Utilizes electronic musical instruments and technology in production.
Between World Wars I and II, various developments led more directly to modern electronic music. This included the creation of sine, square and sawtooth-wave generators; amplifiers; and filters.
Pierre Schaeffer pioneered musique concrete – a composition using real world sounds such as train running tracks – as well as tape collages.
1. Tape Music
Tape music is an early type of electronic music which uses magnetic tape manipulation to create soundscapes and compositions. First popular in the 1950s, this genre has since evolved into various styles such as avant-garde classical to ambient noise music. It typically employs multiple layers of tape while manipulating its speed, direction and splicing for different effects.
Many consider Pierre Schaeffer the pioneer of electronic music, yet Halim El-Dabh may have set him on his journey. In 1944 he used a wire recorder to capture sounds from women’s healing ceremonies with drums and flutes at Zaar in Lebanon; using that recorder later he played back and altered these timbres using techniques such as reverberation, superimposition and noise distortion; some consider him the father of musique concrete (an predecessor of modern electronic music).
Composers began experimenting with tape recordings as larger sizes became readily available during the 1950s. They discovered they could layer and splice sound together unlike ever before, leading them to develop what has now come to be known as electronic or electroacoustic music.
Utilizing acoustic sounds and instruments with tape recorders was revolutionary for music. The results could range from highly experimental pieces to simply using technology as a way of manipulating and exploring. Numerous composers employed this method, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage.
At the end of the 1950s, technology had become more widely accessible and was beginning to be utilized as an effective compositional instrument. Initial experiments were often carried out at radio stations by those with access to equipment; reel-to-reel tape machines often filled an entire room.
Early 1960s composers began producing tape music works that blended tape and traditional acoustic instruments and began exploring its limits. Stockhausen pioneered this genre with groundbreaking pieces like Gesang der Junglinge (1959-60) and Kontakte (1960; Contacts). Other composers who embraced tape music technology during this era included Edgar Varese, John Cage, Bebe and Louis Barron from Forbidden Planet fame.
2. Synthesizers
JOY DOLO: When playing an acoustic instrument like piano, guitar, violin or drum set, sound production starts from physical vibrations. For example, strumming guitar strings produces sound by vibrating strings, hitting drum heads produces vibrational sounds, vocal cords vibrate when singing la-dee-da-da and vocal cords vibrate when singing la-dee-da-da. But when using synthesizers instead, sounds start with electrical pulses rather than physical vibrations.
Bob Moog made incredible sounding equipment in the early ’70s that helped herald in an age of electronic music. Some early analog synths can still be found at pawn shops today, though most modern instruments use digital technology for sound creation and manipulation.
Synthesizers contain many moving parts, but their most critical ones are oscillators and filters which generate soundwaves. Oscillators can either be analog (which produces warm tones that some call “analog warmth”) or digital. Filters play another integral part in shaping pitch and tone of sounds produced by synths, while providing the means for pitch and tone modulation as well as hearing individual frequencies within notes more clearly – key factors when it comes to defining its timbre.
Once oscillators and filters have been assembled, they require some way of activating them. A “gate” provides this control by telling the synth when to begin and stop playing notes – this signal may come from keyboard, sequencer or an extensible modular synth which comprises multiple modules linked together flexible.
Modulation refers to automated changes in a signal, and can be applied to almost every aspect of an audio signal. You can modulate oscillators’ pitch, frequency or volume settings; filter cutoff frequency settings; envelope controls which determine when notes are played quickly, held long enough for replay and how loudly; as well as envelope controls which determine when notes fade in and fade out over time.
3. Computer Music
Computers can be used in numerous ways to compose music. From creating melodies and rhythms, analyzing existing musical structures, or even producing sounds through mathematical algorithms programmed into the computer itself – to even producing sounds generated using these mathematical algorithms – to even producing sounds generated based on mathematical algorithms programmed into the machine, music composed on computer can then be edited and refined before being recorded and mixed – this process is known as post-production and is usually handled separately from its composition process.
In the 1950s, some composers experimented with computer-aided composition techniques using mainframe computers from IBM such as system 7090. One early work by Yannis Xenakis called ST/10-1,080262 (1962) utilized Fortran programs using statistical calculations and Poisson distribution to assign pitches, durations, playing instructions to various instruments in an ensemble. Another early example is Larry Austin’s Phantasmagoria: Fantasies on Ives Universe Symphony (1977), which heavily relied upon computer processing to reach its final form.
These early experiments led to the creation of several electronic instruments. Elisha Gray created the acoustic telegraph between 1892 and 1914 as the first instrument that enabled for music transmission over telephone lines; unfortunately its transmission quality wasn’t particularly great and therefore didn’t become widely popular. Later came other electronic instruments, including Audion Piano (initially named Elektron), Theremin and Hammond Organ.
With the rise of personal computers in the 1970s, music-making became easily accessible to hobbyists and amateurs. Early PCs such as Atari and Commodore 64 featured sound chips which enabled users to compose and perform their own tunes; software such as Chris Hulsbeck’s Soundmonitor or Karsten Obarski’s Musicomp further simplified computerized musical creation.
By the 1990s, computer technology had advanced enough for anyone with no technical background to create complex sounds with very minimal programming knowledge or technical skill required. This allowed for the rise of electronic music – particularly musique concrete influenced by geometric forms – which led to its popularity today.
4. Digital Music
Digital technology has enabled a proliferation of electronic musical instruments to be created. A digital music producer uses computer programs to compose, mix and manipulate songs that can then be used across a variety of media including websites, TV shows and video games – this process being both more cost-efficient and time efficient than creating traditional instruments-based compositions.
In the 1960s, composers began using digital computers to synthesize sounds and combine and layer music in ways never possible before. By the 1980s, electronic genres like krautrock, disco and new wave had come into prominence; these genres utilized polyphonic synthesizers, drum machines and bass synthesizers. Musicians such as Egypt’s Halim El-Dabh who combined Egyptian folk and chanting with synthesized sound as well as American composer Iannis Xenakis pioneered musique stochastique or stochastic music using various probability systems to generate pieces under preset parameters.
A drum beat is an integral component of most electronic music, providing rhythm that gives songs its overall energy and establishes their tempo. Depending on the style of music, its tone and tempo may change according to genre, with genres like new wave or synth-pop featuring standardized beats featuring hi-hats, snare or clap, toms or pitched drums as an example; other electronic styles like ambient, experimental or IDM being less structured around beats or possibly without one entirely.
No matter the genre of electronic music, a good mixologist should try varying upbeats and tempos for added variety. Genres such as new wave and synth-pop often start off with a basic drum beat before layering chords and melodies onto that beat to form their songs; other genres, such as ambient, experimental or IDM may feature looser rhythmic structures with an emphasis on texture or atmosphere rather than an actual beat.
Since the Internet came along, digital music has rapidly evolved into an industry. While its rise has caused record sales to decrease, new business models may help revive it and bring stability back to the music business.