The Institute of Sonology is an education and research center for electronic music and computer music based at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands.

Background

The institute was founded at Utrecht University in 1960 under the name STEM ("Studio for Electronic Music") as a successor to the former studio for electronic music at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven. In 1964,

Gottfried Michael Koenig Gottfried Michael Koenig (5 October 1926 – 30 December 2021)"In Memoriam Got ...

became the studio's artistic director. The studio grew under Koenig's leadership, and in 1966 an annual international electronic music course was founded which exists to this day. In 1967 STEM was renamed as the "Institute of Sonology". International attention increased in 1971 with the purchase of a

PDP-15 The PDP-15 was the fifth and last of the 18-bit minicomputers produced by Digital Equipment Corporation. The PDP-1 was first delivered in December 1959 and the first PDP-15 was delivered in February 1970. More than 400 of these successors to th ...

computer which was used to develop programs for algorithmic composition and digital sound synthesis. During the early years of the institute, a series of landmark programs were developed there, including Koenig's Project 1, Project 2, and SSP, Paul Berg's PILE, Werner Kaegi's MIDIM/VOSIM, and

Barry Truax Barry Truax (born 1947) is a Canadian composer who specializes in real-time implementations of granular synthesis, often of sampled sounds, and soundscapes. He is credited with developing the first ever implementation of real-time granular s ...

's POD. In 1971 the Brazilian composer Jorge Antunes, a precursor of electronic music in his country, was a student at the Institute where he composed the work "Para Nascer Aqui". In 1986, the institute was moved to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, hosting the

International Computer Music Conference The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) is a yearly international conference for computer music researchers and composers. It is the annual conference of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). History In 1986, the Inst ...

there during its inaugural year. Current research focuses on algorithmic composition, live electronic music, historical reconstructions of electronic and computer music (including György Ligeti's ''Pièce électronique Nr. 3'' and

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

's ''

Poème électronique ''Poème électronique'' (English Translation: "Electronic Poem") is an 8-minute piece of electronic music by composer Edgard Varèse, written for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. The Philips corporation commissioned Le ...

''), field recording, sound installations, and

sound spatialization Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener (surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...

.Tazelaar, K. (2009), "Special Section Introduction: The Institute of Sonology", '' Leonardo Music Journal'', 19: 69–70 Alongside the annual one-year course, the institute offers

Bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

and Master's degrees.

Discography

* ''Gottfried Michael Koenig – The Electronic Works'' (1990) BV Haast * ''His Master's Noise'' (2001) BV Haast * ''Kees Tazelaar – Electronic compositions'' (2004) Near * ''Institute of Sonology: Early Electronic Music 1959–1969'' (2009) Sub Rosa

Notable teachers and alumni

* Ángel Arranz *

Clarence Barlow Clarence Barlow (also Klarenz, born 27 December 1945) is a composer of classical and electroacoustic works. Career Barlow was one of the founders of Initiative Musik und Informatik Köln. In 1988 he was the director of music at the Internatio ...

* Jorge Antunes * Richard Barrett * Justin Bennett * Paul Berg * Konrad Boehmer * Darien Brito *

Nuno Canavarro Nuno Canavarro (born 15 November 1962) is a Portugal, Portuguese composer. He studied architecture in Oporto. He learned to play piano at a very young age and was in a band called the Street Kids. He also played with the famous Portuguese band De ...

* Luc Döbereiner * Cathy van Eck * Barbara Ellison * Angel Faraldo * Raviv Ganchrow * Kathrin Grenzdörfer *

Marie Guilleray Marie Guilleray (born August 1978) is a vocal performer, improviser and composer currently based in The Hague, Netherlands. She performs mainly in free improvisation, experimental and contemporary music. Her work focuses on vocal extended tec ...

* Bjarni Gunnnarsson *

Edwin van der Heide Edwin van der Heide (born 1970) is a Dutch sound artist and composer known for his immersive installations and performances, currently living in Rotterdam. Biography Van der Heide was born in Hilversum, Netherlands, and studied Music Technolog ...

* Werner Kaegi * Ji Youn Kang *

Roland Kayn Roland Kayn (born 3 September 1933 in Reutlingen, Germany; died 5 January 2011 in Nieuwe Pekela, Netherlands) was a composer of electronic music. He is known for his lengthy works of cybernetic music. From 1952 to 1955 he studied composition and ...

Gottfried Michael Koenig Gottfried Michael Koenig (5 October 1926 – 30 December 2021)"In Memoriam Got ...

* Fani Konstantinidou * Johan van Kreij * Otto Laske * Giacomo Lepri * Cort Lippe *

Igor Lintz Maués Igor Lintz Maués; also spelled Igor Lintz-Maues; is a composer and sound artist born December 8, 1955, in São Paulo, Brazil, and since the end of the 1980s living in Vienna, Austria. Biography He studied composition, Electroacoustic and Compu ...

* Sergio Luque * Riccardo Marogna *

Fred Momotenko Alfred Momotenko-Levitsky (born 1970), also known as Fred Momotenko, is a Dutch composer. Education Alfred Momotenko-Levitsky studied percussion at the Moscow State Art and Cultural University, Russia. In 1990, he was invited to perform in th ...

* Hugo Morales Murguia * Yota Morimoto * Lasse Nøsted * Peter Pabon * Gabriel Paiuk *

Jean Piché Jean Piché (born 1951 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec) is a Canadian composer and video artist. Piché studied electroacoustic and computer music at Simon Fraser University with Barry Truax and at the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands. He has ...

* Sara Pinheiro *

Kees van Prooijen Kees (Cornelis) van Prooijen (born 7 August 1952) is a creator of computer art. Although it does not bear his name, he independently discovered the Bohlen-Pierce scale, a non- octave-repeating scale based on the tritave and spectra containing odd ...

* Takayuki Rai * Joel Ryan * Robert Rowe * Wouter Snoei *

Peter Struycken Peter Struycken (born 5 January 1939 in The Hague) is a Dutch artist, and the brother of actor Carel Struycken. He won the 2012 Heineken Prize for Arts from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of ...

* Kees Tazelaar * Stan Tempelaars * Roland Kuit *

Henry Vega Henry Vega (born 1973) is a composer and Electroacoustic musician from New York City, currently living in The Hague, Netherlands. He founded The Spycollective in 2006, a now defunct music, theater and dance group, and is a founding director oArtek ...

* Claude Vivier * Rodney Waschka II * Frits Weiland *

Anne Wellmer Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Amnon Wolman Amnon Wolman (Hebrew: אמנון וולמן; born 1955) an Israeli-American musician. He holds a doctorate degree in music composition. His catalogue of compositions includes works involving computer generated and processed sounds, symphonic work ...

* Semay Wu * Andrea Young

References

External links

* {{Authority control Electronic music organizations Music organisations based in the Netherlands Royal Conservatory of The Hague 1960 establishments in the Netherlands Organizations established in 1960