Electronic & Experimental Music

One of the requirements for the ARCT History examination is an independent study essay on one of three topics: musical theatre, jazz, and technology in music. On page 152 of Celebrate Theory/ARCT History there is a list of books recommended as resources. In 2021 (when I had lots of reading time due to the pandemic) I read most of these books and wrote a few blog posts about them. But then I got busier again, and the thick textbook Electronic and Experimental Music, Sixth Edition by Thom Holmes has been sitting unread in my office for a few years.

I finally got around to reading this book this month. It was so interesting and well-written! Part 1 of the book deals with electronic music fundamentals: what is electronic music? How is it composed, and how do we listen to it? Part 2 is about the history of electronic and computer music, from the earliest experiments in the 19th century to computer music of the 1970s and 1980s. Part 3 describes analog and digital synthesizers, and Part 4 discusses contemporary practices, including live electronic music, modern turntablism, contemporary software and synthesis, and Eurorack.

Most of the chapters contain listening playlists, and I was able to find almost everything on Youtube. Here are some of my favourite pieces from these lists, arranged in chronological order.

Paul Hindemith: Langsames Stück und Rondo für Trautonium (1935)

• Trautonium played by Oskar Sala, a composition student of Hindemith's who assisted with the construction of the instrument. The Trautonium was developed by Dr. Friedrich Trautwein in Germany between 1928 and 1930. It had a fingerboard consisting of a metal plate; stretched a few millimetres above the plate was a wire. When you pressed the wire so that it touched the plate, it closed a circuit and sent electricity to a neon-tube oscillator, producing a tone. The addition of a second fingerboard enabled two notes to be played at the same time.

Olivier Messaien: Oraison (1937)

• for Ondes Martenot and orchestra. The Ondes Martenot was designed by French musician Maurice Martenot. It was similar to a Theremin in the way it generated musical tones, but unlike the Theremin it was played using a keyboard. The original instrument played by Martenot at its Paris premiere in 1928 controlled pitch by the lateral movement of a finger ring that was attached to a metal wire. The left hand controlled volume with a pressure-sensitive key.

Miklós Rózsa: Spellbound (1944)

• musical score for the Alfred Hitchcock film, featuring Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman on Theremin. The Theremin was invented by the Russian electrical engineer Lev Sergeyevich Termen (commonly known by the anglicized version of his name, Leon Theremin). The Theremin used a beat frequency method to produce sound and was played by moving the hands in the vicinity of two antennae. Here is a good demonstration of the instrument by Carolina Eyck.

Bohuslav Martinů: Fantasia for Theremin, Oboe, Piano and String Quartet (1944)

• This work was commissioned by thereminist Lucie Bigelow Rosen; here is a live recording (Texas premiere, 2019) by the Apollo Chamber Players, featuring thereminist Carolina Eyck.

Hugh Le Caine: Dripsody (1955)

• a Canadian classic tape piece using Le Caine's special purpose tape recorder, which was capable of playing back and mixing multiple individual tracks, synchronizing the playback of six individual tape reels. Le Caine was able to control the variable speed of each of the six tapes independently of one another. The sound material for Dripsody was based on the sound of dripping water transposed to different speeds. This is one of the required pieces for the Music History unit of RCM Level 7 Theory.

Dick Raaijmakers & Tom Dissevelt: Song of the Second Moon (1957)

• electro-pop tape composition; Ondes Martenot, audio oscillators, tape recorders, pulsegenerator with reverberation circuits, noise-generator, octave and half-octave filters, whistling; produced at the Center for Electronic Music in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The title refers to the launching of the first Sputnik satellite.

György Ligeti: Artikulation (1958)

• This tape piece is Ligeti's best-known electronic work, produced in the Studio for Electronic Music of West German Radio in Cologne. He electronically created a collection of artificial phonemes in the studio, categorized them into 42 types of basic materials, cut up the magnetic tape recordings into small pieces, and then placed snippets of sounds with similar sonic characteristics into separate bins. He blindly selected bits of tape from the bins, edited them together, and further modified some of the sounds through filtering and reverberation. Rainer Wehinger produced a “score for listening”, which provides the listener with a visual roadmap of the piece.

Tom Dissevelt: Whirling (1958)

• early electronic pop music from the Netherlands. When packaged for North America, it was re-titled “Sonik Re-entry”.

Mort Garson and Paul Beaver: Zodiac Cosmic Sounds (Elektra, 1967)

• incorporated Moog sounds; this may have been the first commercial recording featuring the Moog synthesizer; produced in Los Angeles.

Perry-Kingsley: Kaleidoscopic Vibrations (Vanguard, 1967)

• the first Moog album by this duo known for their electro-pop songs

Douglas Lilburn: Study from One Note (1967)

• uses as its source material a single note sung by the Kokato, a threatened native bird in New Zealand

Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (Columbia, 1968)

• the most celebrated Moog album of all time; excellent Moog versions of music by J.S. Bach. The Moog was a monophonic instrument; playing two or more notes at the same time required multitracking, synchronization, and impeccable timing. This album became the first classical music album to ever sell more than a million copies. Unfortunately it’s not available on Youtube.

Dick Hyman: The Minotaur (Moog: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman, 1969)

• Moogified jazz-pop; the first chart-making single using a Moog synthesizer.

Gershon Kingsley: Popcorn (1969)

• the original version, on Moog; it became a hit in 1972 in the version by Hot Butter, and other versions of the song have been produced since then.

Terry Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969)

• minimalist work for electronic organ

Emerson, Lake, & Palmer: Lucky Man (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, 1971)

• featured the Moog Modular played by Keith Emerson; one of the first rock hits in which a Moog was the featured solo instrument

Yes: Roundabout (Fragile, 1971)

• featured the Minimoog and other electronic keyboards played by Rick Wakeman

Elton John: Funeral for a Friend (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973)

• featured the ARP 2600 played by Dave Henschel

Laurie Spiegel: Appalachian Grove I (1974)

• computer synthesis; used the Groove program at Bell Labs in New York

Herbie Hancock: Thrust (1974)

• jazz-funk; features the ARP Odyssey, ARP Soloist, ARP 2600, and ARP String synthesizer

John Keating: John Keating Conducts the Electronic Philharmonic Orchestra (1974)

• transcriptions of classical works; featuring the ARP 2600, Pro-Soloist, and other synthesizers

Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene (1976)

• uses ARP Odyssey, EMS Synthi AKS and Synthi VCS3, and RMI harmonic synthesizer

P.I. Tchaikovsky: Valse sentimentale, performed on Theremin by Clara Rockmore (1977)

David Behrman: On the Other Ocean (1977)

• computer music with live players (bassoon and flute)

Mike Mandel: Sky Music (1978)

• jazz fusion; features the ARP Odyssey, ARP Pro Soloist, and ARP Omni II

Gary Numan: Cars (The Pleasure Principle, 1979)

• early synth-rock success using electronic keyboards without guitar; Polymoog

Eduard Artemyev, Yuri Bogdanov, and Vladimir Martynov: Metamorphoses (1980)

• Soviet recording of classical and modern music, featuring the EMS Synthi 100

Barton McLean: Etunytude (1983)

• Composed at the Electronic Music Center at the University of Texas-Austin using the Fairlight CMI.

Björk: It's Not Up to You (2001)

• from the album Vespertine by this Icelandic recording artist

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: EARS (2016)

• Eurorack synthesis; musically sophisticated pieces for sampled and synthesized sounds

Dismaze (w. Akemi Fujimori): Plastic Snakes (2018)

• computer synthesis

My feline overlord guards the book. Rose was remarkably tolerant of the weird and wonderful sounds coming from my computer and iPhone while I listened to the electronic and experimental music examples.