Electroacoustic music
Encyclopedia
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era
following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers that were based at research studios in Europe
and America
at that time. These include the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at the ORTF
in Paris
, the home of musique concrete
, the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) studio in Cologne
, where the focus was on the composition of elektronische Musik, and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York
, where tape music, electronic music, and computer music
were all explored.
and a group in Cologne
who began experimenting with elektronische Musik
. But isolated examples of the use of electroacoustic and prerecorded music exist that pre-date such developments. Ottorino Respighi
used an (acoustical) phonograph recording of a nightingale’s song in his orchestral work The Pines of Rome in 1924, before the introduction of electrical record players; experimental filmmaker Walter Ruttmann
created Weekend, a sound collage on an optical soundtrack in 1930; and John Cage
used phonograph recordings of test tones mixed with live instruments in Imaginary Landscape no. 1 (1939), among other examples. In the first half of the Twentieth Century, a number of writers also advocated the use of electronic sound sources for composition, notably Ferruccio Busoni
, Luigi Russolo
, and Edgard Varèse
, and electronic performing instruments were invented, such as the Theremin
in 1919, and the Ondes Martenot
in 1928.
which began soon after tape recording
was invented, as people could now create sounds that were for the first time identical with each performance. Users of this new technology began to develop a new musical ethic around the idea of the created artificial sound; as now music no longer had to be related to live performance
of instruments, but now, the recording itself is the performance. Electroacoustic music and particularly musique concrète made extensive use of magnetic tape, so much that the terms "tape music" and "musique concrete" were sometimes used interchangeably, though, strictly speaking, they are not necessarily the same thing.
Before recording technology, "music" referred only to live music. So when the recording media first appeared, the transformation of the music paradigm was profound. The experience of listening to music was seldom repetitive before recording, unlike listening to a tape which is more or less identical at each hearing. In addition, this experience is also shared by everyone who listens to the same recording, making commonality of message and musical experience a unifying social ritual for the first time.
Holmes (2008) cites the work of Halim El-Dabh
as perhaps the earliest example of tape music. El-Dabh's The Expression of Zaar, first presented in Cairo
, Egypt
in 1944, but now lost, was an early work using musique concréte like techniques similar to those developed in Paris during the same period. El-Dabh would later become more famous for his work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, where in 1959 he composed the influential piece Leiyla and the Poet (Holmes 2008, 153–54 & 157).
US composer John Cage
's assembly of the Williams Mix serves as an example of the rigors of tape music. First, Cage created a 192-page score. Over the course of a year, 600 sounds were assembled and recorded. Cut tape segments for each occurrence of each sound were accumulated on the score. Then the cut segments were spliced to one of eight tapes, work finished on January 16, 1953. The premiere performance (realization) of the 4'15" work was given on March 21, 1953 at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
The underlying philosophy of tape music spawned a whole new direction in musicianship, and music styles that would follow. Electronic music
, electronica
, New Age
, hip hop
and other incarnations are direct descendants of the original tape music philosophy.
The musique concrète
group was centered in Paris
and was pioneered by Pierre Schaeffer
; their music was based on the juxtaposition and transformation of natural sounds (meaning real, recorded sounds, not necessarily those made by natural forces) recorded to tape or disc.
, elektronische Musik
, pioneered in 1949–51 by the composer Herbert Eimert
and the physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler
, was based solely on electronically generated (synthetic) sounds, particularly sine wave
s (Eimert 1957, 2; Morawska-Büngeler 1988, 11–13; Ungeheuer 1992, 13). The beginning of the development of electronic music
has been traced back to “the invention of the valve
[vacuum tube] in 1906” (Eimert 1957, 2). The precise control afforded by the studio allowed for what Eimert considered to be the subjection of everything, “to the last element of the single note”, to serial
permutation
, “resulting in a completely new way of composing sound” (Eimert 1957, 8); in the studio, serial operations could be applied to elements such as timbre and dynamics. The common link between the two schools is that the music is recorded and performed through loudspeakers, without a human performer. While serialism has been largely abandoned in electroacoustic circles, the majority of electroacoustic pieces use a combination of recorded sound and synthesized or processed sounds, and the schism between Schaeffer’s and Eimert’s approaches has been overcome, the first major example being Karlheinz Stockhausen
’s Gesang der Jünglinge
of 1955–56 (Morawska-Büngeler 1988, 17; Stockhausen 1996, 93–94).
. The interaction between sounds and the ways they are transfigured over time has been termed “spectromorphology” by the composer Denis Smalley
(Smalley 1997).
Electroacoustic as a term applied to describe musical instruments can mean that the sound of the instrument is generated acoustically, by strings for example, but that there is no traditional acoustic sound box. Amplification is accomplished through electronic pickups and amplifiers. Design of these instruments are typically cut down and very minimal and may consist of only a fingerboard, bridge, and tuning machines. The term electroacoustic can also mean that the instrument can be played either electrically or acoustically as in hollow body electric guitars. Both systems of amplification exist simultaneously in the same instrument and it will work well either way.
which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone
or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker
). While audio feedback is usually undesirable, it has entered into musical history as a desired effect beginning in the early 1960s. It is now well associated with the history of rock music where electric guitar
players such as Pete Townshend
and Jimi Hendrix
have used it extensively. Some of the earliest users of guitar feedback were 1950s musicians with Albert Collins
, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Guitar Slim
all independently recording and publishing music featuring that effect. Outside of the rock tradition, an early user of feedback was the contemporary American composer Robert Ashley
who first used feedback as sound material in his work Wolfman (1964).
of low voltage
, battery-powered electronic audio devices
such as guitar effects, children’s toy
s and small synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators. Emphasizing spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly associated with noise music
, though many more conventional contemporary musicians and musical groups have been known to experiment with “bent” instruments (Collins 2006,).
, the International Conference on New interfaces for musical expression
, the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Festival (Bourges, France), and the Ars Electronica
Festival (Linz, Austria).
A number of national associations promote the art form, notably the Canadian Electroacoustic Community
(CEC) in Canada, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States
(SEAMUS) in the US, the Australasian Computer Music Association
in Australia and New Zealand, and Sound and Music
(previously the Sonic Arts Network
) in the UK. The Computer Music Journal
and Organised Sound
are the two most important peer-reviewed journals dedicated to electroacoustic studies, while several national associations produce print and electronic publications.
See also the “Electroacoustic Bibliography” published in eContact! 8.4 — Ressources éducatives / Educational Resources (Montréal: CEC
) for an annotated “‘essential reading list’ for electroacoustics, including books, journals and other resources relating to electroacoustics”.
See also the “Electroacoustic Bibliography” published in eContact! 8.4 — Ressources éducatives / Educational Resources (Montréal: CEC
) for an annotated list of journals publishing articles related to electroacoustics.
Modernism (music)
Modernism in music is characterized by a desire for or belief in progress and science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with the past or common practice.- Defining musical modernism :...
following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers that were based at research studios in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and America
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
at that time. These include the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at the ORTF
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the French national public broadcasting organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" , which had been founded in 1945...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the home of musique concrete
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
, the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) studio in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, where the focus was on the composition of elektronische Musik, and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where tape music, electronic music, and computer music
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
were all explored.
History
Most standard music history and reference texts date the formal birth of electroacoustic music to the late 1940s and early 1950s, and in particular to the work of two groups of composers whose æsthetic orientations were radically opposed: a Paris based collective centred around the practice of Musique ConcreteMusique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
and a group in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
who began experimenting with elektronische Musik
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
. But isolated examples of the use of electroacoustic and prerecorded music exist that pre-date such developments. Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
used an (acoustical) phonograph recording of a nightingale’s song in his orchestral work The Pines of Rome in 1924, before the introduction of electrical record players; experimental filmmaker Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film....
created Weekend, a sound collage on an optical soundtrack in 1930; and John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
used phonograph recordings of test tones mixed with live instruments in Imaginary Landscape no. 1 (1939), among other examples. In the first half of the Twentieth Century, a number of writers also advocated the use of electronic sound sources for composition, notably Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
, Luigi Russolo
Luigi Russolo
Luigi Russolo was an Italian Futurist painter and composer, and the author of the manifesto The Art of Noises . He is often regarded as one of the first noise music experimental composers with his performances of "noise concerts" in 1913-14 and then again after World War I, notably in Paris in 1921...
, and Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
, and electronic performing instruments were invented, such as the Theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
in 1919, and the Ondes Martenot
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot , also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin...
in 1928.
Tape music
Tape music is a form of musicMusic
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
which began soon after tape recording
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel, rather than being securely contained within a cassette....
was invented, as people could now create sounds that were for the first time identical with each performance. Users of this new technology began to develop a new musical ethic around the idea of the created artificial sound; as now music no longer had to be related to live performance
Live performance
live performance may refer to:*A play or musical*A concert, a live performance before an audience*A dance performance, dance performed for an audience.*Live radio, radio broadcast without delay...
of instruments, but now, the recording itself is the performance. Electroacoustic music and particularly musique concrète made extensive use of magnetic tape, so much that the terms "tape music" and "musique concrete" were sometimes used interchangeably, though, strictly speaking, they are not necessarily the same thing.
Before recording technology, "music" referred only to live music. So when the recording media first appeared, the transformation of the music paradigm was profound. The experience of listening to music was seldom repetitive before recording, unlike listening to a tape which is more or less identical at each hearing. In addition, this experience is also shared by everyone who listens to the same recording, making commonality of message and musical experience a unifying social ritual for the first time.
Holmes (2008) cites the work of Halim El-Dabh
Halim El-Dabh
Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades...
as perhaps the earliest example of tape music. El-Dabh's The Expression of Zaar, first presented in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in 1944, but now lost, was an early work using musique concréte like techniques similar to those developed in Paris during the same period. El-Dabh would later become more famous for his work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, where in 1959 he composed the influential piece Leiyla and the Poet (Holmes 2008, 153–54 & 157).
US composer John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
's assembly of the Williams Mix serves as an example of the rigors of tape music. First, Cage created a 192-page score. Over the course of a year, 600 sounds were assembled and recorded. Cut tape segments for each occurrence of each sound were accumulated on the score. Then the cut segments were spliced to one of eight tapes, work finished on January 16, 1953. The premiere performance (realization) of the 4'15" work was given on March 21, 1953 at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
The underlying philosophy of tape music spawned a whole new direction in musicianship, and music styles that would follow. Electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
, New Age
New Age music
New Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and other incarnations are direct descendants of the original tape music philosophy.
The musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
group was centered in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and was pioneered by Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
; their music was based on the juxtaposition and transformation of natural sounds (meaning real, recorded sounds, not necessarily those made by natural forces) recorded to tape or disc.
Electronic music
In CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, elektronische Musik
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, pioneered in 1949–51 by the composer Herbert Eimert
Herbert Eimert
Herbert Eimert was a German music theorist, musicologist, journalist, music critic, editor, radio producer, and composer.-Life:...
and the physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler , was a German physicist, experimental acoustician, phoneticist, and information theorist....
, was based solely on electronically generated (synthetic) sounds, particularly sine wave
Sine wave
The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It occurs often in pure mathematics, as well as physics, signal processing, electrical engineering and many other fields...
s (Eimert 1957, 2; Morawska-Büngeler 1988, 11–13; Ungeheuer 1992, 13). The beginning of the development of electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
has been traced back to “the invention of the valve
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
[vacuum tube] in 1906” (Eimert 1957, 2). The precise control afforded by the studio allowed for what Eimert considered to be the subjection of everything, “to the last element of the single note”, to serial
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
permutation
Permutation
In mathematics, the notion of permutation is used with several slightly different meanings, all related to the act of permuting objects or values. Informally, a permutation of a set of objects is an arrangement of those objects into a particular order...
, “resulting in a completely new way of composing sound” (Eimert 1957, 8); in the studio, serial operations could be applied to elements such as timbre and dynamics. The common link between the two schools is that the music is recorded and performed through loudspeakers, without a human performer. While serialism has been largely abandoned in electroacoustic circles, the majority of electroacoustic pieces use a combination of recorded sound and synthesized or processed sounds, and the schism between Schaeffer’s and Eimert’s approaches has been overcome, the first major example being Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
’s Gesang der Jünglinge
Gesang der Jünglinge
Gesang der Jünglinge is a noted electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was realized in 1955–56 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk studio in Cologne and is Work Number 8 in the composer's catalog of works...
of 1955–56 (Morawska-Büngeler 1988, 17; Stockhausen 1996, 93–94).
Sound generation techniques
All electroacoustic music is made with electronic technology. Some electroacoustic compositions make use of sounds not available to typical acoustic instruments, such as those used in a traditional orchestraOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. The interaction between sounds and the ways they are transfigured over time has been termed “spectromorphology” by the composer Denis Smalley
Denis Smalley
Denis Arthur Smalley is a composer of electroacoustic music, with a special interest in acousmatic music.-Biography:...
(Smalley 1997).
Electroacoustic as a term applied to describe musical instruments can mean that the sound of the instrument is generated acoustically, by strings for example, but that there is no traditional acoustic sound box. Amplification is accomplished through electronic pickups and amplifiers. Design of these instruments are typically cut down and very minimal and may consist of only a fingerboard, bridge, and tuning machines. The term electroacoustic can also mean that the instrument can be played either electrically or acoustically as in hollow body electric guitars. Both systems of amplification exist simultaneously in the same instrument and it will work well either way.
Digital signal processing
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of feedbackFeedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
). While audio feedback is usually undesirable, it has entered into musical history as a desired effect beginning in the early 1960s. It is now well associated with the history of rock music where electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
players such as Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
have used it extensively. Some of the earliest users of guitar feedback were 1950s musicians with Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Guitar Slim
Guitar Slim
Eddie Jones , better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues guitarist, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records, "The Things That I Used to Do"...
all independently recording and publishing music featuring that effect. Outside of the rock tradition, an early user of feedback was the contemporary American composer Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
who first used feedback as sound material in his work Wolfman (1964).
Circuit bending
Circuit bending is the creative short-circuitingShort circuit
A short circuit in an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path, often where essentially no electrical impedance is encountered....
of low voltage
Voltage
Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...
, battery-powered electronic audio devices
Electronic musical instrument
An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....
such as guitar effects, children’s toy
Toy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
s and small synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators. Emphasizing spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly associated with noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, though many more conventional contemporary musicians and musical groups have been known to experiment with “bent” instruments (Collins 2006,).
Examples of notable electroacoustic works
- Milton Babbitt — PhilomelMilton Babbitt's PhilomelPhilomel, a serial composition composed in 1964, combines synthesizer with both live and recorded soprano voice. It is Milton Babbitt’s best-known work and was planned as a piece for performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, funded by the Ford Foundation and commissioned for soprano Bethany...
(1964) - Luciano Berio — Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)Thema (Omaggio a Joyce)Thema is an electroacoustic composition by Luciano Berio, for voice and tape. Composed between 1958 and 1959, it is based on the interpretative reading of Sirens poem by Cathy Berberian and on the elaboration of her recorded voice by technological means.-History and context of the...
(1958–59) - Pierre Boulez — RéponsRéponsRépons is a composition by French composer Pierre Boulez for a large chamber orchestra with 6 soloists and live electronics. It was premiered on the 18th of October in 1981 at the Donaueschingen Festival and subsequently expanded until its completion in 1984.Répons was the first significant work to...
(1981–84) - John Cage - Imaginary Landscape No. 1Imaginary Landscape No. 1Imaginary Landscape No. 1 is a composition by the American composer John Cage. Written in 1939 at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, the work is the first in Cage’s series of five Imaginary Landscape pieces....
(1939) - Mario Davidovsky —Synchronisms No. 6Synchronisms No. 6 for Piano and Electronic Sound (1970)Synchronisms No. 6 for Piano and Electronic Sound is piece of music that combines piano and a pre-recorded tape composed by Mario Davidovsky. It was this piece that won him the 1971 Pulitzer Prize....
(1970) - Halim El-Dabh — Leiyla and the Poet (1961)
- Karel Goeyvaerts — Nummer 5 met zuivere tonenNummer 5Nummer 5 met zuivere tonen is a musical work by the Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts, realized in 1953 and one of the earliest pieces of electronic music.-History:...
(1953) - Alvin Lucier — I Am Sitting in a RoomI Am Sitting in a RoomI am sitting in a room is one of composer Alvin Lucier's best known works, featuring Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the recording back into the room, re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated. Since all rooms...
(1970) - Steve Reich — Pendulum MusicPendulum Music"Pendulum Music " is the name of a work by Steve Reich, involving suspended microphones and speakers, creating phasing feedback tones. The piece was composed in August 1968 and revised in May 1973....
(1968), for microphones, amplifiers, speakers and performers - Pierre Schaeffer - Cinq études de bruitsCinq études de bruitsCinq études de bruits is a collection of musical compositions by Pierre Schaeffer. The five études were composed in 1948 and are the earliest pieces of musique concrète, a form of electroacoustic music that utilises recorded sounds as a compositional resource.The five études were composed at the...
(1948) - Karlheinz Stockhausen — Gesang der JünglingeGesang der JünglingeGesang der Jünglinge is a noted electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was realized in 1955–56 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk studio in Cologne and is Work Number 8 in the composer's catalog of works...
(1955–56), KontakteKontakte (Stockhausen)Kontakte is a celebrated electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen, realized in 1958–60 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk electronic-music studio in Cologne with the assistance of Gottfried Michael Koenig .-Work history:The title of the work “refers both to contacts between instrumental and...
(1958–60), MixturMixturMixtur, for orchestra, 4 sine-wave generators, and 4 ring modulators, is an orchestral composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1964, and is Nr. 16 in his catalogue of works...
(1964), Mikrophonie I & IIMikrophonie (Stockhausen)Mikrophonie is the title given by Karlheinz Stockhausen to two of his compositions, written in 1964 and 1965, in which “normally inaudible vibrations . ....
(1964 and 1965), TelemusikTelemusikTelemusik is an electronic composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is number 20 in his catalog of works.-History:Through his composition student, Makoto Shinohara, Stockhausen was invited by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK to visit Tokyo, and to carry out two commissions in their...
(1966), HymnenHymnenHymnen is an electronic and concrete work, with optional live performers, by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in 1966–67, and elaborated in 1969. In the composer's catalog of works, it is "Nr. 22".-Musical form and content:...
(1966–67) - James Tenney — For Ann (rising)For Ann (rising)For Ann is a piece of electronic music created by James Tenney in 1969.Tenney is the author of Meta Hodos, one of, if not the, earliest applications of gestalt theory and cognitive science to music, and later "Hierarchical temporal gestalt perception in music: a metric space model" with Larry...
(1969) - Edgard Varèse — Poème électroniquePoème électroniquePoème électronique is a piece of electronic music by composer Edgard Varèse, written for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. The Philips corporation commissioned Le Corbusier to design the pavilion, which was intended as a showcase of their engineering progress...
(1958)
Electronic and electroacoustic instruments
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Centers, associations and events for electroacoustics and related arts
Important centers of research and composition can be found around the world, and there are numerous conferences and festivals which present electroacoustic music, notably the International Computer Music ConferenceInternational Computer Music Conference
The International Computer Music Conference is a yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. It is the annual conference of the International Computer Music Association ....
, the International Conference on New interfaces for musical expression
New Interfaces for Musical Expression
New Interfaces for Musical Expression, also known as NIME, is an international conference dedicated to scientific research on the development of new technologies for musical expression and artistic performance...
, the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Festival (Bourges, France), and the Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
Festival (Linz, Austria).
A number of national associations promote the art form, notably the Canadian Electroacoustic Community
Canadian Electroacoustic Community
Founded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
(CEC) in Canada, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States
Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States
The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States is a nonprofit US based organization founded in 1984 which aims to promote electro-acoustic music...
(SEAMUS) in the US, the Australasian Computer Music Association
Australasian Computer Music Association
The Australasian Computer Music Association is a nonprofit Australia and New Zealand based organisation founded in 1989, which aims to promote electroacoustic and computer music...
in Australia and New Zealand, and Sound and Music
Sound and Music
Sound and Music is a development agency promoting and supporting contemporary music in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2008 from the merger of four existing bodies working in the contemporary music field: the Society for the Promotion of New Music, the British Music Information Centre,...
(previously the Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Arts Network was a UK-based organisation, established in 1979, that aimed to enable both audiences and practitioners to engage with the art of sound through a programme of festivals, events, commissions and education projects...
) in the UK. The Computer Music Journal
Computer Music Journal
Computer Music Journal is an American academic journal that covers a wide range of topics related to digital audio signal processing and electroacoustic music. It is published on-line and in hard copy by MIT Press. The magazine is accompanied by an annual CD/DVD that collects audio and video work...
and Organised Sound
Organised Sound
Organised Sound is an international peer-reviewed academic journal which focuses on the rapidly developing methods and issues arising from the use of technology in music today...
are the two most important peer-reviewed journals dedicated to electroacoustic studies, while several national associations produce print and electronic publications.
Festivals
- FUTURA — Festival international d’art acousmatique et des arts de support (Crest, France)
- Inventionen (Berlin)
- SICMF — Seoul International Computer Music Festival
- 60x6060x6060x60 is a collection of 60 electroacoustic or acousmatic works from 60 different composers/artists, each work 60 seconds or less in duration. 60x60 project showcases sixty new works, each sixty seconds or less, by sixty composers in a continuous sixty minute concert, for a one-hour cross-section...
Conferences and symposiums
Alongside paper presentations, workshops and seminars, many of these events also feature concert performances or sound installations created by those attending or which are related to the theme of the conference / symposium.- ICMC — International Computer Music Conference (coordinated by International Computer Music Association since 1974)
- NIME — International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (since 2000)
- SEAMUS — Society for Electro-Acoustic Music National Conference (coordinated by SEAMUS since 1985)
- TES — Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium (since 2007)
See also
- Acousmatic musicAcousmatic musicAcousmatic music is a form of electroacoustic music that deals specifically with acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The practice has a historical basis in musique concrète. It can be created using non-acoustic technology, exists only in a recorded format , and is composed for reception...
- Electronic art music
- Experimental musicExperimental musicExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
- Electroacoustic improvisationElectroacoustic improvisationElectroacoustic improvisation is a style of music that incorporates aspects of both electroacoustic music and free improvisation.-Origins:Live electronics has been part of the sound art world since the 1930s with the early works of John Cage...
- JapanoiseJapanoiseis a portmanteau of the words "Japanese" and "noise": a term applied to the diverse, prolific, and influential noise music scene of Japan. Primarily popular and active in the 1980s and 1990s but still alive today, the Japanoise scene is defined by a remarkable sense of musical freedom...
- List of acousmatic-music composers
- Prepared guitarPrepared guitarA prepared guitar is a guitar that has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques...
- SonologySonologySonology is a neologism used to describe the study of sound in a variety of disciplines.In medicine, the term is used in the field of radiology to describe the practice of medical ultrasonography....
- Sound sculptureSound sculptureSound sculpture is an intermedia and time based art form in which sculpture or any kind of art object produces sound, or the reverse...
Further reading
- Beecroft, Norma. 2009. “Electronic Music in Toronto and Canada in the Analogue Era.” eContact! 11.2 — Figures canadiennes (2) / Canadian Figures (2) (July 2009). Montréal: CECCanadian Electroacoustic CommunityFounded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
. - Chadabe, Joel. 1997. Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-303231-0
- Emmerson, Simon (ed.). 1986. The Language of Electroacoustic Music. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-39759-2 (cased); ISBN 0-333-39760-6 (pbk)
- Emmerson, Simon (ed.). 2000. Music, Electronic Media and Culture. Aldershot (UK) and Burlington, Vermont (USA): Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0-7546-0109-9
- Gann, Kyle. 2000a. "It’s Sound, It’s Art, and Some Call It Music." New York Times (January 9)
- Gann, Kyle. 2000. "MUSIC; Electronic Music, Always Current.” New York Times (July 9).
- Griffiths, Paul. 1995. Modern Music and After: Directions Since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816578-1 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-816511-0 (pbk.)
- Heifetz, Robin Julian. 1989. On the Wires of Our Nerves: The Art of Electroacoustic Music. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses Inc. ISBN 0-8387-5155-5
- Kahn, DouglasDouglas KahnDouglas Kahn is Professor of Media and Innovation at the , at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He was the Founding Director of Technocultural Studies and is Professor Emeritus in Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Davis. Kahn is known primarily for his...
. 2001. Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-61172-4 - Licata, Thomas (ed.). 2002. Electroacoustic Music: Analytical Perspectives. Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance, 0193-9041; no. 63. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-31420-9
- Manning, Peter. 2004. Electronic and Computer Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514484-8 (hardback) ISBN 0-19-517085-7 (pbk.)
- Roads, Curtis. 1996. The Computer Music Tutorial. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18158-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-262-68082-3 (paper)
See also the “Electroacoustic Bibliography” published in eContact! 8.4 — Ressources éducatives / Educational Resources (Montréal: CEC
Canadian Electroacoustic Community
Founded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
) for an annotated “‘essential reading list’ for electroacoustics, including books, journals and other resources relating to electroacoustics”.
Key journals for electroacoustics and sound art
- Computer Music Journal. Published quarterly by MIT Press.
- eContact!. Freely available online, four themed issues published each year by the Canadian Electroacoustic CommunityCanadian Electroacoustic CommunityFounded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
. - Organised Sound. Three themed issues published each year by De Montfort University (Leicester UK).
See also the “Electroacoustic Bibliography” published in eContact! 8.4 — Ressources éducatives / Educational Resources (Montréal: CEC
Canadian Electroacoustic Community
Founded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community is Canada’s national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and as such is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from “pure” acousmatic...
) for an annotated list of journals publishing articles related to electroacoustics.