Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 115 views

    Electronic Music

    Uploaded by

    Tania Gallegos
    Electronic music originated in the 1950s as a way to eliminate the human performer and have total control over sound. It uses electronic devices and magnetic tape to produce sound that is then played back through loudspeakers. This allows for any pitch within human hearing thresholds and unrestricted possibilities for dynamics, duration, and timbre. Composers of electronic music, like Stockhausen, had to devise new notation systems without the constraints of conventional instruments or scales. Their scores provided instructions for assembling compositions from tape recordings of electronically produced tone mixtures. While still new, electronic music excited composers with its vast creative possibilities.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Electronic Music

    Uploaded by

    Tania Gallegos
    115 views2 pages
    Electronic music originated in the 1950s as a way to eliminate the human performer and have total control over sound. It uses electronic devices and magnetic tape to produce sound that is then played back through loudspeakers. This allows for any pitch within human hearing thresholds and unrestricted possibilities for dynamics, duration, and timbre. Composers of electronic music, like Stockhausen, had to devise new notation systems without the constraints of conventional instruments or scales. Their scores provided instructions for assembling compositions from tape recordings of electronically produced tone mixtures. While still new, electronic music excited composers with its vast creative possibilities.

    Original Title

    ELECTRONIC-MUSIC (1)

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Electronic music originated in the 1950s as a way to eliminate the human performer and have total control over sound. It uses electronic devices and magnetic tape to produce sound that is then played back through loudspeakers. This allows for any pitch within human hearing thresholds and unrestricted possibilities for dynamics, duration, and timbre. Composers of electronic music, like Stockhausen, had to devise new notation systems without the constraints of conventional instruments or scales. Their scores provided instructions for assembling compositions from tape recordings of electronically produced tone mixtures. While still new, electronic music excited composers with its vast creative possibilities.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    115 views2 pages

    Electronic Music

    Uploaded by

    Tania Gallegos
    Electronic music originated in the 1950s as a way to eliminate the human performer and have total control over sound. It uses electronic devices and magnetic tape to produce sound that is then played back through loudspeakers. This allows for any pitch within human hearing thresholds and unrestricted possibilities for dynamics, duration, and timbre. Composers of electronic music, like Stockhausen, had to devise new notation systems without the constraints of conventional instruments or scales. Their scores provided instructions for assembling compositions from tape recordings of electronically produced tone mixtures. While still new, electronic music excited composers with its vast creative possibilities.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    ELECTRONIC MUSIC

    Total control in the full sense could be achieved only by eliminating


    the human performer. This radical step was accomplished during the
    1950's in electronic music. This term is used loosely to describe music
    produced on electronic instruments such as the Theramin or Ondes
    Martinot which are "played" by moving the hands towards or away
    from a sensitive tube, resulting in a whining, musical-saw effect. The
    term also includes electric instruments that simulate the sound of the
    organ, guitar, or other conventional instruments.
    Used more precisely, the term electronic music has nothing to
    do with synthetic instruments. It refers to a kind of music which originated
    in the Studio for Electronic Music of the West German Radio, in
    Cologne, and its sound material is produced by electronic devices, recorded
    on magnetic tape, and heard through loudspeakers. It is this
    type of electronic music which will be described here.
    The basic sound of electronic music is a pure (free from overtones
    ) sinus tone produced by an oscillator. Because there are no limitations
    imposed by either instruments or humans, any and all pitches
    within the thresholds of audibility ( 16 to 20,000 vibrations ) are available,
    instead of the eighty-eight fixed tones that more than suffice for
    conventional music. Moreover, the possibilities of dynamic levels are
    greatly increased since every perceptible level of loudness can be accurately
    specified. Duration and timbre possibilities are likewise unrestricted.
    Needless to say, Western music up to this time has used
    only a fraction of these total resources.
    The problem for the composer of electronic music is that of
    constructing order in this new aural universe, and serial music, particularly
    that of Webern, has provided clues for doing so. Electronic
    music may rightly be considered a direct outgrowth of the second'
    Viennese school.

    One of the special problems has been the creation of a system


    of notation. The conventional symbols, geared to the chromatic scale,
    are useless of course. Example 187 shows a page from Stockhausen's
    Elektronische Studien II. This is not so much a score as "working
    instructions for the electro-acoustical realization of the composition."
    The upper section, calibrated from 100 to 17,200, refers to pitch and
    timbre. The individual pitches used in this composition are chosen
    from a scale of eighty-one steps with a constant interval ratio of 25 V5
    (the tempered scale is based on a ratio of 12\/2), and one hundred
    and ninety-three mixtures constructed from them. The heavy horizontal
    lines indicate the high and low frequencies of the first sound mixture
    to which another overlapping mixture is soon added.
    The two horizontal lines in the middle of the page indicate the
    duration of the sounds in terms of centimeters of tape moving at a
    specified speed. The triangular shapes at the bottom indicate volume
    in decibels.
    In order to "realize" the composition, i.e. "perform" it, a tape
    recording would first be made of the one hundred and ninety-three
    tone mixtures that serve as its basic material. This is the "keyboard,"
    the gamut of sounds from which selections would be chosen and recorded
    following the instructions of the diagrams.
    Electronic music is still in its infancy. A number of first-rate
    musical minds are excited by its possibilities and future developments
    might be of importance.

    You might also like