Week of 08.30.10:

This week saw the introduction of this class and the world of the electronic instrument. We began by discussing some of the philosophic concepts behind electronic music. Among these ideas is the statement that the marriage of technology and music is inescapable but not always perfect. This is referring to the inevitability of the incorporation of electronic instruments in music, but also stating that in the discovery of this genre and in the development of these instruments there will be failures. The history of invention leads to the creation of new instruments, which will not always be the most musical in nature. In the early days the gap between inventors and composers was one that bred both unsuccessful instruments, unmusical instruments, and new instruments that would forever change compositional possibilities.
Edgard Vrese (1883-1965), was an early conventionalist, composer and inventor of electronic music devices and compositions. His goal was to emancipate the composer of the human element in a performance. In order to achieve such a feat he used tapes, oscillators, and mics to record and generate electronic tones that could be played back at command, consistently. This gave him and the composer a musical instrument with consistent and unchanging tone and performance. It was through Varese’s championing of the collaboration of inventor and composer than helped ignite the electronic music era.
Elisha Grey (1835-1901) was an inventor who created a telegraph that could transmit different tones from one place to another. The frequency of these tones where made and could be changed via electromagnets, which generated a two octave range.
Herman von Helmholtz (1821-1895) wrote On the Sensations of Tone as the Physiological Bases for the Theory of Music. This work illustrated and outlined the scientific approach to electronic music synthesis. He was also the inventor of the Helmholtz Resonator, which generated tone via the use of chimes. Helmholtz was a huge influence on Thaddeus Cahill.
Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) was an inventor and a visionary in the early days of electronic music synthesis. He invented the Telharmonium, which was a building-sized synthesizer that used pitch shafts and tone wheels to generate sound and was played with a touch-sensitive polyphonic keyboard. The goal was to create a machine that would allow one individual to create and control an entire orchestra of sounds. This early synth occupies an entire floor in Manhattan and piped music to local customers and businesses via power and telephone lines. It was in operation from 1906 to 1908, but was shut down due to gastronomical power consumption, relentless maintenance needs, and to some extent, lack of monetary popularity. Even in it’s two year run, the Telharmonium was one of the most ambitious and extravagant endeavors in the history of electronic music.
Busoni (1866-1924) wrote Sketch of the New Aesthetic of Music and was a member of the Futurist movement. The Futurists were a sect of artists capitalizing on the incorporation of electronic synthesis into their compositions. This included experiments with composition, micro tonality, and new ways to create sound and music.
Russolo (1885-1947) published The Art of Noise. This manifesto outlined Futurist ideals and created definitions of sounds. He divided sounds into six categories, the first being roars, thundering and explosions, the second whistling, hissing and puffing, the third whispers murmurs and mumbling, the fourth screeching and creaking, the fifth being percussive sounds, and the sixth being voices and human and animal noises. He composed the Grand Concerto Futuistico.
Lee De Forrest (1873-1961) was a huge contributor to the music technology scene with his invention of the vacuum tube. The tube is a method of amplifying an electrical signal via the use of a vacuum. By introducing the signal into a controlled vacuum, the electrons spread out in the vacuum and generate a larger, louder signal. Tube soon became widely used for all types of equipment including amplifiers, radio broadcasting, television, and in all kinds of musical equipment.
Leon Theremin was a Russian inventor who created the rythmicon, an early drum machine, and the Theremin, which is a uni-linear signal generator that uses capacitance to operate. By generating electronic fields around two posts, the Theremin uses the human body as a capacitor, the movement of which in relative to the posts changes the electromagnetic field and consequently the pitch and amplitude. While a hugely fantastic and creative instrument its used are limited, and its popularity was short lived. This was partly due to the fact that this brand new instrument was used to play classical material, which it is unable to do as well as conventional instruments. A better approach would be to compose new music with the capabilities and sounds of the instrument in mind.
We also touched on a few other notables such as John Cage (1912-1992) who was a composer of advanced electronic music, Hammond (1895-1973) who invented the portable electronic organ, Thomas Edison (1847-1931) who invented the phonograph, and Pflumner, who invented celluloid and iron oxide tape.
In class we took some time to look at the Ondes Martenot, which is one of the coolist instruments of all time. Based on similar technology as the Theremin, the Martenot has a linear pitch ring controller superimposed over a keyboard that can be played polyphonically. Sounds is created when a touch sensitive key is depressed which controls velocity and amplitude. The ring can slide up and down the keyboards controlling pitch. The keyboard can also be played, with vibrato. Super awesome instrument and I really want one.