Live electronic music (also known as live electronics) is a form of music that can include traditional electronic sound-generating devices, modified electric musical instruments, hacked sound generating technologies, and computers. Initially the practice developed in reaction to sound-based composition for fixed media such as
musique concrète
Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, ...
,
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
and early
computer music
Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...
.
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous ...
often plays a large role in the performance of this music. The
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...
s of various sounds may be transformed extensively using devices such as
amplifier
An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...
s,
filters
Filter, filtering or filters may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream
* Filter (video), a software component tha ...
circuitry
An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow. It is a type of electrical ...
.
Real-time
Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
generation and manipulation of audio using
live coding
Live coding, sometimes referred to as on-the-fly programming,Wang G. & Cook P. (2004"On-the-fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument" In ''Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expr ...
is now commonplace.
History
1800s–1940s
Early electronic instruments
Early
electronic instruments
An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a ...
intended for live performance, such as
Thaddeus Cahill
Thaddeus Cahill (June 18, 1867 – April 12, 1934) was a prominent inventor of the early 20th century. He is widely credited with the invention of the first electromechanical musical instrument, which he dubbed the telharmonium.
He studied the ...
's
Telharmonium
The Telharmonium (also known as the Dynamophone) was an early electrical organ, developed by Thaddeus Cahill c. 1896 and patented in 1897.
, filed 1896-02-04.
The electrical signal from the Telharmonium was transmitted over wires; it was hear ...
(1897) and instruments developed between the two world wars, such as the
Theremin
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
(1919),
Spharophon
The Sphärophon or a Spherophone is an electrical musical instrument that was first made as the "Electrophon" around 1921 by Jörg Mager, later modified, renamed and exhibited in 1926.
Two variants of the Sphärophon
Mager invented two differe ...
(1924),
ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
(1928), and the
Trautonium
The Trautonium is an electronic synthesizer invented in 1930 by Friedrich Trautwein in Berlin at the Musikhochschule's music and radio lab, the Rundfunkversuchstelle. Soon afterwards Oskar Sala joined him, continuing development until Sala's de ...
(1929), may be cited as antecedents, but were intended simply as new means of sound production, and did nothing to change the nature of musical composition or performance.
Many early compositions included these electronic instruments, though the instruments were typically used as fill-ins for standard classical instruments. An example includes composer
Joseph Schillinger
Joseph Moiseyevich Schillinger ( Russian: Иосиф Моисеевич Шиллингер, (other sources: ) – 23 March 1943) was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher who originated the Schillinger System of Musical Compositio ...
, who in 1929 composed ''First Airphonic Suite for Theremin and Orchestra'', which premièred with the
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Se ...
with
Leon Theremin
Leon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen rus, Лев Сергеевич Термéн, p=ˈlʲef sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ tɨrˈmʲen; – 3 November 1993) was a Russian and USSR, Soviet inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, ...
as soloist.
Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
, used ensembles of four or six
theremin
The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...
s (in preference to a string quartet) for his two earliest experimental ''Free Music'' compositions (1935–37) because of the instrument's complete 'gliding' freedom of pitch.( The ondes Martenot was also used as a featured instrument in the 1930s, and composer
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...
used it in the ''
Fête des belles eaux ''Fête des belles eaux'', or ''Beutiful Water Festival'', is a 1937 composition by French composer Olivier Messiaen. The work is scored for six ''ondes Martenots'' and was commissioned for the 1937 Paris Exhibition. The work was written to accompa ...
Imaginary Landscape No. 1
''Imaginary Landscape No. 1'' is a composition for Phonograph record, records of constant and variable frequency, large chinese cymbal and string piano by American composer John Cage and the first in the series of Imaginary Landscapes. It was compo ...
'' (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. Cage's interest in live electronics continued through the 1940s and 1950s, providing inspiration for the formation of a number of live-electronic groups in America who came to regard themselves as the pioneers of a new art form.
1950s–1960s
In Europe,
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innov ...
had attempted live generation of the final stages of his works at the first public concert of ''musique concrète'' in 1951 with limited success. However, it was in Europe at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s that the most coherent transition from studio electronic techniques to live synthesis occurred.
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer.
Biography
Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...
's ''Transición II'' (1959) combined two tape recorders for live manipulation of the sounds of piano and percussion, and beginning in 1964
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
entered on a period of intensive work with live electronics with three works, '' Mikrophonie I'' and ''
Mixtur
''Mixtur'', for orchestra, 4 sine-wave generators, and 4 ring modulators, is an orchestral composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1964, and is Nr. 16 in his catalogue of works. It exists in three versions: the ...
'' (both 1964), and '' Mikrophonie II''. While earlier live-electronic compositions, such as Cage's ''Cartridge Music'' (1960), had mainly employed amplification, Stockhausen's innovation was to add electronic transformation through filtering, which erased the distinction between instrumental and electronic music.
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. By the 1970s, live electronics had become the primary area of innovation in electronic music.
1970s–1980s
The 1970s and 1980s were notable for contributions by electronic musician
Jean-Michel Jarre
Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompani ...
. The success of Oxygene and his large scale concerts which he performed attracted millions of people, breaking his own record for largest audience four times.) In fact Jarre continued to break his own records up to the end of the century, with 3.5 million people attending 1997's
Oxygene in Moscow Oxygene may refer to:
* Oxygene (programming language)
* ''Oxygène'', an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released in 1976
** '' Oxygène: New Master Recording'', a new version of Jean Michel Jarre's 1976 album, released in 2007
* ''Oxygène 7–13'', ...
.
1990s
Laptronica
Laptronica is a form of live electronic music or computer music in which laptops are used as musical instruments. The term is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words"electronica". The term gained a certain degree of currency in the 1990s and is of significance due to the use of highly powerful computation being made available to musicians in highly portable form, and therefore in live performance. Many sophisticated forms of sound production, manipulation and organization (which had hitherto only been available in studios or academic institutions) became available to use in live performance, largely by younger musicians influenced by and interested in developing experimental popular music forms. A combination of many laptops can be used to form a laptop orchestra.
Live coding
Live coding (sometimes referred to as 'on-the-fly programming', 'just in time programming') is a programming practice centred upon the use of
improvised
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
interactive programming
Interactive programming is the procedure of writing parts of a program while it is already active. This focuses on the program text as the main interface for a running process, rather than an interactive application, where the program is design ...
. Live coding is often used to create sound and image based
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
, and is particularly prevalent in computer music, combining
algorithmic composition
Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.
Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...
with improvisation, Typically, the process of writing is made visible by projecting the computer screen in the audience space, with ways of visualising the code an area of active research. There are also approaches to human live coding in improvised
dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
. Live coding techniques are also employed outside of performance, such as in producing sound for film or audio/visual work for interactive art installations.
Live coding is also an increasingly popular technique in programming-related lectures and conference presentations, and has been described as a "best practice" for computer science lectures by
Mark Guzdial
Mark Joseph Guzdial (born September 7, 1962) is a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology affiliated with the ...
.
Electroacoustic improvisation
Electroacoustic improvisation (EAI) is a form of
free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...
that was originally referred to as live electronics. It has been part of the sound art world since the 1930s with the early works of John Cage,) ''
Source
Source may refer to:
Research
* Historical document
* Historical source
* Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence
* Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
'' magazine published articles by a number of leading electronic and avant-garde composers in the 1960s.
It was further influenced by electronic and electroacoustic music and the music of American
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
composers such as
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
,
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...
and
David Tudor
David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music.
Life and career
Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan W ...
. British free improvisation group AMM, particularly their guitarist
Keith Rowe
Keith may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters
* Keith (surname)
* Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949)
* Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...
, have also played a contributing role in bringing attention to the practice.
Notable works 1930s–1960s
The following is an incomplete list, in chronological order, of early notable electronic compositions:
*
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
– ''
Imaginary Landscape
''Imaginary Landscape'' is the title of a series of five pieces by American composer John Cage, all of which include instruments or other elements requiring electricity. The series comprises the following works:
* ''Imaginary Landscape No. 1'' (19 ...
'' (1939–1952)
*
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
– ''Cartridge Music'' (1960)
*
Robert Ashley
Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve i ...
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
Mixtur
''Mixtur'', for orchestra, 4 sine-wave generators, and 4 ring modulators, is an orchestral composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1964, and is Nr. 16 in his catalogue of works. It exists in three versions: the ...
'' (1964); ''
Solo
Solo or SOLO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Comics
* ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series
* Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics
Characters
* Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character
* Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...
'' (1966); ''
Prozession
''Prozession'' (Procession), for tamtam, viola, electronium, piano, microphones, filters, and potentiometers (six performers), is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1967. It is Number 23 in the catalogue of the composer's works.
Co ...
'' (1967); ''
Kurzwellen
''Kurzwellen'' (Short Waves), for six players with shortwave radio receivers and live electronics, is a composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1968. It is Number 25 in the catalog of the composer's works.
Conception
''Kurzwellen'' is o ...
'' (1968); ''
Spiral
In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.
Helices
Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:Alvin Lucier – ''Music for Solo Performer'' (1965), ''North American Time Capsule'' (1967), ''Vespers'' (1968)
*
Johannes Fritsch
Johannes Georg Fritsch (27 July 1941 – 29 April 2010) was a German composer.
At the age of seven, Fritsch found a violin in the attic of his uncle's house in Bensheim-Auerbach, Germany, and began lessons with a village music teacher named Kna ...
– ''Partita'' (1965–66) for viola, contact microphones, tape recorder, filters, and potentiometers (4 players); ''Modulation 2'' (1967), for 13 instruments and live electronics; ''Akroasis'' (1966–68) for large orchestra with jazz band, two singers, live electronics, hurdy-gurdy, music box, and newsreader
*
David Behrman
David Behrman (born August 16, 1937) is an American composer and a pioneer of computer music. In the early 1960s he was the producer of Columbia Records' ''Music of Our Time'' series, which included the first recording of Terry Riley's ''In C''. ...
– ''Wave Train'' (1967)
*
Gordon Mumma
Gordon Mumma (born March 30, 1935, in Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American composer. He is known most for his work with electronics, many devices of which he builds himself, and for his performances on horn.
Biography
Mumma entered the Univer ...
– ''Hornpipe'' (1967)
*
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...
– ''
Pendulum Music
''Pendulum Music'' (For Microphones, Amplifiers Speakers and Performers) Reich, S. (1974). "''Pendulum Music''". In '' Writings About Music'' (pp. 12–13). The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Co-published by: New York Univ ...
'' (1968)
*
Max Neuhaus
Max Neuhaus (August 9, 1939 – February 3, 2009) was an American musician, composer and artist who was a noted interpreter of contemporary and experimental percussion music in the 1960s. He went on to create numerous permanent and short-term sou ...
Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...
– ''In Tune'' (1968)
*
Louis Andriessen
Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...
, ''Hoe het is'' (1969) for 52 strings and live electronics
* Louis Andriessen,
Reinbert de Leeuw
Reinbert de Leeuw (8 September 1938 – 14 February 2020) was a Dutch conductor, pianist and composer.
Life
Lambertus Reinier de Leeuw's mother and father were both psychiatrists: Cornelis Homme 'Kees' de Leeuw (1905-1953) and Adriana Judina ...
,
Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 – 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', p. 459. Oxford University Press. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz ...
,
Peter Schat
Peter Ane Schat (5 June 1935, in Utrecht – 3 February 2003, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch composer.
Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the Utrecht Conservatoire and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then ...
, Jan van Vlijmen – ''Reconstructie'' (1969), Morality opera for soloists, 3 mixed choirs, orchestra, and live electronics
* George Brown – ''Splurge'' (1969)
*
Takehisa Kosugi
was a Japanese composer, violinist and artist associated with the Fluxus movement.
Biography
Kosugi studied musicology at the Tokyo University of the Arts and graduated in 1962. He first became drawn to music listening to his father play ha ...
– ''712-9374'' (1969)
*
Roger Smalley
John Roger Smalley (26 July 1943 – 18 August 2015) was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary ...
– ''Transformation I'' (1969)
See also
*
List of electronic music festivals
The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitar and keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electronic dance music (E ...
List of music software
This is a list of software for creating, performing, learning, analyzing, researching, broadcasting and editing music. This article only includes software, not services. For streaming services such as iHeartRadio, Pandora, Prime Music, and Spotify, ...
* Altena, Arie (2006). Jeff Carey / Jozef van Wissem, Tetuzi Akiyama / Martin Siewert: Three Sets of Strings & Electronics in Different Combinations . DNK Amsterdam: Concert Series for New Live Electronic and Acoustic Music in Amsterdam (press release, 27 November; Accessed 2 May 2013).
* Andraschke, Peter (2001). "Dichtung in Musik: Stockhausen, Trakl, Holliger." In ''Stimme und Wort in der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts,'' edited by Hartmut Krones, 341–355. Vienna: Böhlau. .
* Anon. (n.d.(c)). What Is a 'Live P.A.'? Livepa.org (accessed 5 March 2015).
* Bernal, Alberto, and João Miguel Pais (2008). " ''eContact! 10.4 – Temps réel, improvisation et interactivité en électroacoustique / Live-electronics – Improvisation – Interactivity in Electroacoustics'' (October). Montréal: CEC.
* 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. .
* 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.
*
* Lindborg, PerMagnus (2008). Reflections on Aspects of Music Interactivity in Performance Situations " ''eContact! 10.4 – Temps réel, improvisation et interactivité en électroacoustique / Live-electronics – Improvisation – Interactivity in Electroacoustics'' (October). Montréal: CEC.
* Marley, Brian, and Mark Wastell (eds.) (2006). ''Blocks of Consciousness and the Unbroken Continuum''
ook + DVD
Ook, OoK or OOK may refer to:
* Ook Chung (born 1963), Korean-Canadian writer from Quebec
* On-off keying, in radio technology
* Toksook Bay Airport (IATA code OOK), in Alaska
* Ook!, an esoteric programming language based on Brainfuck
* Ook, th ...