Electronic Music

1
Electronic Music

• Includes a great variety of forms arguably very
  little is now unaffected by electronic as
  recording is every present.
• A broad spectrum from fully synthetisied sound to
  Music Concrete to electro-acoustic music to music
  that is predominated performed but to which some
  electronics have been added to alter the effect
  (e.g. delay, timbre changes, etc.)

2
Precursors

• Back to beginnings of recording age. Thadius
  Cahils Telharmonium.
• Early electronic instruments Theremin, Ondes
  Martinet, etc.
• Recordings developments in year wars and
  development of tape in 1940s.
• Early Electronic music of Varese, Cage, and
  others developing from art of noise of
  futurists.

3
Musique Concrete

• Developed in the 1950s first with a set of mainly
  French composers working in recording studios
  cutting and splicing tape to create compositions
  that involved no performers. Loud speakers are
  the prime medium of transmission.
• Created in Paris in 1948 by Pierre Schaeffer and
  Pierre Henry. Composer working directly with
  sound material. Sources of sound material may be
  pre-existing recordings or recordings made
  specifically for the purpose. Sounds should be
  appreaciated for abstracft quality little
  attempt at first at conventional musical
  organisation.

4
Electro-Acoustic Music

• Became the preferred term in the 60s to better
  accommodate in the medium the combination of live
  performance and prepared tape along with tape
  music.
• In 1970s synthesizers developed hugely to open
  the arena up to amateurs and pop musicians
  particularly.
• In late 80s sonic art adopted as a term to
  situate electro-acoustic music in a wider
  framework. Openness to all types of sound.

5
Acousmatic Music

• Exists only in recorded form and is designed for
  loudspeaker listening, the listener perceives the
  music without seeing the sources of causes of the
  sounds.
• Changes notion of reception of music.
• Sound in space is important here also the finer
  details of sound quality and utmost flexibility
  in combining any and all sounds juxtaposing and
  superimposing sounds from any sources.

6
Live Electronics

• 1. Sound produced by performers us modified
  electronically at the time of production in a
  manner controlled by the instrumentalist or
  someone else.
• 2. With development of digital technology,
  sampling and synthesizing sound, in the 80s the
  computer musician working in real time as a
  performance artist has become a reality.

7
Combination of tape and live performance

• In 1980s the type of composition became popular
  among young composers using a prepared and
  notated tape in combination with a live performer
  who performed from a fully notated score.
• The tape was often of live sounds, recorded and
  manipulated using computers and samplers.