Main ideas here:
In the 1900s-1910s century the idea of music as “organised sound” and artful noise was gaining traction.
Composers like Varèse, Antheil, caught this idea.
Maybe Intonarumori would have gone further, but WWI intervened.
The Art of Noises
Russolo’s Intonarumori
Russolo and the Futurists
art movement
Italy, early 20th century
speed, technology, violence,
cars, aeroplanes, industrial city
“The Art of Noises” (1913)
- Luigi Russolo’s manifesto of musical aesthetics
- Characterises non-musical sounds
- Implementation: Intonarumori - large acoustic noise makers
- http://www.ubu.com/sound/russolo_l.html
- Reconstructions (maybe not accurate):
Varèse - Ionisation (1929)
Varèse had started to call music “organised sound” in the 1920s.
Ionisation one of the earliest percussion ensemble works.
Includes non-traditional sounds: sirens, anvils, Lion’s roar (low friction drum).
The Age of Invention 1880s—1939ish
- 1700s: experiments with static electricity produced by friction
- 1799: Volta constructs first chemical “battery”
- 1809: first demonstration of an arc lamp
- 1831: Faraday constructs electrical dynamo (generator)
- 1836-7: early telegraphs (wired)
- 1876: Bell patents telephone
- 1877: Edison produces mechanical phonograph (with cylinders)
- 1878: Edison produces practical incandescent lightbulb
- 1880s: Westinghouse (Tesla) electricity distribution with AC current
- 1897: Marconi demonstrates wireless telegraphy
- 1910s: development of valve amplification circuits
- 1920s: start of public radio broadcasts
- 1930s: practical, high quality tape recorders developed in Germany
Singing Arc (1899)
- W. Duddell 1899
- Arc lamps sometimes made an annoying sound; Duddell appointed to figure this out.
- Managed to control oscillations
- made a novelty keyboard instrument.
- dangerous way to make some noise: https://youtu.be/bzND4EF1XIo
Telharmonium - Cahill (1906)
- Cahill wanted to send music over telephone wires to subscribers.
- Speakers and microphones were very poor—amplifiers didn’t exist yet.
- “Telharmonium” used notched wheels in an electrical generator to create powerful electrical oscillations.
- Required many heavy tone wheel dynamos for pitch and timbre control.
- Huge machine — portable, if you had a few train carriages.
- Two prototypes built—business failed.
Audion Piano (1915)
- Lee De Forest developed “audion”—triode valve (i.e. regular amplifying valve) in 1906
- Very handy for making radios, amplifiers, and oscillators.
- Audion used “heterodyning” oscillator technique to make audible sounds
- Audion had one oscillator per octave—so not totally polyphonic.
- Used capacitors/resistors to filter sounds for interesting timbre.
Theremin (1920-)
Ondes Martenot (1928-1988)
- Maruice Martenot was a Cellist
- Instrument emphasises direct control of pitch, volume, and timbre.
- developed a school of instrumental practice
- repertoire including works by Messiaen.
- ran out of steam after Martenot’s death in 1980
- (small revival recently)
- Ondes Martenot (1970s-80s model)
- left hand: control drawer; dynamics and envelope with a button; timbre with switches
- right hand: continuous pitch control with a sliding ring; quantised pitch with a 6 octave keyboard.
- multiple speakers (not shown) with mechanical tonal effects
- Messiaen ondes sextet: link
- ondes no. 15 from 1930: link
“Frying Pan” Electric Lap Steel Guitar
- Beauchamp / Rickenbacker
- 1931
- built for the Hawaiian music craze in USA in the 1930s
- horseshoe pickups
Gibson ES-150 (1936)
- First successful commercial electric guitar
- single coil pickup
- followed by much experimentation and improvement…
Hammond Organ (1934-1975)
- Laurens Hammond - clock making business
- sound produced using notched tone-wheels spinning in front of a coil pickup
- Marketed to replace church organs ( much cheaper)
- have we heard of tone-wheels before?
Music of the Spheres: Johanna M. Beyer (1938)
- lion’s roar
- triangle
- electronic instruments (or strings) - recordings have theremin-like sounds
- frequently cited as one of the earliest works for electronic instrument - revived in the 70s.
Imaginary Landscape No. 1
- John Cage - 1939
- variable-speed turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano, cymbal
- “to be performed as recording or broadcast”
EM at WWII
- what were the “turning points” of the previous period for electronic/electrical music?
- what inventions of this period had a lasting impact?
- what technologies had been repurposed?
- what’s the distinction between electro-mechanical and electronic musical instruments?
- beginning of separation between control and sound production.
Start of the electronic studio era
1945-1959
Musique Concrète
- Group de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC) based in Paris.
- Pierre Schaeffer
- focus on constructing music from acoustic recordings
- early work (late 40s) used closed loop records
- post-1951 used tape
Pierre Schaeffer
- radio engineer (musical family)
- experimented with sound/recording in the late 30s
- 1948 - Cinq études des bruits - recorded broadcast
- with Pierre Henry formed GRMC in 1951
- then GRM in 1958 (still exists)
Étude aux chemins de fer
1948 - constructed from recordings of six trains “improvising”
(this was all with records! no tape here!)
Elektronische Musik
- based in Cologne at WDR studios
- notable name: Stockhausen
- focus on creating music from pure electronic sounds (i.e. synthesisers)
Stockhausen - Studie II (1954)
- First published score for electronic sounds
- Serial. Uses pure sine tones.
Poème Électronique (1958)
- Back to Varèse - landmark achievement.
- collaborative spatialised multi-media work
Gesamptkunstverk
- architecture: Xenakis
- film and concept: Le Corbusier
- sound: Varèse
- multiple sound operators diffusing the tape piece through speakers
- could have been around 350 speakers installed!
- piece was a mix of recordings and synthesis
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Cente
- 1950s - Milton Babbitt et al.
- RCA Mark II Synth (1957),
EM 1945-1959
- what were the turning points?
- what were the inventions? what was repurposed?
- to these composers, new sounds needed new notations
- relationship to radio engineering suggested a scientific level of detail in composition