Technology advances during the 1920s made possible experimentation with electronic sound-producing instruments. Fundamental circuits for sine, square, and sawtooth wave generators as well as amplifiers and filter circuits were created and experimented with.
These devices were developed to automatically read an encoded score, and to control sound aspects such as pitch and tone color.
Thaddeus Cahill
Thaddeus Cahill invented electronic music at the turn of the 20th Century. He did this using a rotary generator and telephone receiver connected together as one, called his creation the “telharmonium,” to convert electrical signals to sounds with 35 enormous generators powering his instrument – an instrument similar to today’s synthesizers but powered differently.
Cahill devised his device, called the Telharmonium, using rotating cylinders with different frequencies to produce 12 notes in five octave ranges over five frequency bands. His goal was to play instrumental music over telephone lines for hotel lobbies and elevators to hear; unfortunately his vision never took shape, nor did his Telharmonium take hold.
Though his initial attempts failed, Cahill persisted with his quest for perfect electronic music. He continued developing the telharmonium using 35 enormous generators as power sources until it could transmit a chromatic scale over the telephone network. Furthermore, he created an electronic keyboard which allowed musicians to control its shades of notes at will and vary them at will; Cahill’s keyboard could more expressively convey emotion than traditional piano music could.
While the Telharmonium was not a success, it did pave the way for modern music. Orchestras playing pieces of classical music on electronic instruments for the first time ever was revolutionary – while composers used an electronic instrument as part of their composition process for the first time ever! Though these first electronic instruments were simple and limited, their impact has had profound ramifications on its development.
Though it is hard to fathom a world without electric guitars and drum machines, electronic music’s development has been gradual. At first, its instruments were simple; over time though they have become more complex and versatile – leading to revolutionary shifts such as krautrock, disco and new wave styles being inspired by them. Now there are numerous instruments capable of synthesizing multiple tones at once and producing chords.
Luigi Russolo
Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) was born into a musical family; his father served as organist of Portogruaro Cathedral while his brothers studied music at Milan Conservatory. Though Luigi initially pursued painting, by his mid twenties he had fully immersed himself into Futurism and began creating dissonant pieces that incited crowd riots while creating new instruments; soon he earned himself the name “father of noise music.”
Inspired by his Futurist friend Umberto Boccioni, he created an instrument known as the “Risveglio Di Una Citta”, or Return to the City, composed entirely of sound effects to convey urban energy.
Russolo used his instrument to craft new timbres and give tonal form to everyday sounds, developing “line notes” as a method to identify enharmonic transitions between tones he believed would provide greater expressiveness of tone and more effective rhythmic control.
He also designed an instrumentation set to perform his noise music as detailed in his 1913 manifesto, L’Arte Dei Rumori (“The Art of Noises”). These were entirely acoustic instruments made up of different types of boxes with internal structures to achieve various effects; most featured wheels that touched strings attached to drums, with handles for changing tension on those strings; pulling on one raised the tone and made it resonate inside the box.
While many instruments were destroyed during World War II bombing raids, a few original sketches and recordings still remain. Furthermore, many of Russolo’s ideas live on; American composer John Cage frequently refers to Russolo’s manifesto as one of the key texts which inspired his music.
Nowadays, it’s taken for granted that Nirvana would not exist without Sex Pistols and noise musicians such as Einsturzende Neubauten and Rage Against the Machine would not have become well-known acts if it hadn’t been for Luigi Russolo’s visionary work in changing cultural perception. Yet often overlooked is his contribution towards this monumental shift.
Laurens Hammond
Laurens Hammond was an exceptional child prodigy who designed and constructed clocks by age 14. Subsequently, he invented electric motors which led him to form his own company that manufactured numerous small electric clocks. As soon as the economy faltered, Hammond turned his efforts to finding inventions to help employ workers during the Great Depression. In 1933, he bought an old piano and carefully disassembled it; upon closer examination he discovered that its keyboard mechanism could be altered so it produced tones instead. Hammond discovered that using mechanically rotating wheels like those found in his clocks, near an electromagnetic pickup, they produced pure tones at specific frequencies; for instance, at 440 hertz concert A tuning standardization.
Hammond’s invention of the Hammond organ became an indispensable key instrument across a range of genres of music – R&B, rock, soul etc. However, his subsequent creation of the Novachord electronic polyphonic synthesizer received mixed reactions; yet thanks to his knowledge of sound perception he created an instrument which emulated organ sound closely enough.
Electronic music continues to develop with the invention of magnetic tape recording technologies, enabling sounds to be edited together in various ways – superimposing them over one another or altering their timbre and repetition until repeated over indefinitely. Reverberation, filtering and delay effects may be added into the mix for additional effects; post-production ensures recordings are balanced to form a finished product.
Electronic music requires the artist to master two primary skills. First, they need to know how to arrange sounds into meaningful compositions that communicate emotion or tell a story; secondly they must understand how to manipulate build and drop sections of songs – particularly important in genres such as techno and EDM, where these sections serve as transitions between segments while providing tension for listeners.
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer was the creator and chief innovator behind musique concrete – an avant-garde form of avant-garde music that employs recording technology for sound composing. After graduating from Ecole Polytechnique, he went to work for Radiodiffusion Francaise (RDF), becoming their engineer. They granted him access to an experimental studio which would lead him down his path toward developing musique concrete.
Schaeffer was not the first composer to use recorded sounds as musical material, but his influence can still be felt today. His work inspired many pioneers of electroacoustic music such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. Schaeffer’s innovative use of written scores and instruments as tools to realize musical ideas marked an inflection point in terms of sound-based compositional strategies.
Schaeffer first dabbled with telecom, but quickly evolved his interests to music composed entirely from recordings of natural sounds. His experiments with musique concrete were heavily influenced by Luigi Russolo (whose ideas he greatly respected). Schaeffer is best known for two pieces he produced – Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950; “Symphony for One Man Only”) and Orphee 51 (published 1953).
Schaeffer employed not only electronic sounds in his compositions, but he also utilized real-world noises found outside. One notable example is Railroad Study (French: Etude aux chemins de fer), composed entirely from sounds made by trains traveling along railroad tracks. By combining all these elements, Schaeffer created an orchestra of aural textures which conveyed an impressionistic impression of place and time.
Schaeffer distinguished himself from earlier avant-garde composers by emphasizing sound as opposed to visual elements; unlike those inspired by Futurists who relied more heavily on visuals than audio elements. Through stereophonic sound and reverberation he created an engaging listening experience and enabled listeners to truly experience his music’s rich aural texture.
Schaeffer published numerous books on music theory and technology throughout his career, such as 1966’s Traite des objets musicaux that introduced sound object theory – an attempt to classify all sounds into categories based on characteristics; his methods were adopted by younger artists like Eliane Radigue who used feedback loops when crafting musique concrete pieces of her own.