Musique lectonique

1
Musique Électonique

• A Brief History and Technical Overview

2
Acknowledgements

• Much derived from Center for Electronic and
  Computer Music (CECM), Indiana University
  (www.indiana.edu/emusic)
• Selected pictures from www.obsolete.com/120_years/
  

3
The Early Years
4
1897

• Telharmonium (Dynamaphone)
• Patented by Thaddeaus Cahill
• 200-ton array of 145 Edison dynamos
• Produced pitchedhums according tospeed of
  dynamos
• Electrical output"broadcast" over
  telephonespeakers

5
1906

• Lee DeForest invents the Triode Vacuum Tube
• Led to amplification of electrical signals

6
1907

• Ferruccio Busoni publishes Sketch for a New
  Aesthetic of Music
• Discusses use of electrical and other new sound
  sources in future music
• Had profound effect on his pupil, Edgard Varèse

7
19teens

• Italian futurists investigate, classify, and
  produce noise instruments
• Most notable was Luigi Russolo

8
1920's

• Edgard Varèse, Ionisation
• George Antheil, Ballet Mecanique
• Both use percussion and noise instruments
• Liberation of sound
• New view of "spatial-temporal" relationships

9
Other Early Instruments

• Theremin (1919-20)
• Played by moving hands around the metal loop for
  volume and around the antenna for pitch.
• Sound produced by heterodyning combination of two
  oscillators, frequency of one determined by
  proximity of hand to pitch antenna.
• Video

10
Other Early Instruments

• Ondes-Martenot (1928)
• Messiaen Fete des belles eaux (1937) for six
  ondes-martenot
• Messiaen, Trois petites liturgies de la Presence
  Divine (1944) (Variations Track 1, 400)
• Turangalila-symphonie (1946-8) (Var2 Opus)

11
Other Early Instruments

• Trautonium (1928)
• Used by Strauss, Hindemith and Varèse (2 used
  originally in Ecuatorial)

12
Other Early Instruments

• Hammond Organ (1935)
• Based on technical principles of the Telharmonium
• Audio Sample Procol Harum, A Whiter Shade of
  Pale

13
The Age of Tape
14
1930s

• Improvement of amplifiers and invention of the
  tape recorder
• John Cage composes Imaginary Landscape no.1
  (1939) using test-tones from recordings, played
  in disc format on variable-speed turntables

15
1948

• RTF Radiodiffusion-television Francaise
  broadcasts Pierre Schaeffer, Etude aux Chemin de
  Fer
• Marks the beginning of studio realizations and
  musique concrète
• 1950, Pierre Henry collaborates with Schaeffer on
  Symphonie pour un homme seul, first major work of
  musique concrète
• 1951, studio formally established as the Groupe
  de Recherche de Musique Concrète
• Includes Messiaen, Boulez and Stockhausen

16
1951

• NWDR (Nordwest Deutsche Rundfunk) Studio
  established in Cologne
• Karlheinz Stockhausen most influential
• RTF primarily concerned with manipulation of
  acoustic sound sources (musique concrète)
• NWDR studio equipped with electronic sound
  generators and modifiers (Electronische Musik)

17
1952

• Four compositions for tape recorder, composed by
  Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, presented
  at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (10/28)

18
1952

• Raymond Scott designs first sequencer
• hundreds of switches
• stepping relays
• timing solenoids
• tone circuits
• 16 individual oscillators
• Scott invents Clavivox synthesizer with
  subassembly by Robert Moog (1956)

19
1953

• Edgard Varèse
• receives Ampex tape recorder as gift
• begins work on Deserts, for orchestra and tape
• Stockhausen completes Studie I (first
  composition to use sine tonessee here for more)

20
1955

• Additional studios formed
• Milan Studio de Fonologia RAI established
  (Luciano Berio as artistic director)
• Mayuzumi founds studio in Tokyo
• Phillips studio established at Eindhoven, Holland
  (moved to University of Utrecht Institute of
  Sonology in 1960)

21
1956

• Scientists Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson
  create Illiac Suite for string quartet (more)
• first complete work of computer-assisted
  composition (also algorithmic composition)

22
1956

• Stockhausen, Gesang der Jünglinge
• first major work of the Cologne studio
• based on text from the Book of Daniel

23
1958

• Varése Poème Électronique
• Played over 400 loudspeakers at the Phillips
  Pavilion of the 1958 Brussels World Fair
• Includes musique concrète

24
Phillips Pavilion
25
Poème Électronique Score
26
Poème Électronique Score
27
Poème Électronique

• Concrète elements include
• Female voice
• Male chorus
• Gong
• Bell
• Organ
• Piano
• Percussion