Musique Concrete and early electronic music

Early Electronic Instruments

• Telharmonium
• Theremin
• Ondes Martenot

Music Concrete

• Music produced from recorded sounds of all Kinds
• Concept and term introduced in 1948 by Pierre Schaeffer on the basis of his work at the French Radio in Paris
• Schaeffer's view: The concept excludes sounds that are electronically synthesized

Capabilities of Tape Technology

1. altered playback
2. reversed direction
3. cutting and splicing of tape
4. creation of a tape loop
5. tape delay
   

The Rise of the Radio Stations

1. French Radio - Pierre Schaeffer, Herbert Eimert
2. German Radio - Loenig, Stockhausen (first electronic music studio 1952)
3. Italian Radio - Berio, Maderna, Pousseur
4. USA - Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center - Ussachevsky, Luening, Babbit

Columbia-Princeton

• First large music center in the USA
• Ussachevsky collaborated with Mauser to experiment
• Summer of 1952, recorded Sonic Contours
• October 28th, 1952, first electronic composition presentation at the Museum of Modern Art
• 1954-55 - small studio in the gatehouse of an asylum
• 1957 - permanent studio, but too small for teaching
• 1959 - music center founded
  

Examples

Etude aux chemis de fer ~ Pierre Schaeffer
(1948)

• recorded sounds of locomotives

Etude Noire ~ Pierre Schaeffer
(1948)

Sonic Contours ~ Vladimir Ussachevsky
(1952)

• superimposed tape loops of piano

Inventions in 12 Tones ~ Otto Luening
(1952)

• flute

Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) ~ Luciano Berio
(1958)

• Spoken/ sung text from Ulysses