Electronic music broadly is a group ofmusic genres that employelectronic musical instruments, circuitry-basedmusic technology and software, or general-purposeelectronics (such aspersonal computers) in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means (electroacoustic music). Pure electronic instruments depend entirely on circuitry-based sound generation, for instance using devices such as anelectronic oscillator,theremin, orsynthesizer: noacoustic waves need to be previously generated by mechanical means and then converted into electrical signals. On the other hand, electromechanical instruments have mechanical parts such as strings or hammers that generate the sound waves, together with electric elements includingmagnetic pickups,power amplifiers andloudspeakers that convert the acoustic waves into electrical signals, process them and convert them back into sound waves that travel through the air to our ears. Such electromechanical devices include thetelharmonium,Hammond organ,electric piano andelectric guitar.[3][4]
The first electronic musical devices were developed at the end of the 19th century. During the 1920s and 1930s, some electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions featuring them were written. By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sounds and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction, leading to the development of electroacoustictape music in the 1940s in Egypt and France.Musique concrète, created in Paris in 1948, was based on editing together recorded fragments of natural and industrial sounds. Music produced solely from electronic generators was first produced in Germany in 1953 byKarlheinz Stockhausen. Electronic music was also created in Japan and the United States beginning in the 1950s andalgorithmic composition with computers was first demonstrated in the same decade.
During the 1960s, digitalcomputer music was pioneered, innovation inlive electronics took place, and Japanese electronic musical instruments began to influence themusic industry. In the early 1970s,Moog synthesizers anddrum machines helped popularize synthesized electronic music. The 1970s also saw electronic music begin to have a significant influence onpopular music, with the adoption ofpolyphonic synthesizers,electronic drums, drum machines, andturntables, through the emergence of genres such asdisco,krautrock,new wave,synth-pop,hip hop, andelectronic dance music (EDM). In the early 1980s, mass-produceddigital synthesizers such as theYamaha DX7 became popular, andMIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) was developed. In the same decade, with a greater reliance on synthesizers and the adoption of programmable drum machines, electronic popular music came to the fore. During the 1990s, with the proliferation of increasingly affordable music technology, electronic music production became an established part of popular culture.[5] In Berlin starting in 1989, theLove Parade became the largest street party with over 1 million visitors, inspiring other such popular celebrations of electronic music.[6]
Contemporary electronic music includes many varieties and ranges fromexperimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music. Pop electronic music is most recognizable in its 4/4 form and more connected with the mainstream than preceding forms which were popular in niche markets.[7]
At the turn of the 20th century, experimentation withemerging electronics led to the firstelectronic musical instruments.[8] These initial inventions were not sold, but were instead used in demonstrations and public performances. The audiences were presented with reproductions of existing music instead of new compositions for the instruments.[9] While some were considered novelties and produced simple tones, theTelharmoniumsynthesized the sound of several orchestral instruments with reasonable precision. It achieved viable public interest and made commercial progress intostreaming music throughtelephone networks.[10]
From the late 1920s, the increased practicality of electronic instruments influenced composers such asJoseph Schillinger andMaria Schuppel to adopt them. They were typically used within orchestras, and most composers wrote parts for the theremin that could otherwise be performed withstring instruments.[16]
Developments in earlyrecording technology paralleled that of electronic instruments. The first means of recording and reproducing audio was invented in the late 19th century with the mechanicalphonograph.[24] Record players became a common household item, and by the 1920s composers were using them to play short recordings in performances.[25]
The introduction ofelectrical recording in 1925 was followed by increased experimentation with record players.Paul Hindemith andErnst Toch composed several pieces in 1930 by layering recordings of instruments and vocals at adjusted speeds. Influenced by these techniques,John Cage composedImaginary Landscape No. 1 in 1939 by adjusting the speeds of recorded tones.[26]
The first practical audiotape recorder was unveiled in 1935.[28] Improvements to the technology were made using theAC biasing technique, which significantly improved recording fidelity.[29][30] As early as 1942, test recordings were being made in stereo.[31] Although these developments were initially confined to Germany, recorders and tapes were brought to the United States following the end of World War II.[32] These were the basis for the first commercially produced tape recorder in 1948.[33]
In 1944, before the use of magnetic tape for compositional purposes, Egyptian composerHalim El-Dabh, while still a student inCairo, used a cumbersomewire recorder to record sounds of an ancientzaar ceremony. Using facilities at the Middle East Radio studios El-Dabh processed the recorded material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls and re-recording. What resulted is believed to be the earliest tape music composition.[1] The resulting work was entitledThe Expression of Zaar and it was presented in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. While his initial experiments in tape-based composition were not widely known outside of Egypt at the time, El-Dabh is also known for his later work in electronic music at theColumbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s.[34]
Following his work withStudio d'Essai atRadiodiffusion Française (RDF), during the early 1940s,Pierre Schaeffer is credited with originating the theory and practice of musique concrète. In the late 1940s, experiments in sound-based composition usingshellac record players were first conducted by Schaeffer. In 1950, the techniques of musique concrete were expanded when magnetic tape machines were used to explore sound manipulation practices such as speed variation (pitch shift) andtape splicing.[35][36]
On 5 October 1948, RDF broadcast Schaeffer'sEtude aux chemins de fer. This was the first "movement" ofCinq études de bruits, and marked the beginning of studio realizations[37] and musique concrète (or acousmatic art). Schaeffer employed adisc cutting lathe, four turntables, a four-channel mixer, filters, an echo chamber, and a mobile recording unit. Not long after this,Pierre Henry began collaborating with Schaeffer, a partnership that would have profound and lasting effects on the direction of electronic music. Another associate of Schaeffer,Edgard Varèse, began work onDéserts, a work for chamber orchestra and tape. The tape parts were created at Pierre Schaeffer's studio and were later revised atColumbia University.
In 1950, Schaeffer gave the first public (non-broadcast) concert of musique concrète at theÉcole Normale de Musique de Paris. "Schaeffer used aPA system, several turntables, and mixers. The performance did not go well, as creating live montages with turntables had never been done before."[38] Later that same year, Pierre Henry collaborated with Schaeffer onSymphonie pour un homme seul (1950) the first major work of musique concrete.[39] In Paris in 1951, in what was to become an important worldwide trend, RTF established the first studio for the production of electronic music. Also in 1951, Schaeffer and Henry produced an opera,Orpheus, for concrete sounds and voices.
1954 saw the advent of what would now be considered authentic electric plus acoustic compositions—acoustic instrumentation augmented/accompanied by recordings of manipulated or electronically generated sound. Three major works were premiered that year: Varèse'sDéserts, for chamber ensemble and tape sounds, and two works byOtto Luening andVladimir Ussachevsky:Rhapsodic Variations for the Louisville Symphony andA Poem in Cycles and Bells, both for orchestra and tape. Because he had been working at Schaeffer's studio, the tape part for Varèse's work contains much more concrete sounds than electronic. "A group made up of wind instruments, percussion and piano alternate with the mutated sounds of factory noises and ship sirens and motors, coming from two loudspeakers."[41]
At the German premiere ofDéserts in Hamburg, which was conducted byBruno Maderna, the tape controls were operated byKarlheinz Stockhausen.[41] The titleDéserts suggested to Varèse not only "all physical deserts (of sand, sea, snow, of outer space, of empty streets), but also the deserts in the mind of man; not only those stripped aspects of nature that suggest bareness, aloofness, timelessness, but also that remote inner space no telescope can reach, where man is alone, a world of mystery and essential loneliness."[42]
In Cologne, what would become the most famous electronic music studio in the world, was officially opened at the radio studios of theNWDR in 1953, though it had been in the planning stages as early as 1950 and early compositions were made and broadcast in 1951.[43] The brainchild ofWerner Meyer-Eppler, Robert Beyer, andHerbert Eimert (who became its first director), the studio was soon joined by Karlheinz Stockhausen andGottfried Michael Koenig. In his 1949 thesisElektronische Klangerzeugung: Elektronische Musik und Synthetische Sprache, Meyer-Eppler conceived the idea to synthesize music entirely from electronically produced signals; in this way,elektronische Musik was sharply differentiated from Frenchmusique concrète, which used sounds recorded from acoustical sources.[44][45]
"With Stockhausen andMauricio Kagel in residence, [Cologne] became a year-round hive of charismatic avant-gardism."[46] on two occasions combining electronically generated sounds with relatively conventional orchestras—inMixtur (1964) andHymnen, dritte Region mit Orchester (1967).[47] Stockhausen stated that his listeners had told him his electronic music gave them an experience of "outer space", sensations of flying, or being in a "fantastic dream world".[48]
In the United States, electronic music was being created as early as 1939, when John Cage publishedImaginary Landscape, No. 1, using two variable-speed turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano, and cymbal, but no electronic means of production. Cage composed five more "Imaginary Landscapes" between 1942 and 1952 (one withdrawn), mostly for percussion ensemble, though No. 4 is for twelve radios and No. 5, written in 1952, uses 42 recordings and is to be realized as a magnetic tape. According to Otto Luening, Cage also performedWilliams Mix at Donaueschingen in 1954, using eight loudspeakers, three years after his alleged collaboration.[clarification needed]Williams Mix was a success at theDonaueschingen Festival, where it made a "strong impression".[49]
The Music for Magnetic Tape Project was formed by members of theNew York School (John Cage,Earle Brown,Christian Wolff,David Tudor, andMorton Feldman),[50] and lasted three years until 1954. Cage wrote of this collaboration: "In this social darkness, therefore, the work of Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff continues to present a brilliant light, for the reason that at the several points of notation, performance, and audition, action is provocative."[51]
Cage completedWilliams Mix in 1953 while working with the Music for Magnetic Tape Project.[52] The group had no permanent facility, and had to rely on borrowed time in commercial sound studios, including the studio ofBebe and Louis Barron.
In the same yearColumbia University purchased its first tape recorder—a professionalAmpex machine—to record concerts. Vladimir Ussachevsky, who was on the music faculty of Columbia University, was placed in charge of the device, and almost immediately began experimenting with it.
Herbert Russcol writes: "Soon he was intrigued with the new sonorities he could achieve by recording musical instruments and then superimposing them on one another."[53] Ussachevsky said later: "I suddenly realized that the tape recorder could be treated as an instrument of sound transformation."[53] On Thursday, 8 May 1952, Ussachevsky presented several demonstrations of tape music/effects that he created at his Composers Forum, in the McMillin Theatre at Columbia University. These includedTransposition, Reverberation, Experiment, Composition, andUnderwater Valse. In an interview, he stated: "I presented a few examples of my discovery in a public concert in New York together with other compositions I had written for conventional instruments."[53]Otto Luening, who had attended this concert, remarked: "The equipment at his disposal consisted of an Ampex tape recorder . . . and a simple box-like device designed by the brilliant young engineer, Peter Mauzey, to create feedback, a form of mechanical reverberation. Other equipment was borrowed or purchased with personal funds."[54]
Just three months later, in August 1952, Ussachevsky traveled to Bennington, Vermont, at Luening's invitation to present his experiments. There, the two collaborated on various pieces. Luening described the event: "Equipped with earphones and a flute, I began developing my first tape-recorder composition. Both of us were fluent improvisors and the medium fired our imaginations."[54] They played some early pieces informally at a party, where "a number of composers almost solemnly congratulated us saying, 'This is it' ('it' meaning the music of the future)."[54]
Word quickly reached New York City. Oliver Daniel telephoned and invited the pair to "produce a group of short compositions for the October concert sponsored by the American Composers Alliance and Broadcast Music, Inc., under the direction ofLeopold Stokowski at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After some hesitation, we agreed. . . .Henry Cowell placed his home and studio in Woodstock, New York, at our disposal. With the borrowed equipment in the back of Ussachevsky's car, we left Bennington for Woodstock and stayed two weeks. . . . In late September 1952, the travelling laboratory reached Ussachevsky's living room in New York, where we eventually completed the compositions."[54]
Two months later, on 28 October, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening presented the first Tape Music concert in the United States. The concert included Luening'sFantasy in Space (1952)—"an impressionisticvirtuoso piece"[54] using manipulated recordings of flute—andLow Speed (1952), an "exotic composition that took the flute far below its natural range."[54] Both pieces were created at the home of Henry Cowell in Woodstock, New York. After several concerts caused a sensation in New York City, Ussachevsky and Luening were invited onto a live broadcast of NBC's Today Show to do an interview demonstration—the first televised electroacoustic performance. Luening described the event: "I improvised some [flute] sequences for the tape recorder. Ussachevsky then and there put them through electronic transformations."[55]
In 1929,Nikolai Obukhov invented the "sounding cross" (lacroix sonore), comparable to the principle of thetheremin.[57] In the 1930s, Nikolai Ananyev invented "sonar", and engineer Alexander Gurov — neoviolena, I. Ilsarov — ilston.,[58]A. Rimsky-Korsakov [ru] and A. Ivanov —emiriton [ru].[57] Composer and inventorArseny Avraamov was engaged in scientific work on sound synthesis and conducted a number of experiments that would later form the basis of Soviet electro-musical instruments.[59]
In 1956Vyacheslav Mescherin created theEnsemble of electro-musical instruments [ru], which used theremins, electric harps, electric organs, the first synthesizer in the USSR "Ekvodin",[57] and also created the first Soviet reverb machine. The style in which Meshcherin's ensemble played is known as "Space age pop".[59] In 1957, engineer Igor Simonov assembled a working model of a noise recorder (electroeoliphone), with the help of which it was possible to extract various timbres and consonances of a noise nature.[57] In 1958,Evgeny Murzin designedANS synthesizer, one of the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizers.
Founded by Murzin in 1966, the Moscow Experimental Electronic Music Studio became the base for a new generation of experimenters –Eduard Artemyev,Alexander Nemtin [ru],Sándor Kallós,Sofia Gubaidulina,Alfred Schnittke, andVladimir Martynov.[57][59] By the end of the 1960s, musical groups playing light electronic music appeared in the USSR. At the state level, this music began to be used to attract foreign tourists to the country and forbroadcasting to foreign countries.[60] In the mid-1970s, composerAlexander Zatsepin designed an "orchestrolla" – a modification of the mellotron.[61]
CSIRAC, Australia's first digital computer, displayed at theMelbourne Museum
The world's first computer to play music wasCSIRAC, which was designed and built byTrevor Pearcey and Maston Beard. Mathematician Geoff Hill programmed the CSIRAC to play popular musical melodies from the very early 1950s. In 1951 it publicly played theColonel Bogey March, of which no known recordings exist, only the accurate reconstruction.[62] However,CSIRAC played standard repertoire and was not used to extend musical thinking or composition practice. CSIRAC was never recorded, but the music played was accurately reconstructed. The oldest known recordings of computer-generated music were played by theFerranti Mark 1 computer, a commercial version of theBaby Machine from theUniversity of Manchester in the autumn of 1951.[63] The music program was written byChristopher Strachey.
Among the earliest group of electric musical instruments in Japan was theYamaha Magna Organ, an electroacoustic instrument built in 1935.[64] After World War II, Japanese composers such asMinao Shibata began to learn of the development of electronic musical instruments in other countries. By the late 1940s, Japanese composers began experimenting with electronic music, and institutional sponsorship enabled them to experiment with advanced equipment. Their infusion ofAsian music into the emerging genre would eventually support Japan's popularity in the development of music technology several decades later.[65]
Following the foundation of electronics companySony in 1946, composersToru Takemitsu and Minao Shibata independently explored possible uses for electronic technology to produce music.[66] Takemitsu had ideas similar tomusique concrète, which he was unaware of, while Shibata foresaw the development ofsynthesizers and predicted a drastic change in music.[67] Sony began producing popularmagnetic tape recorders for government and public use.[65][68]
The avant-garde collectiveJikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), founded in 1950, was offered access to emerging audio technology by Sony. The company hired Toru Takemitsu to demonstrate their tape recorders with compositions and performances of electronic tape music.[69] The first electronic tape pieces by the group were "Toraware no Onna" ("Imprisoned Woman") and "Piece B", composed in 1951 by Kuniharu Akiyama.[70] Many of theelectroacoustic tape pieces they produced were used as incidental music for radio, film, and theatre. They also held concerts employing aslide show synchronized with a recorded soundtrack.[71] Composers outside of the Jikken Kōbō, such asYasushi Akutagawa, Saburo Tominaga, andShirō Fukai, were also experimenting withradiophonic tape music between 1952 and 1953.[68]
Musique concrète was introduced to Japan byToshiro Mayuzumi, who was influenced by aPierre Schaeffer concert. From 1952, he composed tape music pieces for a comedy film, a radio broadcast, and a radio drama.[70][72] However, Schaeffer's concept ofsound object was not influential among Japanese composers, who were mainly interested in overcoming the restrictions of human performance.[73] This led to several Japaneseelectroacoustic musicians making use ofserialism andtwelve-tone techniques,[73] evident inYoshirō Irino's 1951dodecaphonic piece "Concerto daCamera",[72] in the organization of electronic sounds in Mayuzumi's "X, Y, Z for Musique Concrète", and later in Shibata's electronic music by 1956.[74]
Modelling theNWDR studio in Cologne, anNHK electronic music studio was established by Mayuzumi in Tokyo in 1954, which became one of the world's leading electronic music facilities. The studio was equipped with technologies such as tone-generating and audio processing equipment, recording and radiophonic equipment,ondes Martenots,Monochords andMelochords, sine-waveoscillators, tape recorders,ring modulators,band-pass filters, and four- and eight-channelmixers. Musicians associated with the studio included Toshiro Mayuzumi, Minao Shibata, Joji Yuasa,Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Toru Takemitsu. The studio's first electronic compositions were completed in 1955, including Mayuzumi's five-minute pieces "Studie I: Music for Sine Wave by Proportion of Prime Number", "Music for Modulated Wave by Proportion of Prime Number" and "Invention for Square Wave and Sawtooth Wave" produced using the studio's various tone-generating capabilities, and Shibata's 20-minute stereo piece "Musique Concrète for Stereophonic Broadcast".[75][76]
The impact of computers continued in 1956.Lejaren Hiller andLeonard Isaacson composedIlliac Suite forstring quartet, the first complete work of computer-assisted composition usingalgorithmic composition. "... Hiller postulated that a computer could be taught the rules of a particular style and then called on to compose accordingly."[77] Later developments included the work ofMax Mathews atBell Laboratories, who developed the influentialMUSIC I program in 1957, one of the first computer programs to play electronic music.Vocoder technology was also a major development in this early era. In 1956, Stockhausen composedGesang der Jünglinge, the first major work of the Cologne studio, based on a text from theBook of Daniel. An important technological development of that year was the invention of theClavivox synthesizer byRaymond Scott with subassembly byRobert Moog.
In 1957, Kid Baltan (Dick Raaymakers) andTom Dissevelt released their debut album,Song Of The Second Moon, recorded at the Philips studio in the Netherlands.[78] The public remained interested in the new sounds being created around the world, as can be deduced by the inclusion of Varèse'sPoème électronique, which was played over four hundred loudspeakers at the Philips Pavilion of the 1958Brussels World Fair. That same year,Mauricio Kagel, anArgentine composer, composedTransición II. The work was realized at the WDR studio in Cologne. Two musicians performed on the piano, one in the traditional manner, the other playing on the strings, frame, and case. Two other performers used tape to unite the presentation of live sounds with the future of prerecorded materials from later on and its past of recordings made earlier in the performance.
These were fertile years for electronic music—not just for academia, but for independent artists as synthesizer technology became more accessible. By this time, a strong community of composers and musicians working with new sounds and instruments was established and growing. 1960 witnessed the composition ofOtto Luening'sGargoyles for violin andtape as well as the premiere ofKarlheinz Stockhausen'sKontakte for electronic sounds, piano, and percussion. This piece existed in two versions—one for 4-channel tape, and the other for tape with human performers. "InKontakte, Stockhausen abandoned traditional musical form based on linear development and dramatic climax. This new approach, which he termed 'moment form', resembles the 'cinematic splice' techniques in early twentieth-century film."[84]
Thetheremin had been in use since the 1920s but it attained a degree of popular recognition through its use in science-fiction film soundtrack music in the 1950s (e.g.,Bernard Herrmann's classic score forThe Day the Earth Stood Still).[85]
Israeli composer Josef Tal at the Electronic Music Studio in Jerusalem (c. 1965) withHugh Le Caine's Creative Tape Recorder (a sound synthesizer) aka "Multi-track"
During the time of theUNESCO fellowship for studies in electronic music (1958) Israeli composerJosef Tal went on a study tour in the US and Canada.[88] He summarized his conclusions in two articles that he submitted to UNESCO.[89] In 1961, he established theCentre for Electronic Music in Israel atThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1962, Canadian composerHugh Le Caine arrived in Jerusalem to install hisCreative Tape Recorder in the centre.[90] In the 1990s Tal conducted, together with Dr. Shlomo Markel, in cooperation with theTechnion – Israel Institute of Technology and theVolkswagen Foundation, a research project ('Talmark') aimed at the development of a novel musical notation system for electronic music.[91]
For Babbitt, the RCA synthesizer was a dream come true for three reasons. First, the ability to pinpoint and control every musical element precisely. Second, the time needed to realize his elaborate serial structures were brought within practical reach. Third, the question was no longer "What are the limits of the human performer?" but rather "What are the limits of human hearing?"[92]
Collaborations also occurred across oceans and continents. In 1961, American composerVladimir Ussachevsky invitedEdgar Varèse from France to the Columbia-Princeton Studio (CPEMC). Upon arrival, Varèse embarked upon a revision of his workDéserts. He was assisted byMario Davidovsky andBülent Arel.[93]
Pietro Grossi was an Italian pioneer of computer composition and tape music, who first experimented with electronic techniques in the early sixties. Grossi was a cellist and composer, born in Venice in 1917. He founded the S 2F M (Studio de Fonologia Musicale di Firenze) in 1963 to experiment with electronic sound and composition.
Simultaneously in San Francisco, composer Stan Shaff and equipment designer Doug McEachern, presented the first "Audium" concert atSan Francisco State College (1962), followed by work at theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA, 1963), conceived of as in time, controlled movement of sound in space. Twelve speakers surrounded the audience, and four speakers were mounted on a rotating, mobile-like construction above.[96] In an SFMOMA performance the following year (1964), theSan Francisco Chronicle music criticAlfred Frankenstein commented, "the possibilities of the space-sound continuum have seldom been so extensively explored".[96] In 1967, the firstAudium, a "sound-space continuum" opened, holding weekly performances through 1970. In 1975, enabled by seed money from theNational Endowment for the Arts, a new Audium opened, designed floor to ceiling for spatial sound composition and performance.[97] "In contrast, there are composers who manipulated sound space by locating multiple speakers at various locations in a performance space and then switching or panning the sound between the sources. In this approach, the composition of spatial manipulation is dependent on the location of the speakers and usually exploits the acoustical properties of the enclosure. Examples include Varese'sPoeme Electronique (tape music performed in thePhilips Pavilion of the1958 World Fair, Brussels) and Stan Schaff'sAudium installation, currently active in San Francisco."[98][99] Through weekly programs (over 4,500 in 40 years), Shaff "sculpts" sound, performing now-digitized spatial works live through 176 speakers.[100]
Jean-Jacques Perrey experimented withPierre Schaeffer's techniques on tape loops and was among the first to use the recently released Moog synthesizer developed byRobert Moog. With this instrument he composed some works withGershon Kingsley and solo.[101] A well-known example of the use of Moog's full-sizedMoog modular synthesizer is the 1968Switched-On Bach album byWendy Carlos, which triggered a craze for synthesizer music.[102] In 1969David Tudor brought a Moog modular synthesizer and Ampex tape machines to theNational Institute of Design inAhmedabad with the support of theSarabhai family, forming the foundation of India's first electronic music studio. Here a group of composers Jinraj Joshipura,Gita Sarabhai, SC Sharma, IS Mathur and Atul Desai developed experimental sound compositions between 1969 and 1973.[103]
Musical melodies were first generated by the computerCSIRAC in Australia in 1950. There were newspaper reports from America and England (early and recently) that computers may have played music earlier, but thorough research has debunked these stories as there is no evidence to support the newspaper reports (some of which were obviously speculative). Research has shown that peoplespeculated about computers playing music, possibly because computers would make noises,[104] but there is no evidence that they actually did it.[105][106]
The world's first computer to play music wasCSIRAC, which was designed and built byTrevor Pearcey and Maston Beard in the 1950s. Mathematician Geoff Hill programmed the CSIRAC to play popular musical melodies from the very early 1950s. In 1951 it publicly played the "Colonel Bogey March"[107] of which no known recordings exist.However,CSIRAC played standard repertoire and was not used to extend musical thinking or composition practice which is current computer-music practice.
The first music to be performed in England was a performance of theBritish National Anthem that was programmed byChristopher Strachey on the Ferranti Mark I, late in 1951. Later that year, short extracts of three pieces were recorded there by aBBC outside broadcasting unit: the National Anthem, "Ba, Ba Black Sheep", and "In the Mood" and this is recognised as the earliest recording of a computer to play music. This recording can be heard atthis Manchester University site. Researchers at theUniversity of Canterbury, Christchurch declicked and restored this recording in 2016 and the results may be heard onSoundCloud.[108][109][63]
The late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s also saw the development of large mainframe computer synthesis. Starting in 1957, Max Mathews of Bell Labs developed the MUSIC programs, culminating inMUSIC V, a direct digital synthesis language.[110]Laurie Spiegel developed thealgorithmic musical composition software "Music Mouse" (1986) forMacintosh,Amiga, andAtari computers.
An important new development was the advent of computers to compose music, as opposed to manipulating or creating sounds.Iannis Xenakis began what is calledmusique stochastique, orstochastic music, which is a composing method that uses mathematical probability systems. Different probability algorithms were used to create a piece under a set of parameters. Xenakis used computers to compose pieces likeST/4 for string quartet andST/48 for orchestra (both 1962),[111]Morsima-Amorsima,ST/10, andAtrées. He developed the computer systemUPIC for translating graphical images into musical results and composedMycènes Alpha (1978) with it.
In 1966–1967,Reed Ghazala discovered and began to teach "circuit bending"—the application of the creative short circuit, a process of chance short-circuiting, creating experimental electronic instruments, exploring sonic elements mainly of timbre and with less regard to pitch or rhythm, and influenced byJohn Cage'saleatoric music [sic] concept.[113]
Cosey Fanni Tutti's performance art and musical career explored the concept of 'acceptable' music and she went on to explore the use of sound as a means of desire or discomfort.[114][failed verification]
Wendy Carlos performed selections from her albumSwitched-On Bach on stage with a synthesizer with theSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra; another live performance was with Kurzweil Baroque Ensemble for "Bach at the Beacon" in 1997.[115] In June 2018,Suzanne Ciani releasedLIVE Quadraphonic, a live album documenting her first solo performance on a Buchla synthesizer in 40 years. It was one of the first quadraphonic vinyl releases in over 30 years.[116]
In the 1950s,[117][118] Japaneseelectronic musical instruments began influencing the internationalmusic industry.[119][120]Ikutaro Kakehashi, who foundedAce Tone in 1960, developed his own version of electronic percussion that had been already popular on the overseas electronic organ.[121] At the 1964NAMM Show, he revealed it as the R-1 Rhythm Ace, a hand-operated percussion device that played electronic drum sounds manually as the user pushed buttons, in a similar fashion to modern electronic drum pads.[121][122][123]
In 1963,Korg released theDonca-Matic DA-20, an electro-mechanicaldrum machine.[124] In 1965,Nippon Columbia patented a fully electronic drum machine.[125] Korg released the Donca-Matic DC-11 electronic drum machine in 1966, which they followed with theKorg Mini Pops, which was developed as an option for theYamaha Electone electric organ.[124] Korg's Stageman and Mini Pops series were notable for "natural metallic percussion" sounds and incorporating controls for drum "breaks andfill-ins."[120]
In 1967, Ace Tone founderIkutaro Kakehashi patented a preset rhythm-pattern generator usingdiode matrix circuit[126] similar to theSeeburg's priorU.S. patent 3,358,068 filed in 1964 (SeeDrum machine#History), which he released as the FR-1 Rhythm Ace drum machine the same year.[121] It offered 16 preset patterns, and four buttons to manually play each instrument sound (cymbal,claves,cowbell andbass drum). The rhythm patterns could also be cascaded together by pushing multiple rhythm buttons simultaneously, and the possible combination of rhythm patterns were more than a hundred.[121] Ace Tone's Rhythm Ace drum machines found their way intopopular music from the late 1960s, followed by Korg drum machines in the 1970s.[120] Kakehashi later left Ace Tone and foundedRoland Corporation in 1972, withRoland synthesizers anddrum machines becoming highly influential for the next several decades.[121] The company would go on to have a big impact onpopular music, and do more to shape popular electronic music than any other company.[123]
Turntablism has origins in the invention ofdirect-drive turntables. Earlybelt-drive turntables were unsuitable for turntablism, since they had a slow start-up time, and they were prone to wear-and-tear and breakage, as the belt would break from backspin or scratching.[127] The first direct-drive turntable was invented by Shuichi Obata, an engineer atMatsushita (nowPanasonic),[128] based inOsaka, Japan. It eliminated belts, and instead employed a motor to directly drive a platter on which a vinyl record rests.[129] In 1969, Matsushita released it as theSP-10,[129] the first direct-drive turntable on the market,[130] and the first in their influentialTechnics series of turntables.[129] It was succeeded by the Technics SL-1100 andSL-1200 in the early 1970s, and they were widely adopted byhip hop musicians,[129] with the SL-1200 remaining the most widely used turntable in DJ culture for several decades.[131]
Despite the limited electronic equipment available to dub pioneers such as King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, their experiments in remix culture were musically cutting-edge.[133] King Tubby, for example, was a sound system proprietor and electronics technician, whose small front-room studio in the Waterhouse ghetto of westernKingston was a key site of dub music creation.[136]
In the late 1960s, pop and rock musicians, includingthe Beach Boys andthe Beatles, began to use electronic instruments, like thetheremin andMellotron, to supplement and define their sound. The first bands to utilize theMoog synthesizer would bethe Doors onStrange Days[137] as well asthe Monkees onPisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. In his bookElectronic and Experimental Music, Thom Holmes recognises the Beatles' 1966 recording "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the song that "ushered in a new era in the use of electronic music in rock and pop music" due to the band's incorporation of tape loops and reversed and speed-manipulated tape sounds.[138]
Dub music influenced electronic musical techniques later adopted byhip hop music when Jamaican immigrantDJ Kool Herc in the early 1970s introduced Jamaica's sound system culture and dub music techniques to America. One such technique that became popular inhip hop culture was playing two copies of the same record on two turntables in alternation, extending theb-dancers' favorite section.[153] The turntable eventually went on to become the most visible electronic musical instrument, and occasionally the mostvirtuosic, in the 1980s and 1990s.[134]
Electronic rock was also produced by several Japanese musicians, includingIsao Tomita'sElectric Samurai: Switched on Rock (1972), which featured Moog synthesizer renditions of contemporary pop and rock songs,[154] andOsamu Kitajima's progressive rock albumBenzaiten (1974).[155] The mid-1970s saw the rise of electronic art music musicians such asJean Michel Jarre,Vangelis,Tomita andKlaus Schulze who were significant influences on the development ofnew-age music.[150] Thehi-tech appeal of these works created for some years the trend of listing the electronic musical equipment employed in the album sleeves, as a distinctive feature. Electronic music began to enter regularly in radio programming and top-sellers charts, as the French bandSpace with their debut studio albumMagic Fly[156] or Jarre withOxygène.[157] Between 1977 and 1981, Kraftwerk released albums such asTrans-Europe Express,The Man-Machine andComputer World, which influenced subgenres of electronic music.[158]
In this era, the sound of rock musicians likeMike Oldfield andThe Alan Parsons Project (who is credited the first rock song to feature a digitalvocoder in 1975,The Raven) used to be arranged and blended with electronic effects and/or music as well, which became much more prominent in the mid-1980s.Jeff Wayne achieved a long-lasting success[159] with his 1978 electronic rock musical version ofThe War of the Worlds.
The definition ofMIDI and the development ofdigital audio made the development of purely electronic sounds much easier,[172] withaudio engineers, producers and composers exploring frequently the possibilities of virtually every new model of electronic sound equipment launched by manufacturers. Synth-pop sometimes used synthesizers to replace all other instruments, but it was more common that bands had one or more keyboardists in their line-ups along with guitarists, bassists, and/or drummers. These developments led to the growth of synth-pop, which after it was adopted by theNew Romantic movement, allowed synthesizers to dominate the pop and rock music of the early 1980s until the style began to fall from popularity in the mid-to-end of the decade.[171] Along with the aforementioned successful pioneers, key acts includedYazoo,Duran Duran,Spandau Ballet,Culture Club,Talk Talk,Japan, andEurythmics.
Some synth-pop bands created futuristic visual styles of themselves to reinforce the idea of electronic sounds were linked primarily with technology, as AmericansDevo and SpaniardsAviador Dro.
Keyboard synthesizers became so common that evenheavy metal rock bands, a genre often regarded as theopposite in aesthetics, sound and lifestyle from that of electronic pop artists by fans of both sides, achieved worldwide success with themes as 1983Jump[173] byVan Halen and 1986The Final Countdown[174] byEurope, which feature synths prominently.
Proliferation of electronic music research institutions
Elektronmusikstudion [sv] (EMS), formerly known as Electroacoustic Music in Sweden, is the Swedish national centre for electronic music andsound art. The research organisation started in 1964 and is based in Stockholm.
IRCAM at the Place Igor Stravinsky, Paris
STEIM (1969-2021) was a center forresearch and development of new musical instruments in the electronic performing arts, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded byMisha Mengelberg,Louis Andriessen,Peter Schat,Dick Raaymakers,Jan van Vlijmen [nl],Reinbert de Leeuw, andKonrad Boehmer. This group of Dutch composers had fought for the reformation of Amsterdam's feudal music structures; they insisted on Bruno Maderna's appointment as musical director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and enforced the first public fundings for experimental and improvised electronic music in the Netherlands. From 1981-2008,Michel Waisvisz was artistic director, and his live-electronic instruments like theCracklebox or The Hands inspired international artists to work at STEIM which entertained a residency program since 1992.
IRCAM in Paris became a major center for computer music research and realization and development of theSogitec 4X computer system,[175] featuring then revolutionary real-timedigital signal processing.Pierre Boulez'sRépons (1981) for 24 musicians and 6 soloists used the 4X to transform and route soloists to a loudspeaker system.
Barry Vercoe describes one of his experiences with early computer sounds:
At IRCAM in Paris in 1982, flutistLarry Beauregard had connected his flute to DiGiugno's4X audio processor, enabling real-time pitch-following. On aGuggenheim at the time, I extended this concept to real-time score-following with automatic synchronized accompaniment, and over the next two years Larry and I gave numerous demonstrations of the computer as a chamber musician, playingHandel flute sonatas,Boulez'sSonatine for flute and piano and by 1984 my ownSynapse II for flute and computer—the first piece ever composed expressly for such a setup. A major challenge was finding the right software constructs to support highly sensitive and responsive accompaniment. All of this was pre-MIDI, but the results were impressive even though heavy doses of tempo rubato would continually surprise mySynthetic Performer. In 1985 we solved the tempo rubato problem by incorporatinglearning from rehearsals (each time you played this way the machine would get better). We were also now tracking violin, since our brilliant, young flautist had contracted a fatal cancer. Moreover, this version used a new standard called MIDI, and here I was ably assisted by former student Miller Puckette, whose initial concepts for this task he later expanded into a program calledMAX.[177]
Released in 1970 byMoog Music, theMini-Moog was among the first widely available, portable, and relatively affordable synthesizers. It became once the most widely used synthesizer at that time in both popular and electronic art music.[178]Patrick Gleeson, playing live withHerbie Hancock at the beginning of the 1970s, pioneered the use of synthesizers in a touring context, where they were subject to stresses the early machines were not designed for.[179][180]
In 1974, theWDR studio in Cologne acquired anEMS Synthi 100 synthesizer, which many composers used to produce notable electronic works—includingRolf Gehlhaar'sFünf deutsche Tänze (1975), Karlheinz Stockhausen'sSirius (1975–1976), andJohn McGuire'sPulse Music III (1978).[181]
Thanks tominiaturization of electronics in the 1970s, by the start of the 1980s keyboard synthesizers, became lighter and affordable, integrating into a single slim unit all the necessary audio synthesis electronics and the piano-style keyboard itself, in sharp contrast with the bulky machinery and "cable spaguetty" employed along with the 1960s and 1970s. First, with analog synthesizers, the trend followed with digital synthesizers and samplers as well (see below).
In 1975, the Japanese companyYamaha licensed the algorithms forfrequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis) fromJohn Chowning, who had experimented with it atStanford University since 1971.[182][183] Yamaha's engineers began adapting Chowning's algorithm for use in a digital synthesizer, adding improvements such as the "key scaling" method to avoid the introduction of distortion that normally occurred in analog systems duringfrequency modulation.[184]
In 1980, Yamaha eventually released the first FM digital synthesizer, the Yamaha GS-1, but at an expensive price.[185] In 1983, Yamaha introduced the first stand-alone digital synthesizer, theDX7, which also used FM synthesis and would become one of the best-selling synthesizers of all time.[182] The DX7 was known for its recognizable bright tonalities that was partly due to anoverachievingsampling rate of 57 kHz.[186]
Yamaha DX7, a model for many digital synthesizers of the 1980s
TheKorg Poly-800 is a synthesizer released byKorg in 1983. Its initial list price of $795 made it the first fully programmable synthesizer that sold for less than $1000. It had 8-voicepolyphony with oneDigitally controlled oscillator (DCO) per voice.
TheCasio CZ-101 was the first and best-sellingphase distortion synthesizer in theCasioCZ line. Released in November 1984, it was one of the first (if not the first) fully programmable polyphonic synthesizers that was available for under $500.
TheRoland D-50 is a digital synthesizer produced byRoland and released in April 1987. Its features includesubtractive synthesis, on-board effects, a joystick for data manipulation, and an analogue synthesis-styled layout design. The external Roland PG-1000 (1987–1990) programmer could also be attached to the D-50 for more complex manipulation of its sounds.
Asampler is an electronic or digitalmusical instrument which usessound recordings (or "samples") of real instrument sounds (e.g., a piano, violin or trumpet), excerpts from recorded songs (e.g., a five-second bass guitarriff from afunk song) orfound sounds (e.g., sirens and ocean waves). The samples are loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. These sounds are then played back using the sampler program itself, aMIDI keyboard,sequencer or another triggering device (e.g.,electronic drums) to perform or compose music. Because these samples are usually stored in digital memory, the information can be quickly accessed. A single sample may often bepitch-shifted to different pitches to produce musicalscales andchords.
Fairlight CMI (1979–)
Before computer memory-based samplers, musicians used tape replay keyboards, which store recordings on analog tape. When a key is pressed the tape head contacts the moving tape and plays a sound. TheMellotron was the most notable model, used by many groups in the late 1960s and the 1970s, but such systems were expensive and heavy due to the multiple tape mechanisms involved, and the range of the instrument was limited to three octaves at the most. To change sounds a new set of tapes had to be installed in the instrument. The emergence of thedigital sampler made sampling far more practical.
The earliest digital sampling was done on theEMS Musys system, developed by Peter Grogono (software), David Cockerell (hardware and interfacing), andPeter Zinovieff (system design and operation) at their London (Putney) Studio c. 1969.
First released in 1977–1978,[187] theSynclavier I usingFM synthesis, re-licensed fromYamaha,[188] and sold mostly to universities, proved to be highly influential among both electronic music composers and music producers, includingMike Thorne, an early adopter from the commercial world, due to its versatility, its cutting-edge technology, and distinctive sounds.
The first polyphonic digital sampling synthesizer was the Australian-producedFairlight CMI, first available in 1979. These early sampling synthesizers used wavetablesample-based synthesis.[189]
In 1980, a group of musicians and music merchants met to standardize an interface that new instruments could use to communicate control instructions with other instruments and computers. This standard was dubbed Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and resulted from a collaboration between leading manufacturers, initiallySequential Circuits,Oberheim,Roland—and later, other participants that includedYamaha,Korg, andKawai.[190] A paper was authored byDave Smith of Sequential Circuits and proposed to theAudio Engineering Society in 1981. Then, in August 1983, the MIDI Specification 1.0 was finalized.
MIDI technology allows a single keystroke, control wheel motion, pedal movement, or command from a microcomputer to activate every device in the studio remotely and synchrony, with each device responding according to conditions predetermined by the composer.
MIDI instruments and software made powerful control of sophisticated instruments easily affordable by many studios and individuals. Acoustic sounds became reintegrated into studios viasampling and sampled-ROM-based instruments.
Miller Puckette developed graphic signal-processing software for4X calledMax (afterMax Mathews) and later ported it toMacintosh (with Dave Zicarelli extending it forOpcode)[191] for real-time MIDI control, bringing algorithmic composition availability to most composers with modest computer programming background.
The characteristic lo-fi sound of chip music was initially the result of early computer'ssound chips andsound cards' technical limitations; however, the sound has since become sought after in its own right.
Synth-pop continued into the late 1980s, with a format that moved closer to dance music, including the work of acts such as British duosPet Shop Boys,Erasure andThe Communards, achieving success along much of the 1990s.
The trend has continued to the present day with modern nightclubs worldwide regularly playing electronic dance music (EDM). Today, electronic dance music has radio stations,[199] websites,[200] and publications likeMixmag dedicated solely to the genre. Despite the industry's attempt to create a specific EDM brand, the initialism remains in use as an umbrella term for multiple genres, includingdance-pop,house,techno,electro, andtrance, as well as their respective subgenres.[201][202][203] Moreover, the genre has found commercial and cultural significance in the United States and North America, thanks to the wildly popularbig room house/EDM sound that has been incorporated into the U.S. pop music[204] and the rise of large-scale commercialraves such asElectric Daisy Carnival,Tomorrowland andUltra Music Festival.
The category "indie electronic" (or "indietronica")[207] has been used to refer to a wave of groups with roots inindependent rock who embraced electronic elements (such as synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and computer programs) and influences such as early electronic composition, krautrock, synth-pop, and dance music.[208] Recordings are commonly made onlaptops usingdigital audio workstations.[207]
As computer technology has become more accessible andmusic software has advanced, interacting with music production technology is now possible using means that bear no relationship to traditionalmusical performance practices:[209] for instance,laptop performance (laptronica),[210]live coding[211][212] andAlgorave. In general, the termLive PA refers to any live performance of electronic music, whether with laptops, synthesizers, or other devices.
Beginning around the year 2000, some software-based virtual studio environments emerged, with products such as Propellerhead'sReason andAbleton Live finding popular appeal.[213] Such tools provide viable and cost-effective alternatives to typical hardware-based production studios, and thanks to advances inmicroprocessor technology, it is now possible to create high-quality music using little more than a single laptop computer. Such advances have democratized music creation,[214] leading to a massive increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music available to the general public via the internet. Software-based instruments and effect units (so-called "plugins") can be incorporated in a computer-based studio using the VST platform. Some of these instruments are more or less exact replicas of existing hardware (such as the Roland D-50, ARP Odyssey, Yamaha DX7, or Korg M1).[citation needed]
Circuit bending is the modification of battery-powered toys and synthesizers to create new unintended sound effects. It was pioneered by Reed Ghazala in the 1960s and Reed coined the name "circuit bending" in 1992.[215]
Following the circuit bending culture, musicians also began to build their own modular synthesizers, causing a renewed interest in the early 1960s designs.Eurorack became a popular system.
^"The stuff of electronic music is electrically produced or modified sounds. ... two basic definitions will help put some of the historical discussion in its place: purely electronic music versuselectroacoustic music" (Holmes 2002, p. 6)
^Electroacoustic music may also use electroniceffect units to change sounds from the natural world, such as the sound of waves on a beach or bird calls. All types of sounds can be used as source material for this music. Electroacoustic performers and composers use microphones, tape recorders, and digital samplers to make live or recorded music. During live performances, natural sounds are modified in real-time using electronic effects andaudio consoles. The source of the sound can be anything from ambient noise (traffic, people talking) and nature sounds to live musicians playing conventional acoustic or electro-acoustic instruments (Holmes 2002, p. 8)
^"Electronically produced music is part of the mainstream of popular culture. Musical concepts that were once considered radical—the use of environmental sounds, ambient music, turntable music, digital sampling, computer music, the electronic modification of acoustic sounds, and music made from fragments of speech-have now been subsumed by many kinds of popular music. Record store genres including new age, rap, hip-hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and popular song all rely heavily on production values and techniques that originated with classic electronic music" (Holmes 2002, p. 1). "By the 1990s, electronic music had penetrated every corner of musical life. It extended from ethereal sound-waves played by esoteric experimenters to the thumping syncopation that accompanies every pop record" (Lebrecht 1996, p. 106).
^Swezey, Kenneth M. (1995).The Encyclopedia Americana – International Edition Vol. 13. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Incorporated. p. 211.;Weidenaar 1995, p. 82
^"To present the musical soul of the masses, of the great factories, of the railways, of the transatlantic liners, of the battleships, of the automobiles and airplanes. To add to the great central themes of the musical poem the domain of the machine and the victorious kingdom of Electricity." Quoted inRusscol 1972, p. 40.
^(Lebrecht 1996, p. 75): "... at Northwest German Radio in Cologne (1953), where the term 'electronic music' was coined to distinguish their pure experiments from musique concrete..."
^"In 1967, just following the world premiere ofHymnen, Stockhausen said about the electronic music experience: '... Many listeners have projected that strange new music which they experienced—especially in the realm of electronic music—into extraterrestrial space. Even though they are not familiar with it through human experience, they identify it with the fantastic dream world. Several have commented that my electronic music sounds "like on a different star", or "like in outer space." Many have said that when hearing this music, they have sensations as if flying at an infinitely high speed, and then again, as if immobile in an immense space. Thus, extreme words are employed to describe such experience, which is not "objectively" communicable in the sense of an object description, but rather which exist in the subjective fantasy and which are projected into the extraterrestrial space'" (Holmes 2002, p. 145).
^"Carolyn Brown [Earle Brown's wife] was to dance in Cunningham's company, while Brown himself was to participate in Cage's 'Project for Music for Magnetic Tape.'... funded by Paul Williams (dedicatee of the 1953Williams Mix), who—likeRobert Rauschenberg—was a former student of Black Mountain College, which Cage and Cunnigham had first visited in the summer of 1948" (Johnson 2002, p. 20).
^"From at least Louis and Bebbe Barron's soundtrack forThe Forbidden Planet onwards, electronic music—in particular synthetic timbre—has impersonated alien worlds in film" (Norman 2004, p. 32).
^abBefore the Second World War in Japan, several "electrical" instruments seem already to have been developed (seeja:電子音楽#黎明期), and in 1935 a kind of "electronic" musical instrument, theYamaha Magna Organ, was developed. It seems to be a multi-timbral keyboard instrument based on electrically blownfree reeds withpickups, possibly similar to theelectrostatic reed organs developed by Frederick Albert Hoschke in 1934 then manufactured byEverett andWurlitzer until 1961.
一時代を画する新楽器完成 浜松の青年技師山下氏 [An epoch-defining new musical instrument was developed by a young engineer Mr.Yamashita in Hamamatsu].Hochi Shimbun (in Japanese). 8 June 1935. Archived fromthe original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved30 December 2011.
新電氣樂器 マグナオルガンの御紹介 [New Electric Musical Instrument – Introduction of the Magna Organ] (in Japanese). Hamamatsu: 日本樂器製造株式會社 (Yamaha). October 1935.特許第一〇八六六四号, 同 第一一〇〇六八号, 同 第一一一二一六号
^"A central figure in post-war electronic art music,Pauline Oliveros [b. 1932] is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the U.S. west coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music." from CD liner notes, "Accordion & Voice", Pauline Oliveros, Record Label: Important, Catalog number IMPREC140: 793447514024.
^Doornbusch, Paul."The Music of CSIRAC". Melbourne School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Archived fromthe original on 18 January 2012.
^"This element of embracing errors is at the centre of Circuit Bending, it is about creating sounds that are not supposed to happen and not supposed to be heard (Gard 2004). In terms of musicality, as with electronic art music, it is primarily concerned with timbre and takes little regard for pitch and rhythm in a classical sense. ... . In a similar vein to Cage's aleatoric music, the art of Bending is dependent on chance, when a person prepares to bend they have no idea of the outcome" (Yabsley 2007).
^"クロダオルガン修理" [Croda Organ Repair].CrodaOrganService.com (in Japanese). May 2017.クロダオルガン株式会社(昭和30年 [1955] 創業、2007年に解散)は約50年の歴史のあいだに自社製造のクロダトーン...の販売、設置をおこなってきましたが、[2007]クロダオルガン株式会社廃業... [Kuroda Organ Co., Ltd. (founded in 1955, dissolved in 2007) has been selling and installing its own manufactured Kurodatone ... during about 50 years of history, but [in 2007] the Croda Organ closed business...]
^"Vicotor Company of Japan, Ltd.".Diamond's Japan Business Directory (in Japanese). Diamond Lead Company. 1993. p. 752.ISBN978-4-924360-01-3.[JVC] Developed Japan's first electronic organ, 1958.Note: the first model byJVC was "EO-4420" in 1958. See also the Japanese Wikipedia article: "w:ja:ビクトロン#機種".
^Palmieri, Robert (2004).The Piano: An Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of keyboard instruments (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 406.ISBN978-1-135-94963-1.the development [and release] in 1959 of an all-transistor Electone electronic organ, first in a successful series of Yamaha electronic instruments. It was a milestone for Japan's music industry..Note: the first model byYamaha was"D-1" in 1959."
^Shindig (11 June 2022)."Fifty Foot Hose – If Not This Time".Shindig Magazine. Shindig! Media Ltd & Silverback Publishing. Retrieved26 February 2023.
^Craig Miller (14 November 2016)."How a Sound Guru Got From Synthesizers to the Music of Nature".KQED. KQED Inc. Retrieved19 February 2023.Yes, as in Doctor Bernie Krause, best known today as the dean of the emerging field of soundscape ecology, and one of the chief curators of nature's own music. Few today remember that he also played a seminal role ushering in the synthesizer age. Krause and his music partner, Paul Beaver, turned out to be pioneers in the musical genre that we now call "electronica."
^Adam Sweeting (21 September 2016)."Gilli Smyth obituary".The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved26 February 2023.The singer and poet Gilli Smyth, who has died aged 83, co-founded the band Gong in 1967 with her partner Daevid Allen. Smith's pitch-leaping, free-form, often atonal vocal style, which she described as "musical landscaping", became an integral component of Gong's cosmic sound, and over time proved influential on electronica and techno music.
^Nicolas Schöffer (December 1983)."Variations sur 600 Structures Sonores – Une nouvelle méthode de composition musicale sur l'ordinateur 4X".Leonardo On-Line (in French). Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST). Archived fromthe original on 17 April 2012.L'ordinateur nous permet de franchir une nouvelle étape quant à la définition et au codage des sons, et permet de créer des partitions qui dépassent en complexité et en précision les possibilités d'antan. La methode de composition que je propose comporte plusieurs phases et nécessite l'emploi d'une terminologie simple que nous définirons au fur et à mesure : Trames, paves, briques et modules.
^"In 1969, a portable version of the studio Moog called the Minimoog Model D, became the most widely used synthesizer in both popular music and electronic art music"Montanaro 2004, p. 8.
^Sofer & Lynner 1977, p. 23 "Yes, I used [ Moog modular equipment ] until I went with Herbie (Hancock) in 1970. Then I used a [ARP ] 2600 because I couldn't use the Moog on stage. It was too big and cranky; every time we transported it, we would have to pull a module out, and I knew I couldn't do that on the road, so I started using ARP's."
^Eric Grunwald (Summer 1994)."Bell Tolls for FM Patent, but Yamaha Sees "New Beginning""(PDF).Stanford Technology Brainstorm. Vol. 3, no. 2. Office of Technology Licensing (OTL),Stanford University. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 5 May 2017. Retrieved6 October 2017.The technique for synthesizing electronic music, invented by Music Professor John Chowning, brought in over $20 million through an exclusive license to Yamaha Corporation of Japan, which used the technology in its DX-7 synthesizer, enormously popular in the 1980s.
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Emmerson, Simon (1986).The Language of Electroacoustic Music. London: Macmillan.
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