Live electronic music
Live electronic music generally utilizes instrumental or electronic sounds but excludes those that have been prerecorded. The timbres of the various sounds may then be transformed extensively during performance using devices such as amplifiers, filters, ring modulators and other forms of circuitry (Sutherland 1994, 157).
During the 1960s, a number of composers believed studio-based composition, such as musique concrète, lacked elements that were central to the creation of live music, such as: spontaneity, dialogue, discovery and group interaction. Many composers viewed the development of live electronics as a reaction against "the largely technocratic and rationalistic ethos of studio processed tape music" which was devoid of the visual and theatrical component of live performance (Sutherland 1994, 157). By the 1970s, live electronics had become the primary area of innovation in electronic music (Simms 1986, 395).
Early electronic instruments such as the Telharmonium, Theremin, ondes Martenot, and Trautonium were intended simply as new means of sound production, and did nothing to change the nature of musical composition or performance (Collins 2007, 39).
Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) was among the earliest compositions to include an innovative use of live electronic material, it featured two variable-speed phonograph turntables and sine tone recordings (Collins 2007, 38–39).
Notable works 1960-69
- John Cage - Cartridge music (1960)
- Richard Maxfield - Piano Concert for David Tudor (1961)
- Robert Ashley - Wolfman (1964)
- Karlheinz Stockhausen - Mikrophonie I & II (1964 and 1965); Mixtur (1964)
- Alvin Lucier - Music for Solo Performer (1965)
- David Behrman - Wave Train (1967)
- Gordon Mumma - Hornpipe (1967)
- Max Nuehaus - Drive-in Music (1968)
- Larry Austin - Accidents (1968)
- Richard Teitelbaum - In Tune (1968)
- Takehisa Kosugi - 712-9374 (1969)
See also
References
- Collins, Nick (2007). “Live Electronic Music.” In The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music, edited by Nick Collins and Julio d’Escriván, pp. 38–54. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68865-9; ISBN 978-0-521-86861-7.
- Simms, Brian R. (1986). Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure. New York: Schirmer Books; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-02-872580-8
- Sutherland, Roger (1994). New Perspectives in Music. London: Sun Tavern Fields. ISBN 0951701266
Further reading
- Andraschke, Peter (2001). “Dichtung in Musik: Stockhausen, Trakl, Holliger.” In Stimme und Wort in der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Hartmut Krones, pp. 341–55. Vienna: Böhlau. ISBN 978-3-205-99387-2.
- Burns, Christopher (2002). “Realizing Lucier and Stockhausen: Case Studies in the Performance Practice of Electronic Music.” Journal of New Music Research 31, no. 1 (March): 59–68.
- Cox, Christoph (2002). “The Jerrybuilt Future: The Sonic Arts Union, Once Group and MEV’s Live Electronics.” In Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring of Modern Music, edited by Rob Young, pp. 35–44. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-6450-7.
- Davies, Hugh (2001). “Gentle Fire: An Early Approach to Live Electronic Music.” Leonardo Music Journal 11 (“Not Necessarily ‘English Music’: Britain’s Second Golden Age”): 53–60.
- Giomi, Francesco, Damiano Meacci and Kilian Schwoon (2003). “Live Electronics in Luciano Berio’s Music.” Computer Music Journal 27, no. 2 (Summer): 30–46.
- Stroppa, Marco (1999). “Live Electronics or … Live Music? Towards a Critique of Interaction.” Contemporary Music Review 18, no. 3 (“Aesthetics of Live Electronic Music”): 41–77.