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    Tape Music

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    tash
    The document discusses the history and development of electronic music from the 1940s-1960s. It describes early innovations using magnetic tape and tape recorders for sound recording and editing. It profiles important early electronic music studios and composers that pioneered musique concrète in Paris and elektronische musik in Cologne. The document also outlines the development of electronic music technology and synthesis during this period.

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    Tape Music

    Uploaded by

    tash
    174 views38 pages
    The document discusses the history and development of electronic music from the 1940s-1960s. It describes early innovations using magnetic tape and tape recorders for sound recording and editing. It profiles important early electronic music studios and composers that pioneered musique concrète in Paris and elektronische musik in Cologne. The document also outlines the development of electronic music technology and synthesis during this period.

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    The document discusses the history and development of electronic music from the 1940s-1960s. It describes early innovations using magnetic tape and tape recorders for sound recording and editing. It profiles important early electronic music studios and composers that pioneered musique concrète in Paris and elektronische musik in Cologne. The document also outlines the development of electronic music technology and synthesis during this period.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    174 views38 pages

    Tape Music

    Uploaded by

    tash
    The document discusses the history and development of electronic music from the 1940s-1960s. It describes early innovations using magnetic tape and tape recorders for sound recording and editing. It profiles important early electronic music studios and composers that pioneered musique concrète in Paris and elektronische musik in Cologne. The document also outlines the development of electronic music technology and synthesis during this period.

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    of 38

    TAPE MUSIC

    1
    The White Album // Revolution 9
    2
    Brussels Worlds Fair (1958)
    The Philips Pavilion

    3
    Brussels Worlds Fair
    The Philips Pavilion

    Project directed by Le Corbusier


    Philino Agostini - projected visuals
    Main music by Edgard Varse Poem Electronique
    Interlude by Iannis Xenakis Concret PH
    Music developed at the Philips laboratory in Eindhoven, Netherlands
    350 speakers, mounted on walls, with 10 on the floor
    500 people saw the 10 minute performance at a time; 2 million had seen it by the end of the Worlds Fair
    4
    5
    Edgard Varse

    Pome lectronique (1958)


    6
    Pome lectronique (1958)

    Edgard Varse

    7
    Electricity

    Recording systems Electronic Instruments


    MAGNETIC TAPE
    9
    MAGNETIC TAPE

    1928: Fritz Pfleumer invented magnetic tape for sound recording (German-Austrian engineer)

    1930s: Magnetophone (AEG, Germany)

    1940s: Magnetic tape and tape recorders became prominent.

    1940s: Commercially developed in the late 1940s by American Jack Mullin with Bing Crosby
    Reel to reel audio tape recording machines spread in 1950s with companies like Ampex

    Using magnetic tape for recording and editing sound was the status quo until the mid 1990s
    (computers and digital audio recording).

    10
    MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDERS

    11
    HOW IT WORKS

    12
    SPEED & BANDWIDTH

    Tape Speed (inches/s) Bandwidth Use

    38 cm/s (15) 20Hz - 20kHz studio recording

    19 cm/s (7.5) 30Hz - 15kHz home recording

    9.5 cm/s (3.75) 40Hz - 13kHz general use

    4.8 cm/s (2) 50Hz - 6kHz speech dictation

    13
    EDITING TAPE

    14
    15
    BASIC TAPE MANIPULATION PROCEDURES

    1. Speed - transposition

    2. Backwards - direction

    3. Cutting - remove attacks, change envelopes

    4. Splicing - editing, crossfade sounds

    5. Looping - create rhythm from repetition

    6. Mixing - record multiple layers of sound

    7. Delay run one tape past two machines, mix outputs

    16
    Iannis Xenakis

    CONCRET PH (1958)

    17
    CONCRET PH (1958)
    18
    ELECTRONIC MUSIC RESEARCH CENTERS
    PARIS - COLOGNE - NEW YORK - LONDON - MILAN

    19
    TO RECORD OR TO SYNTHESIZE

    Music Concrete Elektronische Musik (moozeek)

    France Germany

    Recorded Sounds Synthesized Sounds

    Montage, Film Art Music, Serialism

    Pierre Schaeffer Herbert Einmert

    20
    MUSIC CONCRETE
    & the Paris Studio

    GRM (Research Group on Concrete Music) established by Pierre Schaeffer in 1951. Part of RTF, the main
    radio station in Paris.

    Real world sounds abstracted to be used as musical material.

    sound object

    Acousmatic sound - sound heard without seeing its cause.

    Liberated from its source, the sounds could then be used musically as a sequence of sound objects.

    Among the composers who worked at the studio in the 50s: Karlheinz Stockhausen, liane Radigue,
    Olivier Messiaen, Edgar Varese, Pierre Boulez, and Iannis Xenakis.

    The studio continues to thrive today and is active in computer music.

    21
    PIERRE SCHAEFFER

    Trained as a radio engineer for Radiodiffusion-


    Television Franaise (RTF) - 1940s

    worked creating radio operas, combining non-


    musical sounds into montages

    lObjet Sonore (the sonic object) Sound Object

    working directly with sounds (waveforms), not with


    symbols (scores)

    Any sound source could become musical

    Listen: Etude Aux Allures (1958)

    22
    Pupitre DEspace (1951) a system for realtime sound spatialization, using four Theremin-like rings to control the
    intensity of four speakers: stereo pair, top and rear.

    The central concept underlying this method was the notion that music should be controlled during public presentation
    in order to create a performance situation; an attitude that remains in acousmatic music to the present day

    23
    Pierre(s) - Henry & Schaeffer

    teamed with Schaeffer to create Symphonie


    Pour Un Homme Seul

    Premiered in 1950, broadcast in 1951

    epic work using both discs and tape. Eleven


    movements each exploring different types of
    sounds.

    Listen: Movement VII - Prosopope II

    24
    ELEKTRONISCHE MUSIK
    & the Cologne Studio

    NWDR (Northwest German Broadcasting) Studio opens in 1951

    Founded by Dr. Werner Meyer-Eppler, Herbert Einmert, Robert Beyer

    Synthesized sounds over recorded sounds

    An extension of serialism with all musical aspects carefully controlled, such as timbre, duration, volume, etc.

    Music Concrete was just fashionable and surrealistic

    Things changed when Stockhausen took over in 1963 (even a bit before)

    listen: Herbert Einmarts Klangstudie II (1952)

    25
    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    26
    STUDIE II (1953)
    Karlheinz Stockhausen Score Excerpt

    Generated sound: Sine wave oscilators,


    filters, amplitude modulators and reverb
    (echo) effects

    Serial composition: used rows or sets of


    attributes (pitch, attack, timbre, etc) to
    determine how to manipulate sounds

    Processed in multiple stages: re-recording


    with effects and manipulations

    27
    GESANG DER JNGLINGE (SONG OF THE YOUTHS) (1955-56)
    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    combines electronic sounds with prerecorded and manipulated sounds. Recorded on five distinct tracks and one of
    the first surround-sound works.

    Three sound sources: a boy soprano, generated sine tones, and generated noises (clicks).

    Based on the biblical story of Daniel.

    Plays in the space between recognizable speech & abstract sound. Phonemes translated to sound, vowels are sine
    tones, consonants are bands of noises, plosives are impulses.

    Sound as speech, speech as sound.

    Built a bridge between French and German schools

    28
    KONTAKTE (1958)
    Karlheinz Stockhausen

    Focus on spatialization of sound (Quadrophonic Sound)

    Wanted to create the effect of sound spinning around the


    listener at different speeds

    Spatial projection of sound mixed to stereo, similar to


    techniques used later by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Jimi
    Hendrix.

    In 1963, Stockhausen succeeded Eimert as the director of the


    Cologne studio

    29
    Hugh Le Caine

    Canadian scientist/composer with the National


    Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa

    Transformations of a single sound source as an


    organizing principle, the sound of a single drop of
    water

    Le Caine also invented the Electronic Sackbut in


    1945, an early voltage controlled synthesizer
    (pictured)

    Listen: Dripsody (1955)

    30
    Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (1958)
    31
    Piece for Tape Recorder (1956)
    Vladimir Ussachevsky

    From Ussachevskys Notes on Piece for Tape Recorder

    32
    BBC Radiophonic Workshop (1958)
    Daphne Oram, Brian Hodgson, Delia Derbyshire, David Cain, and many more...
    33
    LOOK AT ORAMICS (1961)
    Daphne Oram Drawing Sounds

    Developed Oramics in 1959, a


    graphically controlled synthesizer.

    Classically trained musician and BBC


    engineer.

    Visited Schaeffer and RTF in Paris

    First to notate ideas for synthetic sounds


    that could be reproduced by sound-
    generating instruments

    34
    35
    DOCTOR WHO THEME (1963)
    Delia Derbyshire & Ron Grainer

    36
    OTHER IMPORTANT ELECTRONIC MUSIC CENTERS

    Studio di Fonologia Musicale, Italy (1953)

    Luciano Berio & Luigi Nono

    Nippon Koso Kyokai (NHK) Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (1954)

    Toshiro Mayuzumi & Toru Takemitsu

    37
    POST WWII MILESTONES

    1948 - Musique Concrte, abstract tape music. Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry - lORTF radio station in Paris

    late 1940s First privately-built studios. Louis and Bebe Barron (1948) & Raymond Scott (1946) (both in NY)

    late 1940s - First multitrack tape recorder, popular & commercial music. Les Paul & Raymond Scott (in 2 weeks, Tu)

    1951 - Elektronische Musik, music generated by electronic means. Herbert Eimert - Cologne Studio

    1951 - Columbia University Studio, tape music. Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky

    1950s Chance music, indeterminacy, live electronics. John Cage

    1957 - Computer music! Max Mathews working at Bell Labs (in 2 weeks!)

    38

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