Week of 10.25.10:
We began class this week by presenting our research topic proposals to the class. Mine is as follows:
We would like to present our research topic on magnetic tape as a recording medium, both physically and philosophically. Tape is after all, the recording medium that the modern recording industry is based off of both in production style, process, and concept. Tape one of the best representations of linear time that man has invented, and the flexibility of the medium has been the ground work for editing, mixing, playback, and recording concepts since its introduction to the world in 1928.
We will begin by discussing the history of the medium, going over inventor Fritz Plfeumer and how in invented the medium and the incorporation of iron oxide based off of the magnetic wire recording medium of his time, and what tape offered that no other medium of the time could. From here we will move forward in time through significant technological developments of the medium, including the different sizes and styles, the playback machines, and touch on it’s competitors as they arise later in the 20th century. This includes 1/4in, 1/2in, 1in, and 2in tape types, as well as different players and heads including 4-track, 8-track, 16-track, and 24-track heads and tape, and how they are incorporated into studios as time and techniques and technology develops.
We will also discuss what tape did for music. Besides being a high quality recording medium, tape offered editing abilities beyond anything that had yet been invented for audio recording. This physical manipulation of the medium in order to achieve different editing styles, manipulated sound based on speed, and multi-track overdubbing are all production concepts birthed by the tape medium that have all surpassed the tape era into the modern age of recording. We will discusses different early works that pioneered these techniques and are in the curriculum such as Cage’s William’s Mix and as well as Stockhausen’s Studie I and Studie II. We will talk about how these early mixes demonstrate the capabilities of tape as a medium, and how they have changed the editing process.
As with all technologies, there are downsides to tape, which we will also discuss. Such downsides include the longevity of the material, the continuous maintenance required for tape machines, and the real time aspects of all the processes tape related. This will lead us into a discussion about digital recording and how it is a technological advancement of the same production concept, only without the physical element of the tape. While tape v. digital is an entire discussion unto itself, we will talk about comparisons between the two mediums and why one could be preferred over the other for personal, tonal, and technological reasons.
While tape is no longer the popular recording medium of today, it is the foundation for all recording both in concept and in practice. A better knowledge of tapes gives us as engineers a better understanding of what recording is as an art rather than as a trade, and how this art came to be and why we record the way we do.
We moved on to continue to discuss Electronic Music as the defined Third Stage of Aesthetic for Music. HH Stackenschmit has seven traits that define electronic music. First, that Electronic Music has unlimited available sound sources. A composer can invent sounds or use and manipulate natural sounds util they no longer sound natural. Second, that Electronic Music can expand the perception of tonality. Electronic Music often explores micro tonality and all sounds and tones are given equal importance. Third, that Electronic Music exists in a state of actualization. Since Electronic Music is composed for the recording, and only exists once it is made, it can only be in actualized form, rather in an abstract state such as a written score. Fourth, that Electronic Music has a special relationship with the temporal state of music, meaning that all aspects of the sound can be captured over time. Fifth, that in Electronic Music the sound itself becomes the material of the composition, and is what is written and created rather than interpreted and performed. Sixth, that Electronic Music does not breathe, there is no human element in Electronic Music and it is exact and precise every time it is played. Finally Seventh, that Electronic Music lack a comparison to the natural world in the sense that the sounds heard are not organic, and require an active listening intellect and imagination in order to interpret the sound and derive meaning.
We also discussed al lot of the information we will be going over in my research topic; tape composition and impact. Recording techniques are to this day based in the linear tape model. Even the transport bar in ProTools is a model of a tape interface. This is because tape is a perfect interpretation and representation of time and linear function, which makes it very easy to understand and manipulate. Tape embodies the relationship between space and time. Tape enables specific time edits, as well as playback option such as reverse, speed adjustment, and depth. Duration, pitch, and color all become interchangeable variables manipulate-able in a tape studio.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Week of 10.11.10:
The Mellotron and the Chamberlin are very sophisticated and mechanical electronic instruments with a complicated history. Harry Chamberlin and David Nixon developed the Chamberlin as a parlor instrument that was intended to be able to reduplicated the sounds of a full orchestra in one’s living room. Chamberlin devised a way to achieve this using magnetic tape recordings of sounds. The idea was that when a key is played it triggers a tape to start playing, giving the user eight seconds of sound. Each key’s tape had eight tracks, so any of eight sounds could be triggered by the keys depending on what the user wanted. In order for these tapes to work, Chamberlin had to track master versions of these tapes so we hired the Lawrence Welk Orchestra to come in and sustain perfectly tuned notes for night seconds. At this point Chamberlin is effectively making samples of each note of every instrument he wants available so that he can have recordings of different pitches for the different keys. The Chamberlin master tapes were very high quality, recorded with a Neumann U47 into an Ampex valve tape deck. Some keys would not trigger sustained notes but percussion and drum loops. These tapes could loop once placed but would snap back to their starting point when the key was no longer depressed. This made it possible to have rhythm loops in addition to sustained notes.
The first Chamberlin came out in 1948, and the Chamberlin Company was founded in 1956. Chamberlin’s main intention and therefore selling point for the instrument was that it would be a “rich man’s toy” or parlor instrument used for the entertainment of the wealthy in their homes. The Chamberlin was marketed for upper end novelty stores, piano dealers, and in magazines for the wealthy all across America in the 1950s.
Bill Franson was one of the Chamberlin Company’s best sales men when one day he disappeared. Franson stole two Chamberlin 600s and went over to Europe thinking he could make improvements on the design and market a better product. He went to England were he put an ad in the paper that connected him with three engineering brother named Bradley who owned Bradmatic. While the initial design of the Mellotron MKII, which was the first production version and was compared to the Chamberlin 600, was very similar, the Chamberlin was using a third party home stereo amplifier and had lever controls, the MK II had a proprietary amplifier designed by Bradmatic and was operated with buttons. This was the beginning of the Mellotron Company. While Chamberlin was still working out of garages and small workplaces like a “mom and pop” business, the Mellotron Company employed a large group of workers from the post World War Two generation who had all received military training in the fabrication and assembly of electronics. Melletron also had to record their own Master tapes and did so at IBC Studios in London. The general consensus is that the Chamberlin tapes were much higher quality tapes and sounded much more realistic than the Mellotron tapes, most likely due to the gear used to track and the quality of the musicians used. By the 1970 models the Chamberlin M1 and the Mellotron M400, unique aspects of the different designs became more apparent. The Chamberlin had a fixed cartridge of tapes that could not be changed out by the user but had 120 different high quality sounds. The M600 had less sounds at any given point, but the tapes could be changed out for other tapes with different sounds, and sets of tapes were sold by instrument or by theme. Changing out the tapes can be exploited as well, one artist used it by having each key trigger four measures of a piece at a time so that if a chromatic scale were played with a note every four bars an entire piece could be heard.
Shorty after the Mellotron Company was off the ground they went to the NAMM show in American and ran into the Chamberlin Company. Ultimately the Mellotron Company ended up having to pay royalties to the Chamberlin Company as well as stay in the U.K. while Chamberlin would stay in the United States. As music progressed through the sixties and early seventies the Mellotron Company had more success. Chamberlin stuck to the business model of the parlor instrument, as did Mellotron but the Mellotron was gaining more notoriety as a rock instrument and was being sought after by a different crowd. While the intentions of these instruments were to emulate the sounds of a real orchestra, they reality was that they did not sound nearly as good as the real thing, but rather had unique and intriguing qualities of its own that made it attractive. Unfortunately, these instruments were very temperamental and fragile. They were extremely sensitive to temperature and environment, so touring with them was highly impractical and difficult. It was not long before the advancements in synth and other keyboard technology made the unique necessity of the Mellotron less critical since the same sounds could be achieved through different and easier means. The companies were not making a profit and ended up in debt to their electrical component suppliers and had to fold. Other instruments were developed to try to improve upon the designs of the Chamberlin and Mellotron but none met great success. The Opticon was a tape based drum machine that could loop drum samples, and the Birotron was an adaptation of the Mellotron that was supposed to be lighter and better fit for travel as well as cheaper.
These instruments fell out of style until the late 80s when certain vintage sounds began to be sought after again. Since then the Mellotron has come back into the world of relevant rock instruments, being heard on recording by popular bands like Radiohead, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Bigelf, Kanye West, and other progressive and texturally experimental rock and pop groups. In 1993 Mellotron Archives was founded and now the Mk VI is available for purchase and is much more usable than the older models but maintains the authenticity of the sound and operation. Developments in softsynths and samplers have made it such that Mellotron sounds are available as plug ins for DAWs and as sounds on professional grade keyboards like Nords. While the instrument might not be around forever, at least its unique sounds and tones will always be available.
The Mellotron and the Chamberlin are very sophisticated and mechanical electronic instruments with a complicated history. Harry Chamberlin and David Nixon developed the Chamberlin as a parlor instrument that was intended to be able to reduplicated the sounds of a full orchestra in one’s living room. Chamberlin devised a way to achieve this using magnetic tape recordings of sounds. The idea was that when a key is played it triggers a tape to start playing, giving the user eight seconds of sound. Each key’s tape had eight tracks, so any of eight sounds could be triggered by the keys depending on what the user wanted. In order for these tapes to work, Chamberlin had to track master versions of these tapes so we hired the Lawrence Welk Orchestra to come in and sustain perfectly tuned notes for night seconds. At this point Chamberlin is effectively making samples of each note of every instrument he wants available so that he can have recordings of different pitches for the different keys. The Chamberlin master tapes were very high quality, recorded with a Neumann U47 into an Ampex valve tape deck. Some keys would not trigger sustained notes but percussion and drum loops. These tapes could loop once placed but would snap back to their starting point when the key was no longer depressed. This made it possible to have rhythm loops in addition to sustained notes.
The first Chamberlin came out in 1948, and the Chamberlin Company was founded in 1956. Chamberlin’s main intention and therefore selling point for the instrument was that it would be a “rich man’s toy” or parlor instrument used for the entertainment of the wealthy in their homes. The Chamberlin was marketed for upper end novelty stores, piano dealers, and in magazines for the wealthy all across America in the 1950s.
Bill Franson was one of the Chamberlin Company’s best sales men when one day he disappeared. Franson stole two Chamberlin 600s and went over to Europe thinking he could make improvements on the design and market a better product. He went to England were he put an ad in the paper that connected him with three engineering brother named Bradley who owned Bradmatic. While the initial design of the Mellotron MKII, which was the first production version and was compared to the Chamberlin 600, was very similar, the Chamberlin was using a third party home stereo amplifier and had lever controls, the MK II had a proprietary amplifier designed by Bradmatic and was operated with buttons. This was the beginning of the Mellotron Company. While Chamberlin was still working out of garages and small workplaces like a “mom and pop” business, the Mellotron Company employed a large group of workers from the post World War Two generation who had all received military training in the fabrication and assembly of electronics. Melletron also had to record their own Master tapes and did so at IBC Studios in London. The general consensus is that the Chamberlin tapes were much higher quality tapes and sounded much more realistic than the Mellotron tapes, most likely due to the gear used to track and the quality of the musicians used. By the 1970 models the Chamberlin M1 and the Mellotron M400, unique aspects of the different designs became more apparent. The Chamberlin had a fixed cartridge of tapes that could not be changed out by the user but had 120 different high quality sounds. The M600 had less sounds at any given point, but the tapes could be changed out for other tapes with different sounds, and sets of tapes were sold by instrument or by theme. Changing out the tapes can be exploited as well, one artist used it by having each key trigger four measures of a piece at a time so that if a chromatic scale were played with a note every four bars an entire piece could be heard.
Shorty after the Mellotron Company was off the ground they went to the NAMM show in American and ran into the Chamberlin Company. Ultimately the Mellotron Company ended up having to pay royalties to the Chamberlin Company as well as stay in the U.K. while Chamberlin would stay in the United States. As music progressed through the sixties and early seventies the Mellotron Company had more success. Chamberlin stuck to the business model of the parlor instrument, as did Mellotron but the Mellotron was gaining more notoriety as a rock instrument and was being sought after by a different crowd. While the intentions of these instruments were to emulate the sounds of a real orchestra, they reality was that they did not sound nearly as good as the real thing, but rather had unique and intriguing qualities of its own that made it attractive. Unfortunately, these instruments were very temperamental and fragile. They were extremely sensitive to temperature and environment, so touring with them was highly impractical and difficult. It was not long before the advancements in synth and other keyboard technology made the unique necessity of the Mellotron less critical since the same sounds could be achieved through different and easier means. The companies were not making a profit and ended up in debt to their electrical component suppliers and had to fold. Other instruments were developed to try to improve upon the designs of the Chamberlin and Mellotron but none met great success. The Opticon was a tape based drum machine that could loop drum samples, and the Birotron was an adaptation of the Mellotron that was supposed to be lighter and better fit for travel as well as cheaper.
These instruments fell out of style until the late 80s when certain vintage sounds began to be sought after again. Since then the Mellotron has come back into the world of relevant rock instruments, being heard on recording by popular bands like Radiohead, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Bigelf, Kanye West, and other progressive and texturally experimental rock and pop groups. In 1993 Mellotron Archives was founded and now the Mk VI is available for purchase and is much more usable than the older models but maintains the authenticity of the sound and operation. Developments in softsynths and samplers have made it such that Mellotron sounds are available as plug ins for DAWs and as sounds on professional grade keyboards like Nords. While the instrument might not be around forever, at least its unique sounds and tones will always be available.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Week of 10.04.10:
John Cage (1912-1992) was in many was the Stockhausen of American electronic music. He was an innovator not only in the realm of electronic composition, but in performance, compositional philosophy, and the technology of music production. Cage was born into an Episcopalian family in Los Angeles. His father was an inventor who told him "that if someone says 'can't' that shows you what to do." [1] When his need to create was finally facilitated by composition, he began to take lessons in composition and arrangement. His lack of confidence in his traditional skills as a composer combined with his experimentations with prepared instruments eventually led him to thinking outwardly about the limitations of composition is, what performance is, and how art is really made.
Chance became the a central focus to his composition style. He could set up scenarios where certain elements of the composition were controlled, while others were left up to a designed element of chance. The element of chance separated the content of the music and the concepts of the composer. In this sense a composition is birthed from a production concept rather than in a finite, note for note, written composition. Through these experimentations Cage was able to place himself outside of conventional thought, and in line with many of the electronic composers at the time was opened up to the world of unconventional sounds and operations.
Of course tape was one of the first mediums Cage used for these experimentations. He worked with Louise (1920-1989) and Bebe (1927-) Barron who were exceptionally innovative inventors and composers of electronic music. The designed and modified gear so that it would do whatever was required of the compositional process. After Cage and the Barrons first collaborative tape effort, Imaginary Landscape No. 5 (1952) which used material from phonograph records, Cage became focused on the tape editing portion of the composition, and began to develop compositional tools that took advantage of these opportunities. For their next effort, Williams Mix (1953) was a huge undertaking of tracking and editing. Firth the Barrons collected hundreds of tape recorded sounds, which were then organized into a 192 page score, the systems of which were built on the eight tracks of the tape. Cage then developed change parameters that would determine where and how the tapes were spliced together, and the process was so laborious that it took nine months. Cage would invite all kinds of people to help with the edits, and their different interpretations and skills would be a component of the chance element of the composition.
In 1965-1966, a group of engineers and composers from Bell Labs put on the Variation Series in New York, which was a complex, multiple performance concert series in the Armory, what showcased electronic compositions. For this series, John Cage created Variation VII, which was performed in October 1966. This was a huge display of Cage’s chance operations in action. There was no tape involved, all the sounds used during the performance were being made right then and there. To begin with, the Armory is a ridiculously large, empty concrete venue that has six seconds of natural reverb. Normally this would deter any performer but Cage saw this as an extension of the performance, that sympathetic and tuned frequencies of the space were as much a part of the composition and performance and any other aspect. In the room there was a platform with tables full of the instruments that were being used, and there was a control room that was built for the performance. The tables held a plethora of appliances and noise making instruments such as blenders, radios (which had FM and could pick up non domestic signals), fans, juicers, oscillators, each with contact microphones and patch bay equivalents. In the performance notes, one of the tables was referred to as “David’s Own” and was designated for whatever tools, instruments and devices David Tudor wanted to incorporate. In addition to these sound sources, telephone lines were specially installed for this piece that led to phones all across the city, some hanging outside in public areas, one in the kitchen of a popular restaurant, one next to a turtle tank, an aviary, the Ney York Times press room, and the sanitation department. The signals from these phone where processed by photo-optic sensors. High output lights were set up underneath the tables on stage, and the shadows of the performers as they walked around the tables would change and affect these signals that were routed to the control room. One of the engineers, even had sensors on his head designed to pick up brainwave patters (borrowed from Alvin Lucier), which were then patched into the performance. The patch bay for this performance was so huge that at one point during preproduction everybody had to stop and make patch cables so that there would be enough. As the performance developed Cage was open to anything happening. At one point members of the audience began to walk up and stand next to the tables and watch what was happening. Cage got into the idea and invited the crowd up the next night. When an engineer had to run on stage to fix something Cage simply said “you are part of the performance” and was only excited when his pants started to catch on fire from the lights under the table.
What was his role in this performance? Like a god he created a world and an environment within which he let loose free agents that could do whatever they wanted with what they were given. He designed the parameters of the performance but not its content, and in his mind whatever happened happened and that was the performance. In many ways this can be seen as the embodiment of Cage’s chance operations concept, designing an event to transpire but not the content.
John Cage was successfully able to separate the composer from the music, and this changed the way a lot of people since then think about music. Both in his compositional style and in his technological innovations, Cage redefined what it meant to experiment with music. Experimentation was not limited to the notes played, but could be explored in every aspect of music from conception to performance.
[1] http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Cage_John.html
John Cage (1912-1992) was in many was the Stockhausen of American electronic music. He was an innovator not only in the realm of electronic composition, but in performance, compositional philosophy, and the technology of music production. Cage was born into an Episcopalian family in Los Angeles. His father was an inventor who told him "that if someone says 'can't' that shows you what to do." [1] When his need to create was finally facilitated by composition, he began to take lessons in composition and arrangement. His lack of confidence in his traditional skills as a composer combined with his experimentations with prepared instruments eventually led him to thinking outwardly about the limitations of composition is, what performance is, and how art is really made.
Chance became the a central focus to his composition style. He could set up scenarios where certain elements of the composition were controlled, while others were left up to a designed element of chance. The element of chance separated the content of the music and the concepts of the composer. In this sense a composition is birthed from a production concept rather than in a finite, note for note, written composition. Through these experimentations Cage was able to place himself outside of conventional thought, and in line with many of the electronic composers at the time was opened up to the world of unconventional sounds and operations.
Of course tape was one of the first mediums Cage used for these experimentations. He worked with Louise (1920-1989) and Bebe (1927-) Barron who were exceptionally innovative inventors and composers of electronic music. The designed and modified gear so that it would do whatever was required of the compositional process. After Cage and the Barrons first collaborative tape effort, Imaginary Landscape No. 5 (1952) which used material from phonograph records, Cage became focused on the tape editing portion of the composition, and began to develop compositional tools that took advantage of these opportunities. For their next effort, Williams Mix (1953) was a huge undertaking of tracking and editing. Firth the Barrons collected hundreds of tape recorded sounds, which were then organized into a 192 page score, the systems of which were built on the eight tracks of the tape. Cage then developed change parameters that would determine where and how the tapes were spliced together, and the process was so laborious that it took nine months. Cage would invite all kinds of people to help with the edits, and their different interpretations and skills would be a component of the chance element of the composition.
In 1965-1966, a group of engineers and composers from Bell Labs put on the Variation Series in New York, which was a complex, multiple performance concert series in the Armory, what showcased electronic compositions. For this series, John Cage created Variation VII, which was performed in October 1966. This was a huge display of Cage’s chance operations in action. There was no tape involved, all the sounds used during the performance were being made right then and there. To begin with, the Armory is a ridiculously large, empty concrete venue that has six seconds of natural reverb. Normally this would deter any performer but Cage saw this as an extension of the performance, that sympathetic and tuned frequencies of the space were as much a part of the composition and performance and any other aspect. In the room there was a platform with tables full of the instruments that were being used, and there was a control room that was built for the performance. The tables held a plethora of appliances and noise making instruments such as blenders, radios (which had FM and could pick up non domestic signals), fans, juicers, oscillators, each with contact microphones and patch bay equivalents. In the performance notes, one of the tables was referred to as “David’s Own” and was designated for whatever tools, instruments and devices David Tudor wanted to incorporate. In addition to these sound sources, telephone lines were specially installed for this piece that led to phones all across the city, some hanging outside in public areas, one in the kitchen of a popular restaurant, one next to a turtle tank, an aviary, the Ney York Times press room, and the sanitation department. The signals from these phone where processed by photo-optic sensors. High output lights were set up underneath the tables on stage, and the shadows of the performers as they walked around the tables would change and affect these signals that were routed to the control room. One of the engineers, even had sensors on his head designed to pick up brainwave patters (borrowed from Alvin Lucier), which were then patched into the performance. The patch bay for this performance was so huge that at one point during preproduction everybody had to stop and make patch cables so that there would be enough. As the performance developed Cage was open to anything happening. At one point members of the audience began to walk up and stand next to the tables and watch what was happening. Cage got into the idea and invited the crowd up the next night. When an engineer had to run on stage to fix something Cage simply said “you are part of the performance” and was only excited when his pants started to catch on fire from the lights under the table.
What was his role in this performance? Like a god he created a world and an environment within which he let loose free agents that could do whatever they wanted with what they were given. He designed the parameters of the performance but not its content, and in his mind whatever happened happened and that was the performance. In many ways this can be seen as the embodiment of Cage’s chance operations concept, designing an event to transpire but not the content.
John Cage was successfully able to separate the composer from the music, and this changed the way a lot of people since then think about music. Both in his compositional style and in his technological innovations, Cage redefined what it meant to experiment with music. Experimentation was not limited to the notes played, but could be explored in every aspect of music from conception to performance.
[1] http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Cage_John.html
Friday, October 1, 2010
Week of 09.27.10
In the new world were every sound is trackable, and usable in the context of a musical piece, one must set delimitations to focus the process of the composition. Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) set himself four delimitations for sounds to record that would then be unconventionally used in his pieces. These delimitations were that he could only record living elements, like animal sounds, noises, like found sound, modified and prepared instruments, and conventional instruments. With the confines of these parameters Schaeffer was able to compose electronic music that led him to the development of seven values that apply to all sounds. Mass, which is the organization of sound in a spectral dimension, Dynamics, which are measurable amplitude values of the sound, Timbre, which is the tonally qualities of the sound, the Melodic Profile, which is the temporal evolution of the sound in reference to the sound spectrum, the Profile of Mass, temporal evolution of the spectrum in reference to highs and lows, Grain, which is the analysis of the irregularities in surface and texture, and Pace, which is the analysis of the dynamic and amplitude irregularities. With these parameters of sound in mind, Schaeffer developed plans that would facilitate the compositional process of electronic music. These plans included a Harmonic Plan, which encompassed the material in al spectrums, a Dynamic Plan, which determined the envelope of the sound (Attack Decay Sustain Release), and a Melodic Plan, which is the development of pitch and tone over time.
While this was going on in France, there was a different kind of electronic music being developed over in Germany. While French electronic compositions were more organic, German compositions were much more methodical in that they were based on serialism, and 12 tone music. 12 tone music was the beginning of the serialist movement and was developed by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and is based on the concept of a tone row. A tone row consists of all twelve notes in a specific order, with no one note having any more or less significance than the other. No notes can be repeated until all the other notes in the row have been played. The order can be reversed and inverted, and the piece is to avoid having a tonal center or any type of formal cadence.
From these influences came the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) who is considered by some to be one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. In 1952 Stockhausen began experimenting with tape in Pierre Schaeffer’s studio. From here he began to develop tape music, creating loops and using tape as a liner time editing device. Because tape is one of the most accurate physical manifestations of the way humans think of time, Stockhausen was able to do early Varispeed editing with his array of tape machines. This allowed him to speed up and slow down sounds to alter their pitch, timbre, and duration. By using sine wave tone generators and tape, Stockhausen was allowed to create serialized compositions that were birthed from the mathematical analysis of tones applied to the shape and editing of the sounds. Stockhausen was also able to develop his own method of notating these types of compositions that very much resembles the modern day PTools midi editor. Two graphs one above the other, the top graph has frequency (pitch) vertically, while the bottom graph showed the attack or velocity of the tone and its release. Time was shown horizontally. This notation first appeared in his 1954 composition Studie II. It was the first electronic composition for sine waves, and to have a score based on pitch, duration and attack. Stockhausen developed a principles for his process of electronic composition. These are first, a Unified Time Structure, meaning the modification of tone, dynamics, frequency and timbre via tape. Second, Splitting the Sound, that one must have the ability to edit and manipulate the smaller elements of the synthesized sound. Third, Mutli-Layered Composition, can be understood as the necessity of the control of the sound during performance, conversely not relying on the human element on performance. And Fourth, the Equality of Tone and Noise, which in Stockhausen’s words “any noise is musical” but “you can’t just use any tone in any interval” meaning that one must have more constructive thought that just the recording or generating of sound for the purpose of listening. Stockhausen’s work forever changed the way msic can be approached. He successfully worked toward liberating music from the confines of western music. His Helicopter String Quartet is a phenomenal undertaking of performance and compositional blend, and his fresh perspectives on the characteristics of sounds are inspirational if not musically, al least compositionally.
In the new world were every sound is trackable, and usable in the context of a musical piece, one must set delimitations to focus the process of the composition. Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) set himself four delimitations for sounds to record that would then be unconventionally used in his pieces. These delimitations were that he could only record living elements, like animal sounds, noises, like found sound, modified and prepared instruments, and conventional instruments. With the confines of these parameters Schaeffer was able to compose electronic music that led him to the development of seven values that apply to all sounds. Mass, which is the organization of sound in a spectral dimension, Dynamics, which are measurable amplitude values of the sound, Timbre, which is the tonally qualities of the sound, the Melodic Profile, which is the temporal evolution of the sound in reference to the sound spectrum, the Profile of Mass, temporal evolution of the spectrum in reference to highs and lows, Grain, which is the analysis of the irregularities in surface and texture, and Pace, which is the analysis of the dynamic and amplitude irregularities. With these parameters of sound in mind, Schaeffer developed plans that would facilitate the compositional process of electronic music. These plans included a Harmonic Plan, which encompassed the material in al spectrums, a Dynamic Plan, which determined the envelope of the sound (Attack Decay Sustain Release), and a Melodic Plan, which is the development of pitch and tone over time.
While this was going on in France, there was a different kind of electronic music being developed over in Germany. While French electronic compositions were more organic, German compositions were much more methodical in that they were based on serialism, and 12 tone music. 12 tone music was the beginning of the serialist movement and was developed by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and is based on the concept of a tone row. A tone row consists of all twelve notes in a specific order, with no one note having any more or less significance than the other. No notes can be repeated until all the other notes in the row have been played. The order can be reversed and inverted, and the piece is to avoid having a tonal center or any type of formal cadence.
From these influences came the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) who is considered by some to be one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. In 1952 Stockhausen began experimenting with tape in Pierre Schaeffer’s studio. From here he began to develop tape music, creating loops and using tape as a liner time editing device. Because tape is one of the most accurate physical manifestations of the way humans think of time, Stockhausen was able to do early Varispeed editing with his array of tape machines. This allowed him to speed up and slow down sounds to alter their pitch, timbre, and duration. By using sine wave tone generators and tape, Stockhausen was allowed to create serialized compositions that were birthed from the mathematical analysis of tones applied to the shape and editing of the sounds. Stockhausen was also able to develop his own method of notating these types of compositions that very much resembles the modern day PTools midi editor. Two graphs one above the other, the top graph has frequency (pitch) vertically, while the bottom graph showed the attack or velocity of the tone and its release. Time was shown horizontally. This notation first appeared in his 1954 composition Studie II. It was the first electronic composition for sine waves, and to have a score based on pitch, duration and attack. Stockhausen developed a principles for his process of electronic composition. These are first, a Unified Time Structure, meaning the modification of tone, dynamics, frequency and timbre via tape. Second, Splitting the Sound, that one must have the ability to edit and manipulate the smaller elements of the synthesized sound. Third, Mutli-Layered Composition, can be understood as the necessity of the control of the sound during performance, conversely not relying on the human element on performance. And Fourth, the Equality of Tone and Noise, which in Stockhausen’s words “any noise is musical” but “you can’t just use any tone in any interval” meaning that one must have more constructive thought that just the recording or generating of sound for the purpose of listening. Stockhausen’s work forever changed the way msic can be approached. He successfully worked toward liberating music from the confines of western music. His Helicopter String Quartet is a phenomenal undertaking of performance and compositional blend, and his fresh perspectives on the characteristics of sounds are inspirational if not musically, al least compositionally.
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