Turntablism

Turntablism had been around since the 1920’s, and it was now getting to a point where it was a possibility to change pitch and timbre, and manipulate recorded sounds. Exploitation of the turntable began to take place, and people started using the playback device as an instrument. Paul Hindemath, Varese, and Cage started using turntables in their compositions. Musique Concrete was a term for a type of music coined by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948, and it literally translates – music concrete, or real music – found sound. Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry were the most significant players of this type of electronic music. Schaeffer was a radio broadcaster and Henry was a percussionist. Schaeffer was able to borrow all kinds of professional gear and together they started created sounds that were unheard of. They started playing sounds backwards, slowing down and speeding up audio, and were beginning to use techniques that were not in people’s current vocabulary. Their compositions started referring to real world sounds that didn’t include a human instrument or interface. The goal of Musique Concrete was to enlighten humans to perceive these everyday, boring sounds in a new sensibility of what music could potentially be. Schaeffer’s original idea was to use any and all sounds apart from the traditional instrumentation. In his artistic development of sounds, he began warping them to sound like something completely different than the original. He invented what we know as sampling and looping. To record one of the most significant pieces, Etude De Bruits, they used a lathe disc, 4 turntables, 4 channel mixers, mics, audio filters and EQ, a reverb chamber, and previously recorded sounds. This was the official second era in the electronic music movement and for these reasons: It was an art form in which composing was happening through technological means. It used organic sounds, coming from non-musical sources. Their work could be replayed identically each time using mechanical means. The presentation of the music also did not require humans.

Leon Theremin

Leon Theremin lived from is the man responsible for creating a bond between music and electricity. He began creating electrical devices that that were under the basis of scientific and mathematical theory, for the purposes of psychological and physiological effects. He was interested in mechanical construction of music where music is created by electronic means, and when electronic technology was in only in it’s infancy. His ideas were so great, that he was able to create what people called performance art, where stages were built with lights that reacted to dancers’ movements.
With out an oscilloscope, he was able to use his ears when playing the Theremin, to generate aurally pleasing tones. Leon invented many things in his lifetime. He constructed an overhead motion sensor that would silently alert police if anyone set it off. The original idea started with the prevention of a thief attempting to lean over a cradle to steal a baby, which is quite interesting. Clara Rockmore didn’t like that the theremin was being looked at as a novelty and wanted it to be seen as more of a real musical instrument, much like how it emulates the timbre of a violin or cello when played correctly. One of his closest sisters died in the 1920s, changing Leon’s life. They worked closely in a group. Instead of spending time grieving the loss, he wanted to create an instrument that would revive her. Another thing that complicated his life was that he married a woman of a different race at a time when society did not approve of interracial marriage. People viewed Theremin as a very intelligent inventor, and didn’t think that his wife was of his caliber. A big life changing event occurred in 1938, when the Russians came and forcefully removed Theremin from his studio in Manhattan, and took him back to Russia. After this happened, there was question if Theremin was even still alive. Theremin was found again after Clara and her husband visited Russia. Ran into a man at the train station, who had said that he had lunch with him just the other day. The man arranged for them to meet Theremin in the subway. They found out he was in prison for 7 years in a lab, and forced to invent things for Soviet Intelligence: Worked in an ‘institution’ on electronics, then for an aviation company, then worked on the construction of streets. After work for the Soviet Union, his instruments were smashed with an axe and he was told by the conservatory administrator that electricity was for the electrical death sentence, and not for music. His inventions changed the course of Electronic music forever. Rock and roll was just getting started, synths were becoming experimental, and the civil rights movement and the media had a great effect on music and people’s creations. Theremin and Clara Rockmore eventually led to future artists like Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, who used the theremin on the Beach Boys Good Vibrations album. Robert Moog was a significant inventor and follower of Theremin’s ideas, and liked to build electronic projects. His father subscribed a magazine for electronologists, and Moog eventually wrote an article for the magazine on how to build a theremin. Moog wanted an endorsement from Clara to play his synthesizer, but she stated she has a tremendous amount of respect and loyalty to Theremin, and declined. Moog trained his ears to the Theremin and tone speeds and amplitudes, and in turn it aided in the creation of the synthesizers he imagined. Slonimsky believed Theremin was the prophet of the future of music, and it seems that no one was coming close to the adventurous, bold take on the direction of music in the coming century like Theremin had been doing. At one time, Albert Einstein and his wife who was a violinist, came to Theremin. He didn’t have too good of an ear but tried playing the Theremin in appreciation and respect for an invention.
If I could see a part of Theremin’s life, I would want to see the creation of the Rhythmicon and the era of the live performances. I’d want to be there when Leon first thought of the idea and how he was going go do it. Before world war II, electronic music was bound by live performance. In hearing everyday noise, John Cage expressed that we want to organize this noise into a musical sense, rather than a sound effect. Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch (1887-1964) began using the turntable as a musical instrument rather than a recording/performance mechanism. They created new music by slowing down the speed of already recorded music, and it created cool and weird sounds. Pierre Shaeffer (1910) and Pierre Henry (1927) were inspired by Hindemith, Toch, and Varese’s experimentation with turntable or gramophone music. They composed sounds of electronic signals, natural sounds, instrumental sounds, and sound recording tools and made a form of music called music concrete. This work led to more interest in electronic music and eventually electronic music studios.

Introduction to Electronic Music

There are 3 themes in the book Electronic and Experimental Music that we will be learning about:
1. The marriage of music and technology is inescapable and not always perfect.
2. The history of invention
3. The spread of electronic music into worldwide musical culture
Edgard Varese (1883-1965) was a French composer who worked closely with Leon Theremin, an inventor of many things that impact the electronic music world today.
German physicist Herman Von Helmholtz (1821-1894) published “On the sensations of tone for the physiological basis of music” and was interested the physics of perception. He invented the Helmholtz resonator.
Elisha Gray (1835-1901) invented a musical telegraph machine. Resistances were used to create different frequencies based on electromagnetic concepts.
Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) invented the Telharmonuim. His musical goal was to create individual sounds and combine them with other sounds, called additive synthesis. Crosstalk became a problem, and the amount of power required to amplify the signal was still needed. It used a tone wheel system. There we many challenges he faced: Method of tone generation, tuning, keyboard/interface, power supply issues, size, the mixing of sounds, amplification, controlled dynamics, funding issues, widespread use. This machine weighed tons, had to be transported with 30 flat-bed train cars, and required an enormous amount to function.
Busoni (1866-1924) wrote sketch of the aesthetic of music and was a futurist.
Russolo, a futurist (1885-1947) wrote “The Art of Noises” that focused on sounds that are low information/high redundancy. His approach was to organize the sounds of noise in a way that would make sense as art, or in the form of a story. He categorized noise into 6 categories sounds:
1. Roars thundering explosions hissing bangs booms
2. Whistling hissing puffing
3. Whispers murmurs muttering mumbling.
4. Screeching creaking rustling cracking
5. Noise from metal wood pottery
6. Voices of animals and people.
During the industrial revolution, the everyday world was becoming full of low information and highly redundant sounds, such as machines humming, cars, factories at work, and other noises that were sounding at a constant, cause humans to eventually start blocking out some of the sound. We begin to hear something so often that we then forget that it is even there, and only notice it when it is not present.
Lee De Forest (1873-1961) invented the vacuum tube, which takes a relatively low signal and amplifies it. The use of tubes led to modern radio broadcasting, amplification of instruments, microphones, television and recording equipment.
Leon Theremin was a Russian inventor. In 1928 a musical instrument called the Theremin was patented. The human body holds an electrical charge called capacitance. That charge disrupts the electromagnetic field around each antennae of the Theremin. The closer the hand gets, to the antennae, the greater the effect of sound and pitch. Laurens Hammond – invented modern portable organs with the tone wheel concept, and in a much smaller more compact design.
Thomas Edison invented discs and the phonograph, which could play and record audio.
Fritz Pfluemer invented celluloid tape with iron oxide, a medium that would store audio.
Maurice Martenot invented the Ondes Martenot, which was the same idea as the Theremin but left hand left hand pushes down on a lever and the right hand can slide back and forth, up and down using a finger ring to get vibrato and other effects.
Henry Cowell (1897-1965) asked Theremin to make a keyboard instrument and was called the Rhythmicon. Pushing a key down would produce a pitched rhythm and the instrument had polyphonic capabilities.