The visionaries of electronic music 1911 – 1966
You could be forgiven in thinking that electronic music was something of a late 1960’s development and that it was The Beatles who in 1966 introduced the listener to multi tracking and other amazing recording techniques. By 1969 progressive rock and ambient music was beginning to make its mark, mainly from German bands like Tangerine Dream and Britain’s Pink Floyd. Space rock was a 70’s thing pioneered by Hawkwind and that Tubular Bells or was a marvel of advanced multi tracking and electronics. I had for a long time kind of bought into this whole idea that rock music went from blues to Elvis, The Beatles and then bugger all till the likes of Led Zeppelin and David Bowie came along.
Once you start to scratch the surface, you suddenly find yourself in the most amazing universe and discover that electronic, progressive, space, drone, doom; all these styles had been around decades before in some cases and whilst almost all of it went unnoticed by the majority, it was there and it was influencing those it reached and set the standards by which everything that followed ‘could’ be judged by.
Did you know that the first electric guitar was invented in 1931 and yet the first synthesiser was built in 1897!
It was not the Blues that drove these pioneers but Jazz and classical composers such as Schoenberg.
We associate terms of heavy metal music sub-genres such as Doom and Drone to Black Sabbath, yet the very same notes held for a length of time, downbeat and sustained were performed in 1958.
It would seem that from the moment Ada Lovelace wrote in 1843: “Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent” the world of music would have a new and exciting direction.
History tends to be written by the famous and the successful but these are just a few of the originators, the visionaries, the mad genius who wanted to push forward and those who just looked at something and asked why that should be the only way.
There is a world out there full of strange sounds and rhythm, a world of ideas and noise, where silence can be deemed as sound, where art can be heard.
I have recently begun my journey back to the beginning, to discover these amazing people, if you have more than a passing interest in music, then I hope my short list may give you a starting point.
1.
Maryanne Amacher (Composer of Avant Garde electronic and classical works since 1964. By 1966 she had developed psychoacoustic techniques and was a pioneer of ‘Telematic’ performance. Demonstrated By “City Links” a 28 hour long piece created by using microphones throughout the city of Buffalo, USA in 1967).
2.
Robert Ashley (Creating sounds from various electronic devices together with acoustic instrumentation and utilising objects around him. Performances began in 1957.In 1960 his performance titled “The Bottleman” used tapes, distorted and feedback laden microphones and loudspeakers. The CD titled ‘Wolfman’ from 2003 contains recordings made from 1957 to 1964).
3.
Milton Babbitt (Music theorist and mathematician began composing abstract works in 1935, by 1961 he moved to electronics and tape manipulation as demonstrated by his work titled “Vision and Prayer for soprano and synthesized tape”).
4.
François Bayle (Considered a founding father of “Acousmatic” music and by 1959 was composing electronic pieces. His recordings began to appear on various compilation albums in 1967. The 1968 album ‘L'oiseau Chanteur’ contains recordings made from 1963 onwards).
5.
Herbert Brun (Jazz pianist and music lecturer who in the 1950’s started to work with electronics. In 1958 he was using tapes to create music and by 1963 had incorporated tapes with chamber orchestras. His interest in computers grew in 1964 and he started to use programming as part of his compositions. By the early 70’s he was creating his own programmes and exploring the potential for computer generated music).
6.
John Cage (I can no more do justice to Mr Cage here in a short paragraph than I could to Stockhausen. Visionary that’s for sure, a man who perfected experimental music, music as an act of chance or circumstance, one who took the conventions and threw them to one side seeking more than what was expected. Composing and recording by 1934 his new approach started to come together with the 1937 piece ‘Construction in Metal’ which along with many other works can be found on the 1958 triple album boxed set ‘Retrospective Concert’. Another element to his work was silence as demonstrated by his 1952 composition “4’33” where the musicians remain silent on the stage with the only sounds being that from the audience).
7.
Hugh Le Caine (Having built his own sound synthesiser in 1940 he went on to build somewhere in the region of forty further electronic instruments before creating a special purpose tape recorder which by 1955 was known as a multi track recorder. This device allowed for double tracking of voice and instrument some 11 years before ADT was supposedly invented by engineers working with the Beatles. His creation allowed for numerous new possibilities of what could be achieved from playing one piece forward and another backwards at the same time. His recordings dating from 1946 onwards can be found on the 1985 album ‘Pioneer in Electronic Music Instrument Design’).
8.
Delia Derbyshire (By 1962 she was a member of the Radiophonic workshop for the BBC and began creating electronic sounds with whatever she could lay her hands on or invent. Delia also worked heavily with multi tracking and tape editing. Her most famous composition was the Doctor Who television theme in 1963 and later the disturbing 1969 album ‘An Electric Storm’ under the name of White Noise).
9.
Tod Dockstader (History may remember him for his work on Tom & Jerry cartoons in 1961 and 62, yet it was his electronic creations released in 1960 (Eight Electronic Pieces) recorded at the Gotham studios where he had worked as a sound engineer since 1958 that had brought him to the attention of the animators and writers at “Terrytoons” in the first place).
10.
Jean Dubuffet (Artist, Painter and Sculptor and founder of the “Art Brut” movement in the 1940’s. In 1959 he started to take an interest in musical composition, in particular as a form of sound art. The first of these were released in 1961 as a boxed set of six 10” records titled ‘Experiences Musicales’).
11.
Herbert Eimert (Music theorist, composer and radio producer who by 1926 was making Avant Garde classical works with hand made noise instruments. In 1951 he set up a studio for electronic music and by 1953 was releasing albums of electronic works).
12.
Luc Ferrari (When it comes to ambient music on a grand scale then it is to Luc’s work in 1959 that we should bow to. Completed in 1960, ‘Heterozygote’ used tape recordings of everyday sounds edited to create music. A decade later his masterpiece of 12 hours of ambient sound edited and electronically enhanced to create 21 minutes of music titled “Presque rien No. 1 'Le Lever du jour au bord de la mer” was released on LP).
13.
Bengt Hambraeus (Organist and medieval music expert, in the late 1950’s he began to experiment with the organ creating new tonal effects and mixing them with other electronics to create improvised stereo sounds. These science fiction type sounds were the predecessor to what became known as space rock as performed by bands like Hawkwind. The 1958 recording of ‘Constellations I’ were released on a 1962 album ‘Constellations & Interferences’).
14.
Pierre Henry (In 1942 he began to experiment with non musical objects to create music. In 1949 he started to work on a ‘symphony of noises’ using electronics, record players, tapes and sound mixers. In 1958 an album of his work ‘L'Occident Est Bleu / L'An Cinquante-Six’ was released in France).
15.
Rune Lindblad (Experimental artist and musician who began recording electronic works in 1953. By 1957 he was performing strange live events mixing electronics with manipulated sounds on tape and abstract visuals).
16.
Otto Luening (By 1952 he had perfect a method of tape manipulation and used samples of other instruments to be played in a random order during live performances in conjunction with various early synthesisers and electronic devices).
17.
Max Mathews (Credited as being responsible for the first piece of computer generated music in 1957. He quickly advanced this technology and by 1961 was creating synthesised human voices which lead him to study communication, later becoming a professor of research. In 1965 an EP of his music was released in Germany).
18.
Pauline Oliveros (Began composing her own classical works by the age of sixteen. In 1953 you started to experiment with tapes and primitive electronics. By 1962 she designed her own signal processing system and was a member of the Tape Music Centre, a collection of experimental musicians and composers).
19.
Daphne Oram (British inventor of ‘Oramics’ in 1957, a way creating music by drawing onto 35mm film cells. Her work began back in 1942 when she started to experiment with sounds on tape which she then cut up and looped, sliced, forwards and backwards, perhaps it is of little surprise that despite one of works being rejected by the BBC she later formed the Radiophonic Workshop. Using sine wave oscillators in conjunction with other tapes and hand made devices her work was quickly in demand for Science Fiction radio and television productions. She later resigned from the BBC unhappy at the lack of willingness to progress with electronics. By the 1960’s she was creating effects for use in James Bond films whilst continuing with her ‘Oramics’ work. In the 1970’s she became a lecturer in electronics and wrote two books. Aside from a single in 1962 and some soundtrack albums the majority of her work was unreleased, however in the last decade compilations of her ground breaking work had appeared).
20.
Jean-Jacques Perrey (By 1949 he was demonstrating the proto synthesiser known as ‘Ondioline’ and used the keyboard to perform on the 1951 record ‘L’ame des Poètes’ by Charles Trenet. By 1953 he was building a studio and creating machines to generate rhythms and sequences, completed by 1960 he was creating strange sound recordings and later worked for Robert Moog creating numerous Moog pop records. In 1965 he along with another musician Gershon Kingsley created what many claim as the first ‘progressive rock’ music, some results of which were released in 1966 on the album ‘The in sound from way out!’).
21.
Henri Pousseur (In the early 1950’s he began to create a version of ‘Serialism’ with composition using a series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics and other elements. The first finished work was ‘Séismogrammes’ in 1954. It is his 1957 work ‘Scambi’ which he began the previous year that he is most remembered for. Utilising different pieces of sound and white noise in which the listener could choose to rearrange should he/she wish to do so).
22.
Eliane Radigue (Began composing in the early 1950’s, by 1961 she was creating music by using tape loops and feedback generated from microphones alongside more traditional instruments).
23.
Terry Riley (Though famed for his 1969 album ‘A Rainbow in Curved Air’, he had been recording tape loops and electronic music since the 1950’s. Early released works include ‘Music for the Gift’ in 1963 and ‘In C’ in 1964).
24.
Clara Rockmore (Classical musician who became friends with Leo Theremin not long after he created the device in 1928. By 1929 she was performing classical compositions with the device accompanied by her sister on piano).
25.
Oskar Sala (It was 1930 when he first performed with a new instrument called a ‘Trautonium’ named after its creator Dr. Friedrich Trautwein, it is considered as the first electronic synthesiser. By 1935 Sala had advanced the machine to perform “Sub Harmonics” something which had never been done before. In 1938 he began studio recordings. The piece titled ‘Five improvisations on magnetic tape’ was released on a 1961 album).
26.
Pierre Schaeffer (In 1936 he became interested in music composition and started to find a form of “expressionism” and look outside of the confines of traditional music, he quickly built his own electronic and recording devices and experimented with playing music at different speeds, mixing them forwards and backwards and sampling instruments on tape. In 1948 he created a new form of music called “Musique Concrete” a complex mixture of tape and electronic techniques, sound manipulation and performance. In 1959 his first recorded piece ‘Etude Aux Allures’ was released on LP. Much later in 1974 he built the ‘Acousmonium’ a massive sound system with over 80 different types of speakers linked into tape devices).
27.
Raymond Scott (Legendary Jazz musician who began recording in 1937, dismissed by many due his downbeat metronomic style, he began to create his own theories even performing with a 13 piece orchestra playing near silent music. Hollywood came calling and his music was used in numerous films. By the mid 1940’s he had perfected multi tracking and worked as a music producer. By 1946 his studio techniques were considered revolutionary by those who worked with him. I might add that these were far more advanced than many so called new & revolutionary techniques used at Abbey Road some twenty years later, but alas history as so often the case, forgets that. That same year (1946) he began creating his own ring modulators, wave and tone envelopes and by 1950 had built a fully functional synthesizer called a ‘Clavivox’, and was recording strange electronic music. He carried on building polyphonic sequencers and other devices and was a major influence on Robert Moog).
28.
Karlheinz Stockhausen (Perhaps the best known creator of electronic music, Avant Garde or just “out there” sounds. His complex theories and approach are as complex as the way he made the music. In 1951 he began electronic compositions that would confound the listener and challenge the classical world and beyond).
29.
David Tudor (Avant Garde pianist who in the mid 1950’s was known for performing the works of La Monte Young and Christian Wolff. Formed a partnership with John Cage and released their first album ‘Indeterminacy: New Aspect Of Form In Instrumental And Electronic Music’ in 1959).
30.
Vladimir Ussachevsky (Started to move away from traditional instruments in 1951 and move into electronics, In 1957 his first album ‘Metamorphosis’ was released).
31.
Edgard Varèse (Having written his first opera at the age of twelve, Varese was something of a genius to say the least. In 1911 he performed a symphonic poem in Berlin which caused some controversy. Later becoming involved with the Dada movement he began to experiment with mixing traditional instruments with new hand made devices. In 1934 he was performing with electronic instruments, cello and vocals. The piece ‘Ionisation’ was released as a 78RPM in 1937).
32.
Ruth White (Classically trained in numerous instruments, Ruth quickly became more interested in Avant Garde music. By 1962 she was becoming interested in the concepts of music and finding new ways to expand them. In 1964 she built her own studio and began creating electronic works).
33.
Iannis Xenakis (You may be forgiven for asking who? Yet to many he is one of the most important post WWII composers and seen as the “father” of 20th century classical music. His approach to music is that of an architect and mathematician and the way he created live performances was revolutionary. By the early 1950’s he was using electronics, tape manipulation and other techniques, a perfect example of this work is the 1959 piece ‘Diamorphoses’).
34.
La Monte Young (The mastermind behind the music we tend to know as Drone or Doom. From being a Jazz musician in the late 1950’s he moved to electronics in 1960. Mixing Gregorian Chants with Indian Raga and Classical Chinese and utilising the twelve tone technique he forged a new way of creating sound. From holding down a single note for a heavy sound and allowing it to continue, he then blended this with additional tonal and frequency ratios).
