Fourteen Masterpieces of Electronic Music

Fourteen Masterpieces of Electronic Music Kevin Heis

History of Electroacoustic Music Professor Jeffrey Stolet December 27, 2009

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Abstract This paper will review fourteen masterpieces of electronic music. Essential information will be provided such as composer biographical information, form and conceptual ideas, associated institutes, technological achievements, recording and electronic processing details, and developments in other media. The pieces were selected for quality, representation of eras, influence, and diversity of stylistic association.















Heis, Fourteen Masterpieces of Electronic Music 3

Table of Contents Introduction

4

The 1950s

5

Symphonie pour un homme seul by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry Gesang der Jünglinge by Karlheinz Stockhausen Poème électronique by Edgard Varèse The 1960s

Orient-Occident by Iannis Xenakis Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles Silver Apples of the Moon by Morton Subotnick The 1970s

Synchronism #6 by Mario Davidovsky Figure in a Clearing by David Behrman Music for Airports by Brian Eno The 1980s 1980s

Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco by Jonathan Harvey The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Répons by Pierre Boulez The 1990s 1990s and 2000s

Ambiant Ambian t Otaku by Tetsu Inoue It Only Needs To Be Seen by Kyong Mee Choi

5 7 10 12

13 15 17 18

19 21 23 25

26 29 31 34

34 36

Conclusion Conclusion

38

Recommended Recommended

39

Sources

40















Introduction Electronic music is defined as music produced with electronic equipment. This definition means any music that is not performed live is electronic music, and most of the music performed live today is also electronic music. Given the broadness of the definition, this paper will redefine the term for more focus: electronic music is music with conceptual underpinnings which are deeply interwoven with electronic equipment, and could not be produced or replicated otherwise. Textbook histories of electronic music often detail composers' lives, institutions, and technological advances, and focus on academic electronic music exclusively. exclusively. What seems to be greatly lacking is an understanding of the piece as the ultimate goal, the ultimate statement and reward of electronic music. Perhaps this is because electronic music cannot be analyzed in the same methodology other music uses and the goal of textbook authors to provide a comprehensive and authoritative electronic music history. Under the more focused definition, the goal of this paper is to review the history of electronic music through its masterpieces. While the composers' lives up to the point of the composition and related technology and institutes will be discussed, the piece will take the stage in this paper. When relevant, as a multimedia devotee, I will discuss work in other media. Rather than attempt a thorough history in approximately forty pages, this paper will look at specific lenses over time. The pieces were selected first for quality; even if a piece is historically important, the
















selection seeks solid representation through unique, important, and influential works of the upmost artistic value. I claim no true objectivity in selection.

The 1950s The two most influential studios from the 1950s and from the beginning of electronic music as an art form were Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète de RadiodiffusionTélévision Française in Par Pa ris, France and Studio für Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Cologne, Germany. This paper begins with the musique concrete masterwor k, Symphonie pour un homme seul , from the Paris studio. While many important compositions that

precede it, it is the first successful work of electronic music. The second piece is from the Cologne studio; and the third again from the Paris studio. Important developments in electronic music were brewing all over the world, but none match the influence of these works from this era. Symphonie pour un homme seul by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry Symphonie pour un homme seul , or Symphony for One Man Alone in English, is an

musique concrete piece, or tape piece, by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. Henry. The first performance of the piece was on March 18, 1950 in the Auditorium of the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, France.1 The last revision of the work was in 1966, with a length of 21:40 minutes.2 As the first piece of electronic music that uses a developed syntax, it is also the first successful composition of electronic music. The work was developed at the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète de















which began in 1935. Part of an early radio station, it was the first electronic music studio. 3 Later, Later, this studio drew in Stockhausen, Varese, Boulez, Xenakis, and Messiaen. 4 Schaeffer began his experimentation at RTF in 1936, 5 and Henry joined the studio s tudio in 1949, who unlike Schaeffer, Schaeffer, could read sheet music. 6 With Henry, Henry, the studio's pieces "became longer and more ambitious." 7 Schaeffer was concurrently working on A la Recherche d'une Musique Concrete , a document for the syntax of musique concrete, which was finalized in 1952. 8 The studio is known for its deviations from other modern music of the time. Serialism, a technique of content ordering, was rejected because, for electronic music, the repetition was overbearing and the composers at GRMC/RTF had more success focusing on the source material. 9 Composers emphasized the "isolation of the sound event." 10 This freed composers from the restraints of the Schoenberg school as well as tonal tonal theory.11 The idea behind musique concrete is: extra-musical sounds could be treated musically by determining for them a familial or scalar ordering, yet allowing them to retain the essence of their noise like properties. 12 Schaeffer and Henry were influenced by previous previous works of modern composers, but in many ways in reverse. The primary idea of Symphonie pour un homme seul seu l is exploration of the 3

Palombini, Carlos. "Pierre Schaeffer, Schaeffer, 1953: Towards an Experimental Music." Music & Letters 74, no. 4 (1993): 542.

4

Palombini, Carlos. "Pierre Schaeffer, Schaeffer, 1953: Towards an Experimental Music." Music & Letters 74, no. 4 (1993): 542.

5

Discogs. "Pierre Schaeffer." http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pierre+Schaeffer.

Xenakis, Iannis, Roberta Brown, and John Rahn. Rah n. "Xenakis on Xenakis." Perspectives of New Music 25, no. 1/2 (1987): 16-63. 6

7

Cross, Lowell. "Electronic Mu Music, 1948-1953." Perspectives of New Music 7, no. 1 (1968): 44.

8

Palombini, Carlos. "Pierre Sc S chaeffer, haeffer, 1953: Towards an Experimental Music." Music & Letters 74, no. 4 (1993): 549. 549. Palombini, Carlos. "Pierre Schaeffer Scha effer

Towards Towards an Experimental Music." Music & Letters 74, no. n o. 4 (1993): 547-8.


















sound object, "sounds that could be produced by man." 13 These sounds included piano, human voices speaking and singing, drums, d rums, band and orchestra recordings, mallets, and other foley. foley. Symphonie pour un homme seul is divided into twelve movements, which are approximate to

classical structures.14 Given the non-restrictive ideas behind the work, the piece was listed in Golea's early catalog of electronic music as "expressive concrete music." 15 With the assistance of audio engineer Jacques Poullin, the composers created the work using radio broadcasting equipment and magnetic tape. 16 The large variety of processing techniques includes transposition, reverse, time stretching, layering, artificial reverberation, looping, and sampling. The performance of the work required "several sets of turntables, loudspeakers, and mixing units."17 Maurice Bejart choreographed Symphonie pour un homme seul in 1955.18 Gesang der Jünglinge by Karlheinz Stockhausen

debut ed at Cologne's Gesang der Jünglinge is a tape piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It debute West German Radio in its largest auditorium on May 30th, 1956. 19 Stockhausen developed Gesang f ür Elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunk in Cologne, der Jünglinge at the Studio für

















Germany.20 It is 13:40 minutes long, and the title translates to Sound of the Youths (in the Fiery Furnace). Gesang der Jünglinge is the best known and most influential work of electronic music. Karlheinz Stockhausen, unique for an early electronic music composer, composer, had worked both at the Paris and Cologne studios. He began in Paris, where he made Studie I and Studie II,21 and left Paris for Cologne in 1952.22 His reason for leaving, among other factors, was to study phonetics at the University of Bonn with professor Werner Meyer-Eppler. Meyer-Eppler.23 Gesang der Jünglinge is one of the few pieces of early tape music associated with both

elektronische Musik and musique concrete.24 Stockhausen was a student and participant of serialism,25 which is more associated with elektronische Musik. However, However, he wanted to go beyond the practices of the Cologne studio, to lose the rigidity of serialism and give his work a greater sense of familiarity26 as well as to use serialism similar to how Bach used counterpoint. 27 Metzer, Metzer, David. "The Paths from and to Abstraction in Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge." MODERNISM / modernity 11, no. 4 (2004): 695-721.

20

Metzer, Metzer, David. "The Paths from fro m and to Abstraction in Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge." MODERNISM / modernity 11, no. 4 (2004): 695-721.

21

Decroupet, Pascal, Elena Ungeheuer, and Jerome Kohl. "Through the Sensory Looking-Glass: The Aesthetic and Serial Founda Foundations tions of Gesang der Jünglinge." Perspectives of New Music 36, no. 1 (1998): 97-142. 22

Peters, Gunter, and Mark Schrieber. "".How Creatio n Is Composed": Spirituality in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen."Perspectives of New Music 37, no. 1 (19 ( 1999): 99): 97-131. Metzer, Metzer, David. "The Paths from and to Abstraction in Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge." MODERNISM / modernity 23


















Stockhausen once described the three aims of his works as: absolute freedom, newness, and a balance of religion and reason.28 The narrative behind the work is: from a Biblical story in The Book of Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar throws Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a fiery furnace but miraculously they are unharmed and begin to sing praises to God. 29 A strong theme of purity and vilification ties the segments of the work together. together.30 The piece is divided into six sections, notably lacking a seventh concluding section. Each section is unique in its "treatment of voice." Section A is introductory, B is swarms of voices, C emphasizes words, D marks the use of chords, section E makes use of polyphony, polyphony, and section F represents summation summation.31 The source materi material al for the work w ork is a twelve-year-old boy, both singing and speaking in a normal voice.32 The boy was Josef Protschka, who was given sine tones to sing back along with sacred text in German. 33 The piece also uses sine tones in an additive way, white noise, and impulses.34 Stockhausen Stockhausen wanted to develop as piece as a prayer "free [...] from the traces of

Peters, Gunter, Gunter, and Mark Schrieber. Schrieber. "".How Creation Is Composed": Spirituality in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen."Perspectives of New Music 37, no. 1 (1999): 97-131.

28

















archaic fear of the gods" in the Roman Catholic church. 35 The work makes use of the Fibonacci series.36 Stockhausen used the phonetics of the text serially, within the realms of intelligibility, speech versus singing, echo, distance, spatial position, and pitch. 37 He made the synthesized tones sound like the phonetics of the boy's voice. 38 Stockhausen analyzed and reconstructed the voice using the recent developed vocoder, which aided in fragmentation of speech.39 The final version of the piece is in five channel sound, which was mixed down to four for the original performance.40 This piece, as the most influential work of electronic music, will be mentioned repeatedly in this paper. Poème électronique by Edgard Varèse Poème électronique, or Electronic Poem in English, is a three channel41 tape piece by

Edgard Varèse. It premiered at the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair from April 17 to October 19, 1958; and it was developed in Paris, France. It is intended as part of a Smalley, John. "Gesang der Jünglinge: J ünglinge: History and Analysis." Columbia University. http://music.columbia.edu/ http://music.columbia.edu/ masterpieces/notes/stockhausen/GesangHistoryandAnalysis.pdf. 2000. Peters, Gunter, and and Mark Schrieber. "".How Creation Is Composed": Spirituality in the Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen."Pers Stockhausen."Perspectives pectives of New Music 37, no. 1 (1999): 97-131. 35


















multimedia, musique concrete installation piece. Poème électronique is "the first electroacoustic work in the history of music to be structurally integrated in an audiovisual context." 42 Recently, it has been recreated in a virtual reality environment.43 Varèse at the time of composing Poème électronique was heavily experienced with music technology, technology, with more than five decades of composition experience, four decades of experience with electronics, and had composed major electronic works Ionisation, Espace, and Deserts.44 He developed the piece at Schaeffer's GMRC/RTF near the end of his life. 45 Varèse is known for the prominence of timbre and rhythm in his work, and, like his musique concrete colleagues, opposed devotion to any major structural technique. 46 The composer was influenced by Renaissance music. 47 He is also known for his emphasis on vertical over horizontal composition.48 Poème électronique was part of a multimedia installation, with lighting design and image

projections made made by futurist architect Le Corbusier,49 and the film was made up of black-andwhite still photograp photography. hy. 50 Both Iannis Xenakis, the designer of the Philips Pavilion, and Varèse Lombardo, Vincenzo, Andrea Valle, John Fitch, Kees Tazelaar and and others. "A Virtual-Reality Reconstruction of Poème Électronique Based on Philological Research." Computer Music Journal 33, no. 2 (2009)

42

43

Lombardo, Vincenzo, Andrea Valle, John Fitch, Kees Tazelaar and others. "A Virtual-Reality Reconstruction of



















were interested in parabolas and hyperbolas across various media: architecture for Xenakis and painting for Varèse.51 In the Philips Pavilion, the sound moved around the space over 425 loudspeakers, designated in 11 groups.52 The plan of the pavilion was conceived as a "stomach": visitors would enter through a curved corridor, stand in a central chamber for the eight-minute presentation, and exit out the other side. 53 Structurally, Structurally, the piece is in binary form with multiple subdivisions or thematic groups, such as similar timbre or rhythms. The musical source material includes bells, wood blocks, sirens, drums, singing, machine noises, animals, and organ. Listening to the recording, the processing techniques immediately evident are splicing, looping, reverse, alterations to playback speed, and movement of sound material in space.

The 1960s




















Orient-Occident by Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis composed Orient-Occident in 1960 at the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète in Paris, France. The piece is for four-track tape, 10:58 minutes in length, intended for a live viewing audience. Xenakis produced Orient-Occident on commission from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for a film created by Enrico Fulchignoni. 54 Xenakis began his career as a civil engineer in Greece. He was persecuted during World War II, and left for Paris, where he would design the Philips Pavilion for Varèse's Poème électronique. He worked with and was influenced by architect Le Corbusier. The multitalented

artist began studying music composition in 1951, particularly with Olivier Messiaen, and joined Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry at the Paris studio in 1957. 55 The composer, composer, by the time of creating Orient-Occident, had over ten years of experience in composition. The work was preceded by his Bohor, also considered a musique concrete



















Xenakis's music is known for its connection to African and Japanese music, 57 stochasticism-- or total randomness,58 and architectural design.59 From his architecture perspective, he once said in interview: The computer should be used not only for sound synthesis but also for macrostructures, large-scale constructions. Xenakis was a devotee of Antiquitial design both in architecture and in music. The film by Enrico Fulchignoni was about transition of civilizations around the time of Alexander the Great, 60 based on an exhibit at the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. 61 Xenakis used the source materials and structure of the piece to bring forth the qualities of Antiquity. Antiquity.62 Some of the source material included boxes, bells, and metal rods bowed, the atmosphere, and an excerpt from one of his acoustic music works.63 The source material was ordered and layered using a "geometric




















series."64 The composer is known as one of the first in the electronic field to draw associations between visual imagery and sound. 65 Xenakis worked with the ideas of slowing moving masses of sound, with contrasting moments of intermittent subtlety.66 This was different from the "more transparent appropriations" of Schaeffer and Henry.67 The author of this paper notes the conceptual similarity with granular synthesis, a technique the composer's later computer music works would implement. Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows is a song from the Beatles, the last track on their controversial Revolver album. The song was written by John Lennon and produced by George Martin. It was

recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in Lond Lo ndon, on, England from April 6 to June 21, 1966. The Revolver album debuted on August 5, 1966. The label was Parlophone, which at the time was



















At this time, EMI was buying out Parlophone. Rock artists of the late 1960s were seeking out worldly sounds.69 At this time, the Beatles were interested in Indian music, musique concrete, and psychedelic pop. They are known for a never ending exploration of sound, worldly influences, as well as an influence from rhythm-and-blues music. Revolver was influenced as well by heavy usage of the drug LSD, also known as acid. Just before Revolver, the Beatles had the most successful tour in North America in the history of rock music. "Lennon's identity crisis at the height of his fame spawned a number of selfreferential confessionals about his identity ('Help!', 'Strawberry 'Strawber ry Fields' and 'She Said She Said') and alternative realms of the imagination that tha t reached beyond the conscious world ('Lucy in the Sky Wit W ithh Diamonds' and 'Tomorrow Never Knows')."70 The instruments used in Tomorrow Neve Neverr Knows are tape, vocals, Hammond organ, tambourine, bass, drums, guitar, guitar, sitar, tambura (bass like drone), 71 and honky-tonk piano. The






















Tomorrow Never Knows used a BTR3 tape machine, a Hammond organ, and a Mellotron Mk.

II for flute and violin like sounds. 75 Some of the processing techniques used include automatic double tracking to double the vocals, reverse, and layering, inspired from Gesang. The automatic double tracking technology used in Tomorrow Never Knows led to the development of the artificial chorus effect.76 Silver Apples of the Moon by Morton Subotnick Silver Apples of the Moon is an album by Morton Subotnick, originally released as an LP in





















Francisco Tape Music Center.83 His music is known for its regular rhythms and classical forms. 84 Nonesuch was a major record label, a subsidiary of Warner Music, and a supporter of world music.85 The piece is generated from a Buchla synthesizer, synthesizer, which featured modular voltage-control, sequencing abilities, and a pressure-sensitive keyboard. 86 The album, which sounds a bit like an early video game thanks to its use of simple waveforms, features a regular, rapid rhythm. The album's rhythmic qualities have led to it being choreographed multiple times. 87 This was






















Synchronism #6 by Mario Davidovsky Synchronism #6 by Mario Davidovsky is combination tape with live performance

electroacoustic piece, intended for concert audience. The entire series, currently up to ten in number, number, features a solo instrumentalist and electronics. Synchronism #6 features piano as its solo instrumentalist. The tape is eight-channel. It is 7:10 minutes in length. It premiered in 1970, likely in the McMillan Theater at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York. 90 It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, the second electronic piece of music to do so.





















The Synchronism series features tape, or live electronics with later pieces, with one or more live musicians. Davidovsky has a few reasons for this. A major component of this is audience accessibility of electroacoustic music. Davidovsky: I could help the cause of electronic music by introducing a human being playing. playin g. The audience audien ce can connect with a flutist flutis t or violin player. I thought that seeing a real instrumentalist playing could disarm the hostility that someone might have for electronic music. 94 The form of the Synchronism pieces borrows from classical forms, but uses elements from






















Figure in a Clearing by David Behrman

aud ience and one side of an LP, LP, Figure in a Clearing is an electroacoustic piece for concert audience 19:10 minutes long. The piece is for cello and computer, the Kim-1. 102 In the recording, the cello is played by David Gibson. 103 Behrman developed the work in Oakland, California, and it debuted at the electronic music studio at a t SUNY: SUNY: Albany on June 9, 1977. 104 The work is known as one of the earliest successful pieces using a microcomputer. microcomputer. 105 David Behrman was an experienced acoustic composer at the time of working on Figure in























musicians.110 He studied Gesang der Jünglinge under Stockhausen in 1959 at Darmstadt, and worked with Wallingford Rieger, Rieger, David Tudor, Tudor, Gordon Mumma, and Merce Cunningham.111 The cello in Figure in a Clearing is accompanied by the Kim-1, which generates triangles






















ending with a satisfactory work.120 Behrman was particularly engaged with the technology, saying: It seemed astounding in 1977 that a translucent green circuit board with a tiny





















creating the term ambient music.126 He would continue to make three more ambient albums; and have numerous collaborations with rock stars, video game directors and film makers. Eno, like many artists in this paper, was not satisfied with the music stylings of the time.






















independently in the recording studio, and he took small sections of the recordings to loop. 132 He used a twenty-four track tape machine, 133 later mixed down to stereo, and an ARP2600 synthesizer. 134 Brian Eno made use of exaggerated compression,135 echo, chance operations, and





















quality than attempts to represent specific movements. The first and third pieces in this section represent developments in academic circles, and the second, the beginnings of one of the most influential genres of mainstream electronic music.







































































































































































































































































Fourteen Masterpieces of Electronic Music

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