Transcript File - Music Technology 2

History and Practice of
Electronic Music
Instruments, Technology, Organizations, Composers, Performers,
Schools of Thought
S
Music + Technology
S A sidenote before we start….
S Music has always been tied to technology!
S
From the development of early instruments to the latest in DSP
processing!
S There is a balance between inventor/performer/composer
with each new invention
S Each respective creator has a role in the evolution of
music and its technology
The Telharmonium
•
Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934)
•
“Father of Muzak”
•
Aka: Dynamophone
•
Huge
•
•
Bigger than your living room!
Transmitted through
telephone lines
•
Complete failure!
•
Demise brought on by advent
of radio
•
Triggered birth of electronic
music
The Telharmonium
S Patented in 1897
S Music-generation:
Pitch shafts, or axles, which were mounted “tone wheels” that
were made of metal and notched
S Used multiple tone wheels per pitch to make multiple
overtones per pitch to create a warm sound
S
S Two parts
S Keyboard console
S Machinery in a different room
The Telharmonium
S Absolutely massive!
S 12 pitch shafts, 30 feet each!
S 2,000 switches!
S 200 tons!
S Moving it required 30 railroad cars
S Used an enormous amount of power
S
S
The power grid could not grow exponentially
Pressing more key would split available power and reduce the volume on
each note
The Telharmonium
S Concerts began in NY in 1906
S Initially successful, then amazingly unsuccessful
S
S
S
S
It was too expensive to operate
Not portable
Run concerts over phone lines
People just lost interest
S Final Concert in 1908
S No known recordings
The Telharmonium
The Theremin
•
1917 (1920)
•
Leon Theremin
•
Protruding metal
antennae = pitch
•
Metal loop = volume
•
Monophonic continuous
tone
•
Fixed Timbre
The Theremin
•
Leon Theremin (1896-1993)
•
(Russian name Lev Termen)
•
Important pioneer of electronic music
•
1920s-moved to US
•
•
Patented Theremin
1938-kidnapped by Russians!
•
•
put in Siberian prison
Thought to be dead
•
Created first “bug” for tracking and
listening to people without their
knowledge
•
Later taught at Moscow Conservatory
How Does it work?
S Uses a method called Heterodyning
S 2 supersonic radio frequencies
S Near in frequency
S Mixed
S The “combination tones” are heard
S
Tones that are the difference between the frequencies
S F1+F2 combined with F1-F2 (sound familiar?)
S Frequencies are mixed in the Theremin and output
Theremin
S Unfortunately used mostly as novelty
S
People performed single-line literature that could be played on a
stringed instrument
S John Cage’s early view:
“When Theremin provided an instrument with genuinely new
possibilities, Thereminists did their utmost to make the
instrument sound like some old instrument, giving it a
sickeningly sweet vibrato, and performing upon it, with
difficulty, masterpieces from the past. Although the instrument
is capable of a wide variety of sound qualities, obtained by the
turning of the dial, Thereminists act as censors, giving the
public those sounds they think the public will like. We are
shielded from new sound experiences.”
-From Silence
Famous Performers
S Theremin could play the instrument
S Two virtuosic students
S
S
Clara Rockmore (1910-1998)
S Played mostly rep for other instruments
S Remembered at the greatest master
Lucie Bigelow Rosen (1890-1968)
S Pioneer of new music
S Explore new territories
S Commissioned several composers
S Many others could play the Theremin, but not with the skill and
aptitude of Rockmore and Rosen
S Theremins still make their way into film soundtracks and popular music
today!
The Ondes Martenot
•
1928
•
Maurice Martenot (1898-1980)
•
•
Influenced by Theremin
First successful electronic
instrument
•
Still used today!
•
Early-string attached to finger
ring
•
Later- keyboard added
•
Expression key to change
timbre
The Ondes Martenot
• Used by many
composers! (>300)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Messiaen
Varese
Milhaud
Honegger
Peringer
Messiaen “Turangalila
Symphony” (excerpt)
The Ondes Martenot
Ondes Martenot
A few videos to check out:
S http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9UBjrUjwo
S http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpdK-
kSW4KA
S http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh6Fk0gLFog
First Generation of EA
Composition
France, Germany, Italy, United States
S
Musique Concréte
•
Construction of music using:
•
•
•
•
Sound recording tools
Natural sounds
Electronic signals
Instrumental sounds
•
1948 - France (Paris)
•
Pierre Schaeffer
•
•
Radio engineer, broadcaster, writer, and biographer
Pierre Henry
•
Classically trained composer
Musique Concréte
S Different approach from traditional composing.
S Works directly with the sound material
S Rather than with a score
S The material preceded the structure
S
Not all pieces were written this way, but its the approach Schaeffer
used to develop his aesthetic ideas
L’Objet Sonore
S Means “the sound object”
S Developed by Schaeffer and Abraham Moles (1922-92)
S Moles view on musical material,
S “separable in experiments from the continuity of
perception”
S Sound object is sound that exists apart from human
perception.
S Music becomes a “sequence of sound objects” in musique
concrete
S 3 characteristics; amplitude, frequency, time
RTF
S Radiodiffusion-Television Français
S Schaeffer worked in the Studio d’Essai of the Radiodiffusion
Nationale (he developed in 1943)
S Devoted to experiments in radio production and musical
acoustics
S Had a wealth of radio broadcasting equipment
S
Filters, microphones, disc-cutting lathes, reverb chamber, portable
recording, SFX library
Pierre Schaeffer
S
“Etude aux Chemins de
Fer” (1948)
S
S
S
S
First EA piece
Uses turntables
From Études de Bruits
“Studies of noise”
Significance to electronic
music:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Composing was realized
through technological
means
Any manner of sounds
were used
Could be replayed
identically over and over
Presentation of the
work required no
performers
RTF Music
S Symphonie pour un homme seul (1949-50)
S “Symphony for a Man Alone”
S First major collaboration between Schaeffer and Henry
S 12-Movements
S Early use of turntables for composition and not just for record
playback
S Based on two categories of sounds:
S
S
Human sounds (breathing, vocal fragments, shouting, humming whistling)
Non-Human sounds (foot stomping, knocking, percussion, prepared piano,
orchestral instruments)
GRM
•
Groupe de Recherches
Musicales
•
Originally called GRMC
(musique concréte), 1951
•
Henry resigned and
Schaeffer renamed it GRM
in 1958
•
Originators (GRM):
•
•
•
•
Pierre Schaeffer
Iannis Xenakis
Francois Bayle
Luc Ferrari
Sidenote…Schaeffer
S Never was comfortable as a composer:
S
S
“I fought like a demon throughout all the years of discovery and exploration in musique
concréte. I fought against electronic music [electronische musik, germany], which was
another approach, a systemic approach, when I preferred an experimental approach
actually working directly, empirically with the sound. But at the same time, as I
defended the music I was working on, I was personally horrified at what I was doing…I
was deeply unhappy at what I was doing. I was happy at overcoming great difficultiesmy first difficulties with the turntables when I was working on Symphonie pour un homme
seul…that was good work, I did what I set out to do…But each time I was to experience
the disappointment of not arriving at music. I couldn’t get to music, what I call music. I
think of myself as an explorer struggling to find a way through the far north, but I
wasn’t finding a way through.”
- from Interview with Pierre Schaeffer
Elektronische Musik
•
1951 - Germany (Cologne)
•
Herbert Eimert
•
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
•
Electronically-generated sounds
•
•
(Uses oscillators, amplifiers, etc.)
Extension of serialism
WDR vs. RTF
S There was animosity between the Germans and the French
studios
S The roots of dislike was formed by Schaeffer
S
“…we liberated ourselves politically, but music was still under an
occupying foreign power, the music of the Vienna School.”
S The Germans had little respect for musique concréte, which
they saw as “fashionable and surrealistic”.
S
Eimert’s thoughts on French music was that they were “any
incidental manipulations or distortions haphazardly put together
for radio, film or theater music.”
Similarities
S Both sides of the line were aware of the importance of
electronic music, not as novelty, but as a part of the future
of music.
S
A split from the traditional, and a different view of what “music” is,
questions we still explore today
S Eimert said it best:
S
“Electronic music is, and remains, part of our music and is a great
deal more than mere “technology.” But the fact that it cannot be
expected either to take over or imitate the functions of traditional
music is clearly shown by the unequivocal difference of its material
from that of traditional music. We prefer to see its possibilities as the
potentialities of sound itself.
-from die Reihe (1955)
Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Gesang der Junglinge (1956)
• “Song of the Youths”
•
•
•
Idea of unifying vocal
sounds and electronically
produced sounds
Sung sounds - appear to be
electronic; and electronic
to be sung
Composed for 5 groups of
loudspeakers to be
distributed in space around
listeners (later changed to 4
channels)
WDR
S For as much as they were divided aesthetically, the audio
results of WDR were often indistinguishable from RTF
S
Even as early at 1952
S Other notable composers:
S
Henri Pousseur
S
Gyorgi Ligeti
S
Mauricio Kagel
Studio de Fonologia
•
“The Italians”
•
1955
•
Milan
•
Started by:
•
•
•
Luciano Berio
Bruno Maderna
Maderna and Berio both
studied in Germany at
Darmstadt with Stockhausen
and Boulez (both of whome
are associated with WDR
and GRM)
“The Italians”
S Radio Audizioni Italiane (RAI)
S
Italian public broadcasting network
S Started the Studio di Fonologia Musicale
S One of the best-equipped studios in Europe for many years
S Did not align themselves aesthetically with the French or
Germans, as Berio states:
S “Bruno and I immediately agreed that our work should not
be directed in a systematic way, either toward recording
acoustic sounds or toward a systematic serialism based on
discrete pitches.”
S Known also for using speech as sound material
Luciano Berio
•
“Thema Omaggio a Joyce” (1958)
•
Based on beginning of Ch. XI of James Joyce’s “Ulysses”
(so-called siren chapter)
•
Idea was to create “continuity between music and literature, to
make possible and imperceptible transition from the one to the
other.”
Recorded material with electronic sounds
•
But what about the USA?
S Music in the US during the 1950s was neither organized or
institutional
S
America’s “rugged individualism” was apparent in the way electronic
music developed
S US composers did not adhere to a “school” of thought in their
aesthetics
S
Viewed with amusement the aesthetic wars in France and Germany
S
France – rooted in experimentation and freedom of thought
S
Germany – rooted in systemization and extremely calculated music
The Barron’s
S Louis (1920-89) and Bebe Barron (b.1927) were two of the
first electronic composers in the US
S
Heavenly Menagerie (1950)
S First electronic piece in US, magnetic tape
S
“We had to earn a living somehow so we opened a recording studio that
catered to the avant-garde. We had some pretty good equipment,
considering. A lot of it we built ourselves…”
S Located in NYC
Barrons
S Had a lot of gear, some of it unorthodox
S Louis did circuitry design, Bebe composing and production
S Worked with influential NYC composers:
S
S
S
S
S
John Cage
David Tudor
Earle Brown
Morton Feldman
Christian Wolff
S 1951, Cage started Project of Music for Magnetic Tape
S Most well known for composing score to Forbidden Planet (1956)
S First soundtrack to be entirely composed with electronic instruments
S Sound effects and music were amazing for the time
S
When the spacecraft landed on Altair IV the crowd erupted in applause.
NY School
S The “NY school” are a collective of composers, artists,
etc. who were on the edge of the US avant-garde.
S They contributed not only to electronic music, but
American music and experimentalism
S John Cage is the most well-known composer from this
group
S His ideas were revolutionary, thought-provoking, and on the
edge of music thought at the time
NY School’s Music
S Here’s a short list of the NY school’s electronic output
in the 1950s
S John Cage:
S Imaginary Landscape #1 (1939)
S Williams Mix (1952) - with David Tudor
S Imaginary Landscape #5 (1952) - w/Tudor
S Fonatana Mix
S Earle Brown:
S Octet I (1953)
S Morton Feldman (SUNY Buffalo)
S Intersection (1953)
S Christian Wolff (SUNY Buffalo)
S For Magnetic Tape (1953)
Columbia-Princeton Studios
1959
Columbia-Princeton Studios
• Columbia Composers:
•
•
Vladimir Usschevsky (1900-96)
Otto Luening (1911-90)
• Princeton Composers:
•
•
Milton Babbitt (b. 1916)
Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934)
• Columbia started with tape manipulation
•
Had success as tape composers, using initially recorded
instruments to expand their sounds and create new timbers
Luening and Ussachevsky
S Became the US spokesmen for electronic music
S Featured on television
S
Live appearance on NBC’s Today show
S After a few years of lecturing, demonstrating, and
performing, received Rockefeller grant and visited the
French and German studios, among more
S Both were successful composers and researchers in the
early developments of electronic music
Columbia-Princeton Music
S Milton Babbitt
S
Ensembles for Synthesizer (1962-65)
S Ussachevsky
S
Linear Contrasts (1958)
S Ussachevsky and Luening
S
Mathematics (1958)
S Edgard Varese (French composer)
S
Desertes (INSERT DATE HERE)
Indiana University
S Indiana University (Bloomington) had a prominent
electronic music studio in the early days of American
electronic music
S Fred Fox was a key figure in the department
S However, the electronic music research at IU was headed
primarily by Iannis Xenakis
S And why is Xenakis important?
San Francisco Tape Music
Center
S Started in 1960s
S Home to composers:
S Terry Riley
S Morton Subotnik
S Pauline Oliveros
S Independent cooperative of musicians
S
Not funded by academia
IRCAM
S Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique
S Est. 1969, Paris
S Pierre Boulez, director
S Today a huge influence on computer music
S Max/MSP and jMax were both developed there
Instruments, People,
Styles
Monumental technological advances in performances
Styles and genres of EA music
Key figures in the development of EA music
S
Columbia-Princeton
S Ussachevsky and Luening were important figures in
American electronic music
S Eventually they received a grant to do research in Europe
S Traveled to studios in Germany, France, Italy and many others
S Main idea was to find new advances in technology and
equipment. When they returned to America they found this
waiting for them…
The RCA Mark II
Synthesizer
•
1958-59
•
First instrument developed in US
to use synthesis and sequencing.
Other instruments were manually
operated in real-time
•
Oscillators and noise generators
•
Operator gave instructions on
punch paper roll
•
•
Pitch, volume, duration, timbre
Milton Babbitt was one of the
leading composers who used the
RCA Mark II
RCA Mark II Synthesizer
plays “Blue Skies”
The Moog Synthesizer
• Robert Moog
• 1964
• Began by making
Theremins!
• Became more common
in pop music
•
•
Beatles
Mick Jagger
• Set a future standard
for the analog
synthesizer
Wendy Carlos
•
Wendy Carlos (formerly
Walter)
•
Used Moog Synths
•
Switched on Bach” (1968)
•
•
Commercialization of
electronic music
•
•
•
•
Top-selling classical album of the
year
Switched on Bach
Well-Tempered Synthesizer
Digital Moonscapes
Semi-famous movie scores:
•
•
A Clockwork Orange
Tron (the original). Not the Daft
Punk version…
The Buchla Synthesizer
• Don Buchla - designer
• Built instruments for
live electronic music
and composing
• Built the first analog
sequencers
• Still in business --
mostly making MIDI
controllers
The Buchla Synthesizer
• Morton Subotnik
• Silver Apples of the
Moon (1967)
• 1st composition
made specifically for
a record
• The Wild Bull (1968)
Buchla
S Did not experience as much commercial success as Moog.
S
But was able to remain independent during the synth boom of the
70s and 80s
S However, Moog liked the designs of Buchla’s synths and
made attempts to capture the portability of them into his
own equipment.
Synclavier
S
Digital synthesizer, polyphonic
sampler, sequencer/workstation
S All-in-one unit!
S
1977-78: original design
S
Originated at Dartmouth college
through work with Jon Appleton,
Sydney Alonso and Cameron
Jones.
S
Operated entirely using FM
synthesis and was mostly sold to
universities
Synclavier II
S
1980: Synclavier II was introduced.
S Had a keyboard interface, making it a performance tool as well as a
composition tool
S
Also introduced digital sampling system and recording memory. Became
popular for use in television and movies as well as music recording studios
Synclavier II
S
Possibly the most influential piece of equipment in music and recording
history
S
Genesis, Chic Corea, Michael Jackson, Pat Metheny, Mr. Mister, John
McLaughlin, Mannheim Steamroller, Triumph, Howard Shore,
Sting…and many more
S
Can be heard on the soundtracks of Apocalypse Now, the Princess Bride,
the X-files and the amazing Rocky IV
S
Frank Zappa was one of the most influential synclavier users and one of
the first people to own one of his own.
S
Jazz from Hell was an album that consisted of music made entirely on a
Synclavier II
MIDI
S Transition from analog synths to computers in late 70s early
80s
S
No standardization for linking synths to computers until….
S 1984!
S
With the introduction of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
S Represents the merging of analog and digital domains!
MIDI beginnings
S Many companies bickered as to how to
standardize
S Roland, Oberhein, Sequential Circuits, Yamaha, Korg, and
Kawaii
S
S
All “worked” together to develop MIDI
Unleashed in August 1983
S Conceived of with keyboards in mind
S Limitations overcome throughout the years as composers
creatively adapted it
Through today
S At this point in history we move to digital concepts
S Electronic music branches out into a less organized and easily
definable “schools.”
S Much of the electronic music produced from 1980 onward is
categorized not by where it is written, but whether or not it is
classified as fixed media, acousmatic, computer music,
live/interactive or multimedia
S Spectralism is possibly the only definable school of electronic
composition, however it exists as a method of acoustic
composition as much as electronic composition
Acousmatic music
S Music intended to be diffused through loudspeakers
S Fixed media – uses a fixed recording and is heard the same way
each time it is performed
S The term goes back to Schaeffer and the early GRM composers
S Uses the idea of sound objects
S emprentes Digitales is a record label that specializes exclusively in
releasing CDs by acousmatic composers (primarily European and
Canadian)
S INSERT LINK TO WEBSITE HERE!
Computer Music
•
Max Mathews, The Father of Computer Music (1926-2011)
•
1958-59
•
Bell Labs
•
Computer programs generating sound materials
•
The MUSIC Series
•
•
•
•
MUSIC I (1957)- Single voice, created a 17 sec. piece
MUSIC II - 4 voices, wavetable synth
MUSIC III - Even better
MUSIC V (1969) - ran on FORTRAN computer language
•
•
Multi-platform so anyone could program with it
After V, called MUSIC N and many composers/programmers
developed other programs
A little smile for you
• Bicycle Built for Two (1961)
•
One of the more famous moments in Bell Labs' synthetic speech
research was the sample created by John L. Kelly in 1962, using an
IBM 704 computer. Kelly's vocoder synthesizer recreated the song
"Bicycle Built for Two," with musical accompaniment from Max
Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke, then visiting friend and colleague
John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility, saw this
remarkable demonstration and later used it in the climactic scene
of his novel and screenplay for "2001: A Space Odyssey," where
the HAL9000 computer sings this song as he is disassembled by
astronaut Dave Bowman.
Computer Music
S Computer music is a term that generally applies to any music
created entirely by computers or software synthesizers.
S Uses an array of software platforms:
S
S
Max/MSP
S
Open Music
S
Csound
S
Supercollider
S
nGen
S
Unix
Can be acousmatic/fixed media, live performance (with or without an
instrument), multimedia, installation, live coding, etc.
Live/Interactive
S Live performers with electronics, in which the performers control
and manipulate the electronics
S The electronics don’t exist without the performer’s input!
S Often includes a great deal of improvisation
S Uses software programs such as Max/MSP, KIMA, CHUCK, and
PureData for live processing (but more on that in tech 3…)
S Interactive electronic music is computer music, but not all
computer music is classified as live/interactive EA music
Laptop Orchestras
S Started at Princeton University: PLOrk!
S Ensemble of composers, programmers, and tech enthusiasts
S Everyone has a computer and omnidirectional speaker
S Group play laptops using live processing/coding to create
entirely interactive and improvised computer music
S Many exist worldwide
S SLOrk – Stanford Laptop orchestra
S Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, Seattle
S Toshiba-funded virtual laptop orchestra
S Jomenico – one-time only show at SEAMUS 2004
Laptop orchestras
S Not a new invention with PLOrk! Just a new approach
S PLOrk and SLOrk developed a new “standardized”
approach to live avant-garde computer music
Multimedia
S Includes electronic music (fixed and interactive), live
performers, video, dancers, etc.
S Multimedia is a kind of interdisciplinary field of art in
which multiple avenues of electronic/digital media come
together to form a single piece of digital artwork.
S Big Robot!
Dr. Lillios’ video piece
Spectralism
S
Movement pioneered by Gerard Grisey and his student Tristan Murail
S
Strong focus on timbre and instrument color
S
Composers use spectral analysis of sounds as a starting point for composition.
S
Often uses altered tuning systems or “out of tune” chords to create difference
tones or for psychoacoustic effects
S
Prominent spectral composers:
S
S
S
S
S
S
Grisey (French)
Murail (French)
Philippe Leroux (French)
Philippe Manoury (French)
Josh Fineberg (American)
Georg Friederich Haas (German)
Pioneers of Electronic Music
S This is a short list of some accomplished/important figures
in electronic music
S Mostly composers/innovators
S Different aesthetics/philosophies of music
Edgard Varése
S 1883-1965
S Very very very very…very Experimental composer
S Focused on timbre and rhythm
S
Coined the term “organized sound”
S Some famous acoustic works
S
S
S
Density 21.5 (flute solo)
Hyperprism
Octandre
Edgard Varése
S Two famous Electronic works
S Déserts (1954)
S
S
Composed at GRM
For orchestra and tape
S 7 sections, 4 orchestra, 3 tape
S Dovetailed so that tape and orchestra never played
simultaneously
S Criticized for the different sections
S Later reworked and completed at the Columbia-Princeton
studios with help from Ussachevsky and Luening.
Desérts
S Was not well received at premiere in Paris
S Crowd was really waiting for Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique
Symphony
S “A riot almost as furious and bloody as that provoked by the
first performance of Le Sacre ensued, and the work was often
inaudible through the barrage of stamping, clapping, and
catcalls that arose after a few minutes. Even for those listening
to the radio broadcast, the music was completely submerged in
the general melee.”
-“review of Deserts”, The Score, 1955
Poéme électronique
S Commissioned for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair
S The Phillips Pavilion was designed for Varése’s new piece.
S Inside were 400 loudspeakers
S Accompanied by visual projections
S Composed in the Phillips studio in Eindhoven
S
The directors of Phillips did not understand his music and tried to
take him off the project
S Received well!
S 500 people at a time listened to it
S
Over 2 million people experienced it!
Iannis Xenakis
S Greek composer, theorist, architect
S 1922-2001
S Used stochastic (mathematical/random) methods to create music
S Designed the Phillips Pavilion for 1958 World’s Fair
S
Also composed a piece to be played after every two repeats of
Poemé électronique, called Concret PH
S Important works:
S Metastasis (1964) - Orchestra
S Orient-Occident (1960) - tape
S Bohor (1962) - tape
Alvin Lucier
S b. 1931
S Godfather of process music (even if he doesn’t have the title)
S Piece begins a process that is carried out throughout according
to the written rules
S Most famous work:
S I Am Sitting in a Room (1970)
S Recording of Lucier’s voice reading a paragraph, played
back and re-recorded in a space
S Other important works:
Music for Solo Performer (1965), for brain waves and instruments
S Music on a Long Thin Wire (1977), for stretched piano wire
S Nothing Is Real (1990), for piano, recorder and amplified teapot
S
John Chowning
S Born 1934
S Stanford student, and now professor
S Worked on improving quality of computer sounds
S
Using FM synthesis and only two-oscillators was making brass sounds
more realistic than more complicated processes
S Patented this process, then bought by Yamaha in 1974
S
S
Became the DX-7 Digital Synth in 1985, probably the top-selling synth of
all time
A few representative works
S
S
S
Turenas (1972)
Stria (1977)
Phoné (1980-81)
Terry Riley
S b. 1935
S Worked at the SF Music Tape Center
S Process music, but very different from Lucier’s version of process
music
S Minimalism:
S
Music that is based mostly in consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile
drones), stasis and slow transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or
smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells.
S People use process music interchangeably with Minimalism
S
This is not entirely correct, although minimalism deals with transformation over
time, it may not be as strict as process music
Terry Riley
S Famous works:
S In C (1964)
S Any instrument combinations/#players performs small
musical fragments, performers decide how many repetitions to
play before moving to the next
S A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969)
S Shri Camel (1980)
S
Used organs and synths to create transcendental atmospheres
Pauline Oliveros
S b. 1932
S Founding member of SFTMC
S Founded “Deep Listening”
S A philosophy of listening beyond your ears, uses whole body
and more
S “Sonic Awareness”
S is the ability to consciously focus attention upon
environmental and musical sound, requiring continual
alertness and an inclination towards always listening
Pauline Oliveros
S Uses tape loops to create process music
S I of IV (1966)
S Used 2 tape machines on an eight second delay, then sound fed
back into the first tape recorder, with addition of reverb the
result was a barrage of slowly unfolding undulations that
changed dynamically as sounds were repeated
S Could be replicated live
Steve Reich
S b. 1936
S Pioneer of minimalism
S Uses a lot of “phasing” in acoustic music
S
Playing a repeating pattern that gets shifted by a small duration.
S
Used in acoustic and electronic music
Reich Works
S Two famous tape loop pieces
S
Both employ phase shifting
S Come Out (1966)
S It’s Gonna Rain… (1965)
S Pieces for tape and performer
S Different Trains (1988) String Quartet, tape
S Electric Counterpoint (1987) E. Guitar, tape
S New York Counterpoint (1985) Clarinet, tape
Mario Davidovsky
S b. 1934
S Serial composer
S Originally a Princeton composer. Now teaches at Mannes
College in NYC
S Famous series of works:
S Synchronisms (up to 12 now)
S
S
For instrument and tape
No. 6 (piano and tape) won the Pulitzer prize in 1971
Jonathan Harvey
S 1939-2012
S Highly celebrated composer. Taught at many universities
and summer festivals around Europe and the US
S Did important work in the field of speech synthesis at
IRCAM in the 80s
S Important works:
S Speakings for large orchestra and electronics
S Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco for computer manipulated sounds
S Bhakti for 15 players and quadriphonic tape
Jon Appleton
S
B. 1939
S
Important figure in American electronic music
S
Taught at Dartmouth College for many years and developed what would
eventually become the Synclavier system
S
Founded SEAMUS (Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United
States) after becoming part of international EA music societies.
S SEAMUS is currently the leading society for electroacoustic art music
in the United States
S
Has composed a great deal of music, both electronic and acoustic, and
has done lots of monumental work and research in computer music
Denis Smalley
S B. 1946
S British composer, specializes in acousmatic music
S Studied at the Paris Conservatory, GRM and with musique
concrete pioneer Francois Bayle
S Developed the idea of spectromorphology, the manner in
which a composer develops source sounds over time
S Pentes (1974) for tape is regarded as one of the classic pieces
in the acousmatic EA literature
Russell Pinkston
S B. 1949
S Studied at Dartmouth (with Jon Appleton) and later at Columbia
University
S Currently head of composition and computer music at University
of Texas – Austin
S Co-founder of SEAMUS and former president
S Important figure in development of live processing and interactive
electronic music for performers and dance
Curtis Roads
S Composer, researcher, computer programmer, author…
S Studied at Cal-Arts and UC-Sand Diego. Now teaches at UC-
Santa Barbara
S Co-founded the International Computer Music Associated in 1980
and edited the Computer Music Journal from 1978-2000. Also
wrote the Computer Music Tutorial in 1996.
S First composer to implement digital granular synthesis
Jonty Harrisson
S
B. 1952
S
British composer of acousmatic music and researcher in computer music
S
Professor at University of Birmingham, specializing at the British
Electroacoustic Sound Theater (BEAST)
S Contains a 100-channel 3-D sound diffusion system
S
Key figure in acousmatic music and electronic music of the late 20th
century
S
Important pieces:
S
Klang
S
Unsound Objects
Miller Puckette
S b. 1957?
S The new Max Matthews?
S B.A. in Mathematics from MIT. PhD in Mathematics from
Harvard
S Researcher at IRCAM
S Developed Max and later Max/MSP while there
S Also developed Puredata (“freeware version of Max”)
S Teaches composition and computer music at UCSD
Brian Eno
S b. 1948
S Father of Ambient music
S Pop musician, composer, producer, etc….
S Played in the band Roxy Music and later became a successful
solo musician. Produced albums by Devo, Talking Heads and
many other experimental electronic sound artists of the 80s
S Famous works:
S Music for Airports (1978)
S Discreet Music (1975)
Frank Zappa
S 1940-1993
S Rock musician, composer, film maker, writer, visual
artist…modern-day Renaissance man
S Most prominent as a career rock musician
S Also wrote a lot of orchestral music and did pioneering work
in electronic music and avant-garde/pop crossover music
S One of the first people to personally own a Synclavier. Also
was invited to IRCAM by Pierre Boulez
Jonny Greenwood
S B. 1971
S Guitarist, composer and computer programmer
S Known best for his work with Radiohead
S Also a prominent film composer (There Will Be Blood)
S Effects rig contains an array of digital effects (some built by
Greenwood)
S Also incorporates Max/MSP in his gear and writes software
programs used in Radiohead and other side/solo projects
Want more…
S For more great reading about EA music, check the
following:
S empreintes Digitales
S SEAMUS online
S ICMC
S Canadian Electroacoustic Community