her work in progress, Fields/Clouds, and Andy Clark created an incredible performance of the Harvard Choruses for virtual graduation that involved a complicated process of additive recording over Zoom.
  • Delia Derbyshire

    Delia Derbyshire

    www.delia-derbyshire.org Delia Derbyshire Delia Derbyshire was born in Coventry, England, in 1937. Educated at Coventry Grammar School and Girton College, Cambridge, where she was awarded a degree in mathematics and music. In 1959, on approaching Decca records, Delia was told that the company DID NOT employ women in their recording studios, so she went to work for the UN in Geneva before returning to London to work for music publishers Boosey & Hawkes. In 1960 Delia joined the BBC as a trainee studio manager. She excelled in this field, but when it became apparent that the fledgling Radiophonic Workshop was under the same operational umbrella, she asked for an attachment there - an unheard of request, but one which was, nonetheless, granted. Delia remained 'temporarily attached' for years, regularly deputising for the Head, and influencing many of her trainee colleagues. To begin with Delia thought she had found her own private paradise where she could combine her interests in the theory and perception of sound; modes and tunings, and the communication of moods using purely electronic sources. Within a matter of months she had created her recording of Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme, one of the most famous and instantly recognisable TV themes ever. On first hearing it Grainer was tickled pink: "Did I really write this?" he asked. "Most of it," replied Derbyshire. Thus began what is still referred to as the Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop. Initially set up as a service department for Radio Drama, it had always been run by someone with a drama background.
  • The Rai Studio Di Fonologia (1954–83)

    The Rai Studio Di Fonologia (1954–83)

    ELECTRONIC MUSIC HISTORY THROUGH THE EVERYDAY: THE RAI STUDIO DI FONOLOGIA (1954–83) Joanna Evelyn Helms A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music. Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: Andrea F. Bohlman Mark Evan Bonds Tim Carter Mark Katz Lee Weisert © 2020 Joanna Evelyn Helms ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Joanna Evelyn Helms: Electronic Music History through the Everyday: The RAI Studio di Fonologia (1954–83) (Under the direction of Andrea F. Bohlman) My dissertation analyzes cultural production at the Studio di Fonologia (SdF), an electronic music studio operated by Italian state media network Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) in Milan from 1955 to 1983. At the SdF, composers produced music and sound effects for radio dramas, television documentaries, stage and film operas, and musical works for concert audiences. Much research on the SdF centers on the art-music outputs of a select group of internationally prestigious Italian composers (namely Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, and Luigi Nono), offering limited windows into the social life, technological everyday, and collaborative discourse that characterized the institution during its nearly three decades of continuous operation. This preference reflects a larger trend within postwar electronic music histories to emphasize the production of a core group of intellectuals—mostly art-music composers—at a few key sites such as Paris, Cologne, and New York. Through close archival reading, I reconstruct the social conditions of work in the SdF, as well as ways in which changes in its output over time reflected changes in institutional priorities at RAI.
  • City Research Online

    City Research Online

    City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Pace, I. (2017). Michael Finnissy - The Piano Music (10 and 11) - Brochure from Conference 'Bright Futures, Dark Pasts'. This is the other version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/17523/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] BRIGHT FUTURES, DARK PASTS Michael Finnissy at 70 Conference at City, University of London January 19th-20th 2017 Bright Futures, Dark Pasts Michael Finnissy at 70 After over twenty-five years sustained engagement with the music of Michael Finnissy, it is my great pleasure finally to be able to convene a conference on his work. This event should help to stimulate active dialogue between composers, performers and musicologists with an interest in Finnissy’s work, all from distinct perspectives. It is almost twenty years since the publication of Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998).
  • Gardner • Even Orpheus Needs a Synthi Edit No Proof

    Gardner • Even Orpheus Needs a Synthi Edit No Proof

    James Gardner Even Orpheus Needs a Synthi Since his return to active service a few years ago1, Peter Zinovieff has appeared quite frequently in interviews in the mainstream press and online outlets2 talking not only about his recent sonic art projects but also about the work he did in the 1960s and 70s at his own pioneering computer electronic music studio in Putney. And no such interview would be complete without referring to EMS, the synthesiser company he co-founded in 1969, or namechecking the many rock celebrities who used its products, such as the VCS3 and Synthi AKS synthesisers. Before this Indian summer (he is now 82) there had been a gap of some 30 years in his compositional activity since the demise of his studio. I say ‘compositional’ activity, but in the 60s and 70s he saw himself as more animateur than composer and it is perhaps in that capacity that his unique contribution to British electronic music during those two decades is best understood. In this article I will discuss just some of the work that was done at Zinovieff’s studio during its relatively brief existence and consider two recent contributions to the documentation and contextualization of that work: Tom Hall’s chapter3 on Harrison Birtwistle’s electronic music collaborations with Zinovieff; and the double CD Electronic Calendar: The EMS Tapes,4 which presents a substantial sampling of the studio’s output between 1966 and 1979. Electronic Calendar, a handsome package to be sure, consists of two CDs and a lavishly-illustrated booklet with lengthy texts.
  • Bibliographie Stockhausen 1952-2013 Engl

    Bibliographie Stockhausen 1952-2013 Engl

    Stockhausen-Bibliography 1952-2013 [June 2013] The following bibliography alphabetically lists the authors who have written secondary literature about Karlheinz Stockhausen’s oeuvre: monographs, articles in books, periodicals and dictionaries, comprehensive works in which Stockhausen’s oeuvre is examined in detail. Reviews, contributions to concert programmes and publications in daily and weekly newspapers are only mentioned if they are considered to have reference value. Stockhausen’s own texts are not included, and conversations and interviews are only partly listed. Several works by the same author are listed consecutively in chronological order. When the name of the author was not available, the titel was listed alphabetically. This list includes the bibliographies that were published in Texte zur Musik, Vol. 6 (compiled by Chr. von Blumröder and H. Henck) and Vol. 10 (Chr. von Blumröder, R. Sengstock, D. Schwerdtfeger), and was supplemented and up-dated until 2013 (M. Luckas, I. Misch). Abkürzungen und Siglen / Abbreviations and Sigla AfMw. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft / Archive for Musicology Aufl. Auflage / printing Ausg. Ausgabe / edition Bd., Bde Band, Bände / volume, volumes Beitr. Beitrag / contribution BzAfMw. Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft / Supplementary booklets for the Archive for Musicology ders., dies. derselbe, dieselbe / the same DMT Dansk musiktidsskrift dt. deutsch / German eng. englisch / English erw. erweitert / supplemented Ffm. Frankfurt am Main / Frankfurt FP Feedback Papers frz. französisch / French H. Heft / booklet, issue Hbg Hamburg hg. herausgegeben / edited HmT Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie, hg. v. H. H. Eggebrecht, Wiesbaden 1972–1983, Stuttgart 1984–2006 / Hand Dictionary of Musical Terminology Ins. Institut / Institute jap. japanisch / Japanese Ldn London 1 ML Music and Letters MR The Music Review MT The Musical Times MuB Musik und Bildung Mw.
  • Programmheft Und Die Konzerteinführung Gehören Zu Den Ergebnissen Dieser Arbeit

    Programmheft Und Die Konzerteinführung Gehören Zu Den Ergebnissen Dieser Arbeit

    © Stockhausen-Archiv Ensemble Earquake Oboe..................................Margarita Souka Violoncello.........................Claudia Cecchinato Klarinette...........................Man-Chi Chan Fagott................................Berenike Mosler Violine.................................Anna Teigelack Tuba...................................Sandro Hartung Flöte...................................Samantha Arbogast Posaune.............................Daniil Gorokhov (a.G.) Viola...................................Tom Congdon Trompete...........................Jonas Heinzelmann Kontrabass.........................Marian Kushniryk Horn...................................Lukas Kuhn Schlagzeug........................Nadine Baert Klangregie.........................Selim M’rad Caspar Ernst Ernst-Lukas Kuhlmann Tutor...................................Orlando Boeck Musikalische Leitung.........Kathinka Pasveer Gesamtleitung...................Merve Kazokoğlu Was bedeutete „Neue Musik“ für Karlheinz Stockhausen? Ganz und gar optimistisch, neugierig und kosmopolitisch scheint Stockhausens Musik – und nicht mehr in den engen Grenzen europä- ischer Musikästhetik verstehbar. Zwar war Stockhausen selbst ein Teil der westdeutschen musikalischen Avantgarde nach 1945 und prägte daher zahlreiche Neuerungen der hiesigen damaligen Musikgeschich- te, – hier sind serielle Techniken ebenso wie die künstliche Tonerzeu- gung mit Studiotechnik erwähnenswert, – endgültig verpflichtet bliebt er jedoch keinem der dort erprobten Ansätze und verband die gewon- nenen Anregungen
  • Expanding Horizons: the International Avant-Garde, 1962-75

    Expanding Horizons: the International Avant-Garde, 1962-75

    452 ROBYNN STILWELL Joplin, Janis. 'Me and Bobby McGee' (Columbia, 1971) i_ /Mercedes Benz' (Columbia, 1971) 17- Llttle Richard. 'Lucille' (Specialty, 1957) 'Tutti Frutti' (Specialty, 1955) Lynn, Loretta. 'The Pili' (MCA, 1975) Expanding horizons: the International 'You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man' (MCA, 1966) avant-garde, 1962-75 'Your Squaw Is On the Warpath' (Decca, 1969) The Marvelettes. 'Picase Mr. Postman' (Motown, 1961) RICHARD TOOP Matchbox Twenty. 'Damn' (Atlantic, 1996) Nelson, Ricky. 'Helio, Mary Lou' (Imperial, 1958) 'Traveling Man' (Imperial, 1959) Phair, Liz. 'Happy'(live, 1996) Darmstadt after Steinecke Pickett, Wilson. 'In the Midnight Hour' (Atlantic, 1965) Presley, Elvis. 'Hound Dog' (RCA, 1956) When Wolfgang Steinecke - the originator of the Darmstadt Ferienkurse - The Ravens. 'Rock All Night Long' (Mercury, 1948) died at the end of 1961, much of the increasingly fragüe spirit of collegial- Redding, Otis. 'Dock of the Bay' (Stax, 1968) ity within the Cologne/Darmstadt-centred avant-garde died with him. Boulez 'Mr. Pitiful' (Stax, 1964) and Stockhausen in particular were already fiercely competitive, and when in 'Respect'(Stax, 1965) 1960 Steinecke had assigned direction of the Darmstadt composition course Simón and Garfunkel. 'A Simple Desultory Philippic' (Columbia, 1967) to Boulez, Stockhausen had pointedly stayed away.1 Cage's work and sig- Sinatra, Frank. In the Wee SmallHoun (Capítol, 1954) Songsfor Swinging Lovers (Capítol, 1955) nificance was a constant source of acrimonious debate, and Nono's bitter Surfaris. 'Wipe Out' (Decca, 1963) opposition to himz was one reason for the Italian composer being marginal- The Temptations. 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone' (Motown, 1972) ized by the Cologne inner circle as a structuralist reactionary.
  • Eric Chasalow/Over the Edge New World Records 80440 in Art, One

    Eric Chasalow/Over the Edge New World Records 80440 in Art, One

    Eric Chasalow/Over the Edge New World Records 80440 In art, one and one at times make three. In art for the ear, and particularly with acoustic in combination with electronically-created sounds, the listener tends to hear rather more than a lockstep summation of parts. And it's perhaps this phantom dimension that most intrigues the listener. Again perhaps, as in a difficult love affair, a resonance arises from the antipodal aspects of seeming incompatibility and obviously compelling attraction. One is therefore given to approach music so conceived as forever newly plowed ground. Odd, then, in terms of expectation, that the first electro-acoustic compositions incorporating magnetic tape appeared (as I write) just over forty years ago: New Grove cites Bruno Maderna's aptly titled Musica su due dimensione I, for flute and tape, and Edgard Varese's Deserts of 1950-54, for orchestra and tape, as among the earliest examples. Earlier still, in 1939, before the advent of magnetic tape, John Cage composed his Imaginary Landscape No. 1, for piano, Chinese cymbal, and two variable-speed turntables. Significant music marks the way as milestones, with regard particularly to this CD. Karlheinz Stockhausen's 1959-60 version of Kontakte, for tape, piano, and percussion; Milton Babbitt's 1963-64 Philomel, for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized tape; Babbitt's 1974 Reflections, for piano and synthesized tape; Roger Reynolds's Transfigured Wind IV from 1985, for flute, computer, and tape; and Mario Davidovsky's ten Synchronisms, for a variety of solo instruments, ensemble combinations, and tape. Eric Chasalow's choice to study with Davidovsky is significant.
  • Computer Music Studio and Sonic Lab at Anton Bruckner University

    Computer Music Studio and Sonic Lab at Anton Bruckner University

    Computer Music Studio and Sonic Lab research zone (Computermusik-Forschungsraum), a workstation, an archive room/depot and (last but not at Anton Bruckner University least) offices for colleagues and the directors. Studio Report 2.1. Sonic Lab The Sonic Lab is an intermedia computer music concert Andreas Weixler Se-Lien Chuang hall with periphonic speaker system, created by Andreas Weixler for the Bruckner University to enable internatio- Anton Bruckner University Atelier Avant Austria nal exchanges for teaching and production with other Computer Music Studio Austria/EU developed computer music studios. 20 full range audio [email protected] Linz, Austria/EU channels plus 4 subsonic channels surround the audience, [email protected] enabling sounds to move in space in both the horizontal and vertical planes. A double video and data projection Figure 2 capability allows the performance of audiovisual works . preparation at the Sonic Lab and also the accommodation of conferences, etc. ABSTRACT The Computer Music Studio organizes numerous concert In the opening concert compositions by John Chowning Voices and lecture series, regionally, nationally and internation- ( - for Maureen Chowning - v.3 for soprano and The CMS (Computer Music Studio) [1] at Anton Bruckn- BEASTiary ally [3]. electronics), Jonty Harrison ( ), Karlheinz Essl er University in Linz, Austria is hosted now in a new (Autumn's Leaving for pipa and live electronics), Se-Lien building with two new studios including conceptional 1.1. History Chuang (Nowhereland for extended piano, bass clarinet, side rooms and a multichannel intermedia computer mu- multichannel electro-acoustics and live electronics) and sic concert hall - the Sonic Lab [2].
  • Holmes Electronic and Experimental Music

    Holmes Electronic and Experimental Music

    C H A P T E R 3 Early Electronic Music in the United States I was at a concert of electronic music in Cologne and I noticed that, even though it was the most recent electronic music, the audience was all falling asleep. No matter how interesting the music was, the audience couldn’t stay awake. That was because the music was coming out of loudspeakers. —John Cage Louis and Bebe Barron John Cage and The Project of Music for Magnetic Tape Innovation: John Cage and the Advocacy of Chance Composition Cage in Milan Listen: Early Electronic Music in the United States The Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center The Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music Roots of Computer Music Summary Milestones: Early Electronic Music of the United States Plate 3.1 John Cage and David Tudor, 1962. (John Cage Trust) 80 EARLY HISTORY – PREDECESSORS AND PIONEERS Electronic music activity in the United States during the early 1950s was neither organ- ized nor institutional. Experimentation with tape composition took place through the efforts of individual composers working on a makeshift basis without state support. Such fragmented efforts lacked the cohesion, doctrine, and financial support of their Euro- pean counterparts but in many ways the musical results were more diverse, ranging from works that were radically experimental to special effects for popular motion pictures and works that combined the use of taped sounds with live instrumentalists performing on stage. The first electronic music composers in North America did not adhere to any rigid schools of thought regarding the aesthetics of the medium and viewed with mixed skepticism and amusement the aesthetic wars taking place between the French and the Germans.
  • City, University of London Institutional Repository

    City, University of London Institutional Repository

    City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Pace, I. ORCID: 0000-0002-0047-9379 (2021). New Music: Performance Institutions and Practices. In: McPherson, G and Davidson, J (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/25924/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] New Music: Performance Institutions and Practices Ian Pace For publication in Gary McPherson and Jane Davidson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), chapter 17. Introduction At the beginning of the twentieth century concert programming had transitioned away from the mid-eighteenth century norm of varied repertoire by (mostly) living composers to become weighted more heavily towards a historical and canonical repertoire of (mostly) dead composers (Weber, 2008).