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.