Unit XXV – The New Music

1. Unit XXV – The New Music Chapter 79 Technology and Music Brian Bondari

2. The Technological Revolution • Electronic music • The most important development in art music of the 1950s and 60s • The emergence of electronic music takes place in 3 stages • Magnetic tape recording • The development of synthesizers • The digital revolution

3. Stage 1: Magnetic Tape Recording • Much more flexible method of recording sounds than the lacquer-disc recording that had been used previously • 1947 – a group of technicians at a Paris radio station, led by Pierre Schaeffer, experimented with what they called musique concrète • Music made up of natural sounds that were altered by changing the playback speed • Tape could be cut and spliced into new sound combinations

4. Stage 1: Magnetic Tape Recording • The possibility of using artificially generated sound soon presented itself • A wide variety of sound equipment came into use • Studios for the production of tape music sprang up in America and Europe • Composers could alter pitch, volume, play the tape backwards, add reverberations, filter out overtones, spice, overdub, etc. • It might take hours to process only a minute or two of music

5. Stage 2: Synthesizers • Synthesizers combine sound generators and sound modifiers in one package with a unified control system • They can generate completely new sounds or combinations of sounds, with an infinite variety of pitches, durations, timbres, dynamics, and rhythmic patterns • The 1st was the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer – 1955

6. Stage 2: Synthesizers • The synthesizer represents an enormous step forward in electronic music composition • Karlheinz Stockhausen (b. 1928) • Wrote 2 Electronic Studies (1953-54) built entirely from electronic sounds • Song of the Youths (Gesang der Jünglinge, 1956) • For vocal and synthesized sounds Karlheinz Stockhausen

7. Stage 3: The Digital Revolution • Digital circuits developed for computer systems have been adapted and refined for use in music • Including MIDI communication standards, synthesis, sampling, and signal processing

8. Stage 3: The Digital Revolution • Composers now have the ability to manipulate pitch, timbre, duration, volume, etc. • Composers can create a virtual orchestra with a computer • The computer converts a string of binary numbers to an electrical signal that can be pushed through speakers • This process is known as digital-to-analog conversion

9. Stage 3: The Digital Revolution • Virtual Modeling • Allows composers to use mathematical models to emulate and forecast the process by which real instruments produce sounds • Hybrid models can be made to create instruments that only exist in theory • Such as a “bowed trombone”

10. Important Figures in Electronic Music • Edgard Varèse • 1883-1965 • A pioneer of electronic music • Poème electronique, 1958 • Commissioned for a sound and light show at a Brussels World Fair pavilion

11. Mario Davidovsky • B. 1934 • Liked to mix electronic music with live music • Synchronisms, 1963-88 • Dialogues for soloinstrument and prerecorded tape

12. Milton Babbitt • B. 1916 • First to recognize the possibilities of electronic music • Did not think that the synthesizer should replace the live musician • Liked to combine electronic music and live performers • Philomel, 1964 • Phonemena, 1974

13. Pauline Oliveros • B. 1932 • Helped found the San Francisco Tape Center • Known for her experiments with live electronic music, in which sounds are generated and manipulated during a performance • Sonic Meditations, 1971-1974 • The Roots of the Moment, 1988 Pauline and her favorite instrument

14. Paul Lansky • B. 1944 • A pioneer in digital sound synthesis • Fully embraced computer-assisted composition • Idle Chatter, 1985 • Just_more_idle_chatter, 1987 • Notjustmoreidlechatter, 1988