Introduction to

ELECTROACOUSTIC COMPOSITION

The
Telharmonium
(Thadeus
Cahill, 1897
1902) early
electro
mechanical
organ, the first
true musical
instrument to
exploit
electricity

Electric/Electronic/Electroacoustic
and Experimental Music Timeline
Dr Brian Bridges, School of Creative Arts and Technologies, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

1897 Telharmonium (massive

electric organ/additive
synthesizer) designed.
Completed 1902, early
experiment in electronic music
production and transmission
(over telephone lines).
1913 Luigi Russolo - The Art of
Noises - manifesto about
broadening sonic palette of
music to include the noises
which were becoming so
prevalent in industrial life.
1919 The theremin invented.
Portable electronic instrument
capable of expressive control:
musician waved hands over two
aerials (one for frequency, one
for amplitude). The theremin
was later incorporated into
orchestral/ensemble
composition or, later used for Bmovie music and special effects.
Edgard Varse composed
Ecuatorial (1934) for an ensemble
including theremins.

1935 AEG Magnetophon: first

tape recorder. Alterations and
editing of sound materials now
greatly facilitated.

1950 Milan electronic music

studio founded by Luciano Berio
at RAI. This studio favoured
both recorded (a la musique
concrte ) and electronically1939 KEY MUSICAL WORK: generated (synthesised) sonic
materials. The famous
John Cage - Imaginary Landscape
electroacoustic composition
No. 1 utilises variable-speed
Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) would
turntables playing test tones, in
combination with a muted piano later be composed there (in
and cymbal. First composition to 1958).
integrate electronic sources (the
test tones) and acoustic
1951 Studio for electronic music
instruments. Paved the way for
(Elektronische Musik), founded at
Cages increasing focus on the
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
liberation of sound materials.
(WDR) in Cologne. In line with
the strictly parametric
1948 KEY MUSICAL WORK: (numerically-controlled/
Pierre Schaeffer, Etude aux chemins described) compositional
de fer, first piece of musique concrte practices of serialism dominant
in West Germany at the time,
(concrete music) composed
the only acceptable sonic
using sampled environmental/
materials were synthesised,
industrial sound. Schaeffers
early experiments and first studio whose timbral parameters could
be carefully specified. Karlheinz
were based at Radio France.
Stockhausen was one of the
Pieces composed at the Paris
studio used recorded sounds and most prolific composers at the
studio.
eschewed electronicallygenerated ones.
v 1.0 (May 2014)

1955/6 KEY MUSICAL WORK:

Stockhausen composes Gesang der
Junglinge, which utilises both electronic
and recorded materials (a boys singing
voice). This is the first time that such
materials were used at the Cologne
studio and brought about something of
a reconciliation between the French
(musique concrte) and German
(Elektronische Musik) approaches.

Something new has

been added, a new art of
sound. Am I wrong in still
calling it music?

Pierre Schaeffer
(in Holmes, 2012, p.63)

1957(a) RCA Music Synthesizer at

Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music
Centre in New York. Programmable
synthesiser with analogue sound
generation: programmable refers
mostly to the ability to sequence notes
and specify sounds...but the synthesizer
was not a computer as such. Used by
composers interested in music of
rhythmic and melodic complexity.
1957(b) Computer music born, Bell
Labs, NJ. In common with other areas
of digital audio, many developments in
computer music were spurred on by
work on telecommunications
engineering Some staff at Bell Labs,
including Max Matthews began to
experiment with computer programs for
sound synthesis and sequencing. This
resulted in a family of music synthesis
languages known as Music N - text-based
files would control the synthesis
(orchestra files) and sequences of notes
to be generated (score files). Would
develop into Csound (Vercoe, 1986),
which is still in widespread usage.

1958 KEY MUSICAL WORK:

Edgard Varse - Poeme lectronique composed as a piece of tape music for
the Philips Pavillion at the Brussels
Wolrd fair. Varse had been an early
visionary polemecist in the quest for
new (electronic) instruments and sound
sources for composition and, with this
piece, finally had the opportunity to
work with some of the music technology
whose development he had agitated for
in the 1930s. The piece was a mixedmedia one, featuring a building
designed by Le Corbusier and Iannis

When new instruments will

allow me to write music as I
conceive it, taking the place
of the linear counterpoint, the
movement of sound-masses,
of shifting planes, will be
clearly perceived. When these
sound-masses collide the
phenomena of penetration or
repulsion will seem to occur.
There will no longer be the
old conception of melody or
interplay of melodies. The
entire work will be a melodic
totality. The entire work will
flow as a river flows.

Edgard Varse
(New Instruments and New
Music, 1936)

Xenakis (who would later become an

influential composer of instrumental
and electronic music) along with light
and Varses music. The result was
spatialised - sent to 425 speakers around
the space.
195860 KEY MUSICAL WORK:
Stockhausens Kontakte (Contacts)
composed. One of the most celebrated
early electronic music compositions.
Stockhausen explored connections
between pitch, rhythm and timbre,
famously experimenting with slowing
down a musical note until it becomes a
set of clicks or pulses, before using a
reverberation effect to combine the
pulses back into tones again.
1964 Robert Moogs voltage-controlled
synthesizer demonstrated at the AES
(Audio Engineering Society)
Convention. This greatly facilitates the
possibilities for control of a number of
parameters simultaneously. However,
the synthesis method (subtractive
synthesis) only really allowed for a
broad brush approach and sometimes
the pitch generators (oscillators) became
unstable, drifting out of tune. Some
educational institutions in the US began
to install voltage-controlled synthesizers
as a means of exploring electronic
music (others allowed composers some
time on their generalpurpose
mainframe computers, exploring digital
synthesis with Music N).

1965/6 KEY MUSICAL WORK:

Steve Reichs tape works Come Out
(1965) and Its Gonna Rain (1966). These
pieces used the process of allowing
identical tape loops to fall out of
synchronisation, resulting in new
patterns emerging. Reich later termed
this his phasing technique and applied
this method to his instrumental pieces.
1969(a) STEIM (STudio for Electro
Instrumental Music) founded in
Amsterdam to research the
development of new electronic musical
instruments.
1969(b) KEY MUSICAL WORK:
Mutations by Jean-Claude Risset is an
influential early piece of computer
music, engaging with perceptual
explorations and morphing between
fused/unified timbres (single sound
sources) and chords (groups of distinct
voices) using different configurations of
the same frequency materials.
1973 John Chowning discovers FM
(frequency modulation) synthesis whilst
experimenting with vibrato. This
technique allows for complex sounds to
be generated by much simpler means
than had previously been the case Chowning noted that by varying the
frequency of one oscillator at a rapid
rate with a signal produced by another
oscillator, he could produce effects
which were similar to the output of
around 20 oscillators in parallel. This
technique was patented in 1975 and
licensed to Yamaha, later providing one
of the defining sonic characteristics of
1980s pop music.

Karlheinz Stockhausen:
German composer who was
influential in integrating the
(previously distinct) streams of
sampling and synthesis-based
composition.

1974 KEY MUSICAL WORK:

Pentes (Slopes) by Denis Smalley was
completed at Groupe de Recherches
Musicales (GRM), the successor of
Pierre Schaeffers Radio France studio.
The piece was based on using
processing to explore an interplay
between short transient (percussive)
sounds and extended drones and
glissandi (pitch-glides) using digital
processing. The source samples were
taken from Northumbrian pipes.
1975 Brian Eno coins term ambient
music, which is similar in concept to
Saties furniture music (1917)...music
as part of environmental sound or as
defining container for environmental
sound materials/structures.
1978 KEY MUSICAL WORK:
Trevor Wishart, Red Bird: A Political
Prisoner's Dream (electracoustic music),
which uses a combination of extended
vocal techniques (performed by the
composer) and electronic processing to
morph these elements with
environmental sounds.

centre). This version was text-based, but

later versions would become extremely
popular due to their development into a
graphic programming language
structured around the manipulation of
objects on-screen.
1986(a) KEY MUSICAL WORK:
Riverrun by Barry Truax saw the first
implementation of realtime granular
synthesis: building up a sound texture
from combinations of grains (very short
tones, with volume envelopes, of 1-50
milliseconds). The piece used granular
synthesis techniques to render a stylised
portrait of a rivers changing flow via its
upper, middle and lower courses.
1986(b) Csound, a port of the Music N
(1957) languages/environments written
in the C programming language,
released. Csound is highly portable as a
result and has been ported to a wide
variety of computer platforms. (Current
version: Csound 6, 2013).

1983 MIDI Musical Instrument

Digital Interface allows for reliable
remote control signals to be sent
digitally over a serial interface,
standardising communications between
a wide range of studio hardware.
Facilitates the development of
computer-based MIDI sequencing
software for electronic music.

1986(c) Composers Desktop Project (UK)

gives composers access to computerbased sound processing on home
computers, begun by consortium
including Trevor Wishart. Initially
based on Atari ST platform, later
ported to Windows and Mac OS. Its
interface structure was based on the
text-based command-line interface, but it
didnt require programming/scripting,
as other synthesis environments (such as
Csound) did.

1984 The Max electronic music

performance control language (by
Miller Puckette) was first used at
IRCAM (French Government research

1987 C-lab Creator, MIDI sequencer (no

audio recording), ancestor of Apples
Logic Pro/Studio. (Precursor of Cubase
(Pro 24) also available at this time.)

Karlheinz Stockhausen

failed to produce convincingly blended

timbres. As a result, he began to
explore the combination of processed
recordings and synthesis, with
Gesang der Junglinge (195556) being
credited as the first work which
integrated the two approaches.
Stockhausen engaged in extensive
theorising about the new creative
implications of electronic music.
The ranges of perception are ranges of
time...and since modern means have
become available, to change the time of
perception continuously, from one
range to another, from a rhythm into a
pitch, or a tone or noise into a formal
structure, the composer can now work
within a unified time domain.

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928

2007) was ideally placed to heal the rift
between the French musique concrte
((based on manipulation of recorded
sound) and German Elektronische Musik
(based on sound synthesis, creating
sounds by purely electronic means)
schools of composition. He completed
early exploratory compositions (etudes/
studies) at both the Radio France (in
1952) and WDR (in 1953) electronic
studios. He was unsatisfied with the
results of his early Elektronische Musik
pieces (Studie I and Studie II): his
carefullyspecified production of sound
spectra by individual tone generators

1990 Max (Opcode) released:

commercial version of the IRCAM
graphic programming language for
performance control. Allows for MIDIbased remote control of synthesizers
and other electronic music systems.

The computer should

ideally feel in the
musician's hands like a
musical instrument,
needing only to be tuned
up and then played. Has
Max reached this ideal?
Certainly not, and neither
has any other piece of
computer music
software. I hope at least
that, in the long term, it
will prove to have been a
step in a good direction.

1996 Pure Data, a free software

adaptation of Max by Miller Puckette
with audio processing capabilities (later
fed back into commercial version,
Max/MSP (1997).
1990s2000s - Max/MSP and Pure
Data become popular outside
academia, with popular artists such as
Autechre and Radiohead now using
these tools. Commercial software
synthesisers/effects processes become
increasingly common. Laptop performance
becomes increasingly common. Some
musicians find common ground
between academic research and
experimentation and experimental
dance music: post-digital music. This
affects both improvised music and
electroacoustic composition, which
often increasingly incorporates some of
the gestures from improvisations into
composition.
1999 Napster pioneers peerto-peer file
sharing over the internet. MP3
(compressed audio recordings) are
increasingly shared for free by users,
disrupting the established business
model of the recorded music industry.
2001, 2002 First NIME (New
Interfaces for Musical Expression)
workshops and conferences held in
Montreal and Dublin. This reflects a
growing early21st century focus on

Miller Puckette
(Max at Seventeen, 2002)

new interfaces and systems for realtime Mid2000s: recorded music industry
electronic music creation.
slowly comes to terms with changed
landscape and more digital releases and
2003 Apple launches the iTunes music download stores are facilitated.
store in an attempt to monetize the
growing user preference for obtaining
music via digital downloads.
2003 The Jitter visual component of the
Max environment is introduced,
providing support for video processing
(via Quicktime) and 3D vector graphics
(via OpenGL). Electronic musicians can
now experiment with VJing and visual
arts using a familiar programming
environment.

YOU ARE
HERE

Postdigital music:
experimentation
beyond academia?

Autechre
EP7 (Warp records, 1999)
post-digital/glitch music

2010s

Computers have become the

primary tools for creating and
performing electronic music...Our
current sonic backgrounds have
dramatically changed since 4'33" was
first performedand thus the means
for navigating our surroundings as well.
In response to the radical
alteration of our hearing by the
tools and technologies developed in
academic computer music centers
and a distribution medium capable of

shuttling tools, ideas, and music

between like-minded composers and
engineersthe resultant glitch
movement can be seen as a natural
progression in electronic music. In this
new music, the tools themselves
have become the instruments, and
the resulting sound is born of their
use in ways unintended by their
designers.
#######################
Cascone, C. 2002. The Aesthetics
of Failure: "Post-Digital"
Tendencies in Contemporary
Computer Music. Computer
Music Journal, 24(4)
#######################

music technology as meme c.1950

music technology as fractious alliance
music technology as precursor
Cage and
conceptualists

Musique Concrte

SONIC IDEAS

FOUND SOUND

PHILOSOPHY

Elektronische Musik

SAMPLING

Computer Music
SYNTHESIS

Music Technology as Meme c.1950

Background and History
A number of different streams or schools can be
considered to be the antecedents of todays
technologically-mediated music and sonic arts:
Futurists c.1900s-1930s (Italy, Russia)
John Cage and Conceptualism (USA) c.
1940s-1970s
Musique Concrte (France) c.1940/50s
Elektronische Musik (Germany) c.1940/50s
Computer music (USA) late 1950s

sonic ideas

sampling

synthesis

Futurists: music and musical life to imitate/celebrate

new technology
John Cage: liberation of noise and introduction of
non-musical structures into music
Musique Concrte: liberation of noise/everyday
sounds helping to provide an alternative to Western
Classical musics abstract music project
Elektronische Musik: analogue technology for
extension of Western Classical musics abstract
music project...synthesis and.parametric control over
tonal materials
Computer music: digital technology for extension of
Western Classical musics abstract music
project...synthesis and enhanced parametric control
over tonal materials...integrating compositional and
textural control

the experience. Continuous repetitive movemen

one's head produces a pronounced degree of cyc

number of the higher voices. In addition, a repe

Music Technology as Meme early
21st C
on an earlobe does bring about perceptible chan
Electroacoustic Music and Sonic
Arts

the experience. Continuous repetitive movement

the experience.
such asContinuous
making a circling
repetitive
motion
movem
wi
the experience. Continuous repetitive movement such as making
a circling motion
with repetitive movement such as making a circling motion with
the experience.
Continuous

Electroacoustic composition is the confluence

of a number of streams: musique concrte,
Elektronische Musik, computer music,
soundscape work, etc. It is sometimes known as
acousmatic music, after the legendary practices
of the Pythagoreans of listening to lectures from
behind screens, without visual reference-points.
More generally, it is a contemporary approach
to composition which owes much to the sonic
and conceptual explorations of John Cage in its
investigation of broader ranges of
environmentally-derived (and culturally-derived)
sound materials and experiences through
technology.
Its defining characteristics are the use of
extensive exploratory sound processing (timbre
is the key structural domain of this music) or
carefullyspecified sound synthesis, the
presentation of presculpted fixed media works
in tape music concerts, the presentation over
multiple loudspeakers (spatial arrays or
loudspeaker orchestras) where possible.

123
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Young's installations
various ways. These factors are summarised in figure 30, below.
of acoustical factors which influence the perception of the frequency structures of

Young's installations in various ways. These factors are summarised in figure 30, below.

SONIC IDEAS

SAMPLING

Figure 30: The relationship between source material, room, listener HRTF and the
resulting percept in Young's sound installations

Figure 30: The relationship between source material, room,Figure

listener30:
HRTF
and the
The relationship
between source material, room, listener HRTF and the
123

This occurs because of the application of what Bregman (1990) terms the 'old-plus-new heuristic.

resulting percept in Young's sound installations

207

resulting percept in Young's sound installations

STRUCTURE
123

123the 'old-plus-new heuristic.

This occurs because of the application of what Bregman (1990) terms
This occurs because of the application of what Bregman (1990) terms the 'old-plus-new heuristic.

207

207

SYNTHESIS

Figure 30: The relationship between source material, room, listener HRTF
Figure
and30:
theThe relationship between source material, r
resulting percept in Young's sound installations

123

resulting percept in Young's sound installations

123
This occurs because of the application of what Bregman (1990) terms the 'old-plus-new
This
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occurs because of the application of what Bregman (1990)

207

Figure 30: The relationship between source

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30: Theroom,
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resulting percept in Young's sound installations

resulting percept in Young's sound installatio

Select Further Reading

In recent
years, the
popular
versus highart divide in
music has
formed a
topic of
debate,
predominant
ly driven by
a
commonality
of tools
amongst
diverse
musical
genres...

Cox, C. and D. Warner, ed. (2004) Audio Culture:

Readings in Modern Music. London: Continuum
Demers, J. (2010) Listening Through the Noise: The
Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music. New
York: Oxford University Press
Dean, R.T. (2009) The Oxford Handbook of Computer
Music. New York: Oxford University Press
d'Escrivan, J. and N. Collins. ed. (2007) The
Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Emmerson S. (2007) Living Electronic Music.
Aldershot: Ashgate
Holmes, T. (2012). Electronic and Experimental Music.
London: Routledge
Hugill, A.(2008) The Digital Musician. London:
Routledge
Landy, L. (2007). Understanding the Art of Sound
Organisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Manning, P. (2014). Electronic and Computer Music
(4th ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Witts, R. (1995) Advice to Clever Children (aka
Stockhausen versus the Technocrats), The Wire, Nov.
1995, available at: http://www.stockhausen.org/
ksadvice.html

Theoretically, a continuum between

popular and high genres may be possible,
but few works occupy the central part of
this continuum.
Natasha Barrett (in dEscrivan and Collins, 2007)

Select Listening
Adkins, M. (2006) Monde inconnus. Audio CD. Montral: Empreintes Digitales
Barrett, N. (2002) Isostasie. Audio CD. Montral: Empreintes Digitales
Dhomont, F. (2003) Jalons. Audio CD. Montral: Empreintes Digitales
Normandeau, R. (2001) Clair de terre. Audio CD. Montral: Empreintes Digitales
Smalley, D. (2000) Sources/Scne. Audio CD. Montral: Empreintes Digitales
Stockhausen, K. (2001) Elektronische Musik: 1952-1960. Audio CD. Germany: GEMA
Tenney, J. (2003) Selected works 1961-1969. Audio CD. New York: New World Records
Various (2008) GRM Archive. Audio CD. France: INA-GRAM
Various (1996) Klang. Audio CD. England: NMC
...See also my Spotify playlist: MUS302 Lecture 1

#######################################################################
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Email: bd.bridges@ulster.ac.uk | Twitter: https://twitter.com/bridgesbb

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