HISTORY & AESTHETICS of ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MUSIC

Course After its practical emergence in the late 1940’s, electro-acoustic music became an integral part of 20 th and 21 st century music history.

This course will explore the aesthetical, ideological and technical evolution of electroacoustic music in historical context.

Instructor C. Barkın Engin

E-mail [email protected]

Building Fac.of Arts and Social Sci. Room G030 Class Hours Monday / Tuesday 12:40 – 15:30 Prerequisites None Textbooks Chadabe, Joe. 1997. Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Cox, Christoph & Warner, Daniel. 2009. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. New York: Continuum

Manning, Peter. 1985. Electronic & Computer Music . New York: Oxford University Press.

Wishart, Trevor. 1996. On Sonic Art. (2 nd edn.) New York: Routledge.

Software Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net Recommended Emmerson, Simon. 1986. The language of Electro-acoustic Music . London: The Textbooks Macmillan Press.

Landy, Leigh. 2007. Understanding the Art of Sound Organization . London. MIT Press.

Rules Listening journals, etudes and final project are to be completed by the due date. No late submissions will be graded. Student presentations cannot be postponed.

Assessment Attendance 10 %, Assignments & Quiz 20 %, Listening Journals % 30, Final Project 40 %

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Course Syllabus

Week Day Topic Commands, Assignments & Exams 1 Introduction to Aesthetics & Theory Reading: a) Fundamentals of electro-acoustic composition: Sonic continuum a) Wishart, Trevor - Chapter 1 & 2 b) Critical / analytical listening b)Busoni, Ferruccio - c) Modes of listening “Sketch of a New Early Technological & Theoretical Developments I Aesthetic of Music”

a) Concise History of Audio recording c)Pratella, Balilla - “Manifesto of Futurist b) Echoes of the industrial revolution 1: The mutation of Musicians” the orchestra: Honegger, Antheil, and Mossolov. d)Russolo, Luigi – “The c) Echoes of the industrial revolution 2: Early theories and manifestations. Art of Noise”

Recommended Online Sources e)Varese, Edgard – “The Liberation of th a) 20 Century Music: Sound” www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory40.htm Listening: b) 20 th Century Art: www.ubu.com CD Set No: 1

2 Early Technological & Theoretical Developments II Reading:

a) The emergence of electronic musical instruments a)Chadabe, Joel – b) Phonograph experiments: Hindemith & Cage Chapter 1

Presentation 1 b)Manning, Peter – “The Background to Screening: Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1994) 1945” Dir: Steven Martin c)Cox & Warner – Recommended Online Sources: Chapter 21 – 22- 47 a) Electronic Music Instruments: 120years.net/ Listening: b) History of Recording Technology: CD Set No: 2 history.sandiego.edu/GEN/recording/notes.html 3 Early Electroacoustic Works (1948 -1960) Reading:

a) Musique concréte (Paris) a)Manning, Peter – b) Electronische musik (Cologne) “Paris and Musique Concréte” & “Cologne 2

Early Electroacoustic Music in the Rest of the World and Elektronische Musik” a) From USA to Japan b) Turkish composers: Bülent Arel & İlhan Mimaroğlu b)Cox & Warner - Chapter 14 - 54 Presentation 2 Listening: Screening: Alchemists of Sound – BBC Radiophonic CD Set No: 3 Workshop (2003)

Dir: Roger Pomphrey

Recommended Online Sources:

a) Tim Hodgkinson: “Interview with Pierre Schaeffer”

www.elemental.org/ele_ment/said&did/schaeffer_interview. html

b) Herbert Eimert: “What is Electronic Music?”: www.scribd.com/doc/7396247/Herbert-Eimert-What- is-Electronic-Music-Die-Reihe-Vol1-1957

c) Bülent Arel: www.msxlabs.org/forum/muzik-tr/14688- bulent-arel-bulent-arel-kimdir-bulent-arel- hakkinda.html

d) İlhan Mimaroğlu: www.earlabs.org/label/LC/LC009.htm

4 Evolution of Electroacoustic Music (1960-1990) Reading:

a) Invention of voltage controlled synthesizers: a)Chadabe, Joel – Moog, Buchla and others. Chapter 5 & 6

b) Live electronic music b)Cox & Warner - Chapter 42 - 43 - 44 c) Process music Listening: d) Computer music CD Set No: 4 Presentation 3

Screening: Moog (2004)

Dir: Hans Fjellestad

Recommended Online Sources:

a) History of Synthesizers: www.studiomastering.net/e/mastering08e.html

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b) Process Music: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_music

Submission of listening journals 1-3!

5 Digital Age (1990 - ) Reading:

a) Aesthetics of the 2000’s: Microsound / Glitch a) Cox & Warner - b) Mainstream electronica: From Kraftwerk to IDM Chapter 49 - 56 - 57

c) Spatial music and sound installation

Sound Synthesis and Sound Processing I Listening: CD Set No: 5 a) Before the microprocessors: Early techniques and tools. (1948 – 1970)

Presentation 4

Screening: Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution (2008)

Dir: Prism Production

6 Sound Synthesis and Sound Processing II Assignment:

a) After the microprocessors: Etude composition 1 b) Recent techniques and software. (1970 – 2010)

QUIZ! Listening: CD Set No: 6 Recommended Online Sources: a) Sound Synthesis: en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sound_Synthesis_Theory

7 Aesthetics & Theory II Start working on final projects: a) Form and morphology Etude composition b) Universal terminology. No: 2

c) In class evaluation of etude no: 1

Presentation 5

Submission of listening journals 4-6!

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