ELECTRONIC MUSIC HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

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1902 Thaddeaus Cahill sets up the Telharmonium or Dynamaphone, a 200-ton array of Edison
dynamos that produced different pitched hums according to the speed of the dynamos. The
electrical output was "broadcast" over telephone lines.

1906 Lee DeForest invents the Triode Vacuum Tube which led to amplication of electrical
signals.

1907 Ferruccio Busoni publishes Sketch for a New Aesthetic of Music discussing the use of
electrical and other new sound sources in future music. He was to have a profound effect on his
pupil, Edgard Varese.

19teens Italian futurists investigate, classify, and produce noise instruments. Most notable was
Luigi Russolo.

1920's Varese writes Ionisation and George Antheil writes Ballet Mecanique: Both use
percussion and noise instruments and deal with the "liberation of sound" and a new view of
"spatial-temporal" relationships.
Electronic instruments invented during this period include the:
Theremin (1919-20)
Ondes-Martenot (1928)
Trautonium (1928)
Hammond Organ (1929) based on technical principles of the Telharmonium
See 120years.net for an unbelieveably complete description of these and many other
instruments.
Messiaen wrote Fete des belles eaux (1937) for six ondes-martenot as well as featuring the
instrument as soloist in Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine (1944) and Turangalila-
symphonie (1946-8). Strauss, Hindemith and Varese (2 used originally in Ecuatorial)
composed for the Trautonium.
1930's Improvement of ampliers and invention of the Tape Recorder. John Cage composes
Imaginary Landscape no.1 (1939) and no. 2 (1942) using test-tones from recordings, which
were played on variable-speed turntables.
1948 RTF (Radiodiffusion-television Francaise) broadcasts Pierre Schaeffer's Etude aux
Chemin de Fer on Oct. 5th. This marks the beginning of studio realizations and musique
concrete. Pierre Henry collaborates with Schaeffer on Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950),
the rst major work of musique concrete. In 1951 the studio was formally established as the
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Groupe de Musicque Concrete, which included other composers such as Messiaen, Boulez and
Stockhausen.

1951 Studio established in Cologne -- NWDR (Nordwest Deutsche Rundfunk). Karlheinz
Stockhausen most inuential.
RTF primarily concerned with manipulation of acoustic sound sources (Musique Concrete).
NWDR studio equipped with electronic sound generators and modiers (Electronische Musik).
1952 Four compositions for tape recorder, composed by Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto
Luening, presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (10/28). Raymond Scott designs
possibly rst sequencer which consisted of hundreds of switches controlling stepping relays,
timing solenoids, tone circuits and 16 individual oscillators. Also invents Clavivox synthesizer
with subassembly by Robert Moog (1956).
1953 Edgard Varese receives Ampex tape recorder as gift and begins work on Deserts, for
orchestra and tape. Stockhausen completes Studie I
1955 Milan Studio de Fonologia RAI established, with Berio as artistic director. Mayuzumi
founds studio in Tokyo. Phillips studio established at Eindhoven, Holland, shifted to University
of Utrecht Institute of Sonology in 1960.
1956 Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson compose Iliiac Suite for string quartet, the rst
complete work of computer-assisted composition (also algorithmic composition). Stockhausen
composes Gesang der Junglinge, the rst major work of the Cologne studio, based on text from
the Book of Daniel.
1958 Varese Poeme Electronique played over 400 loudspeakers at the Phillips Pavillion of the
1958 Brussels World Fair.

1959 Columbia-Princeton Studio established in New York with the help of a $175,000
Rockefeller grant. Incorporated the RCA Mark II synthesizer, the rst major voltage-controlled
synthesizer. Composers included Babbitt, Davidovsky, Luening, Ussachevsky, Wuorinen,
Smiley, Druckman

1960's Development of large mainframe computer synthesis. Max Mathews of Bell Labs
perfects MUSIC V, a direct digital synthesis language. Development of smaller voltage-
controlled synthesizers by Moog and others make instruments available to most composers,
universities and popular musicians. Most well-known use Switched-on Bach album by then
Walter, now Wendy Carlos. Beginning of live electronic performance. The Synket, a live
performance instrument used extensively by composer John Eaton in works such as Concert
Piece for Synket and Orchestra (1967). Once Festivals, featuring multimedia theater music,
organized by Robert Ashley and Gordon Mumma in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1963 San Francisco Tape Music Center established by Morton Subotnik, soon incorporating a
voltage-controlled synthesizer based around automated sequencing by Donald Buchla, used in
album-length Subotnik pieces such as Silver Apples of the Moon (1967) and The Wild Bull
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(1968).
1967 Max Mathews and F. Richard Moore develop GROOVE, a real-time digital control
system for analog synthesis, used extensively by composers Laurie Spieglel and Emmanuel
Ghent in the 1970's.

1970's Mini-Moog, a small affordable integrated synthesizer make analog synthesis easily
available and affordable, along with newcomers ARP and Oberheim. Development of real-time
digital synthesis. Charles Dodge composes Speech Songs (1972) bases on early speech
synthesis research. Jon Appleton (with Jones and Alonso) invents the Dartmouth Digital
Synthesizer, later to become the New England Digital Corp.'s Synclavier. Barry Vercoe writes
Music 11, a next-generation music synthesis program (later evolving into csound, which is still
widely used). IRCAM (Paris) becomes a major center for computer music research and
realization and develops 4X computer system, featuring then revolutionary real-time digital
signal processing. Pierre Boulez's Repons (1981)for 24 musicians and 6 soloists uses the 4X to
transform and route soloists to loudspeaker system.

1980's MIDI instruments and software make powerful control of sophisticated instruments
easily affordable by many studios and individuals. Acoustic sounds are reintegrated into studios
via sampling and sampled-ROM-based instruments. Miller Puckette develops graphic signal-
processing software for 4X called MAX (after Max Mathews), later ports it to Macintosh (with
Dave Zicarelli extending it for Opcode) for real-time MIDI control, bringing algorithmic
composition availability to most composers with modest computer programming background.
Yamaha introduces DX-7 MIDI keyboard, based on FM synthesis algorithms developed by
John Chowning at Stanford University. MIDI Specication 1.0 published in 1985 by the MIDI
Manufacturers Association. Also in 1985, Digidesign releases Sound Designer software for the
Macintosh, the rst consumer-level hard-disk recording and editing software. David Jaffe,
Julius Smith and Perry Cook (CCRMA studios of Stanford University) prototype physical
modeling, a method of synthesis in which physical properties of existing instruments and
represented as computer algorithms which can then be manipulated and extended.
1990's Interactive computer-assisted performance becomes popular. Tod Machover's (MIT,
IRCAM) Begin Again Again for "hypercello," an interactive system of sensors measuring
physical movements of cellist premiered by Yo-Yo Ma. Max Mathews perfects Radio Baton to
compliment his Conductor program for real-time tempo,dynamic and timbre control of a
pre-input electronic score. Morton Subotnik releases multimedia CD-ROM All My
Hummingbirds Have Alibis. MIDI sequencing programs expand to included digital audio. Large
number of works for instrumentalist (or ensemble) and tape composed, such as James
Mobberley's Caution to the Winds for piano and tape, pioneered by Mario Davidovsky's
Synchronisms series several decades earlier.
Electronic Music Suggested Listening List
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Suggested Reading
Jon H. Appleton and Ronald C. Perera The Development and Practice of Electronic
Music, Prentice Hall, 1975.
Joel Chadabe Electric Sound, Prentice Hall, 1997.
Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse, Computer Music, 2nd. Ed., Schirmer Books, 1997.
Paul Grifths A Guide to Electronic Music, Thames and Hudson, 1979.
Herbert Russcol The Liberation of Sound, Prentice Hall, 1972.
Barry Schrader Introduction to Electro-Acoustic Music, Prentice Hall, 1982.
Elliot Schwartz Electronic Music: A Listener's Guide, Praeger, 1973.
Glen Watkins Soundings, Schirmer, 1988.
This document prepared by Prof. Jeffrey Hass, Indiana University School of Music, Center for Electronic and Computer
Music, August 24.1999.
Email any comments, suggestions, requests for new documents, or corrections to cecm@indiana.edu
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