The Institute of Sonology is an education and research center for

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 ( electro ...

and

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 ...

based at the Royal Conservatoire of

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

in the Netherlands.

Background

The institute was founded at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in 1960 under the name STEM ("Studio for Electronic Music") as a successor to the former studio for electronic music at

Philips Research Laboratories Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

in Eindhoven. In 1964, Gottfried Michael Koenig 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 ...

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 Paul Berg (born June 30, 1926) is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their con ...

'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 The Royal Conservatoire ( nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Nether ...

, 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 György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

'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 coine ...

'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.Tazelaar, K. (2009), "Special Section Introduction: The Institute of Sonology", ''

Leonardo Music Journal ''Leonardo Music Journal'' is an annual multimedia peer-reviewed academic journal (print and audio CD) published by the MIT Press on behalf of Leonardo, The International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology. The journal was establishe ...

'', 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 si ...

and

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

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 *

* Konrad Boehmer * Darien Brito *

Nuno Canavarro Nuno Canavarro (born 15 November 1962) is a 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 Delfins, and ...

* 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 t ...

* 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 Technolo ...

Werner Kaegi Werner Kaegi (1901–1979) was a Swiss historian. He is best known for a single work, a biography of Jacob Burkhardt. This appeared in seven volumes, from 1947 to 1982. He was the recipient of the Gottfried-Keller-Preis and the Erasmus Prize. ...

* 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 o ...

* Gottfried Michael Koenig * Fani Konstantinidou * Johan van Kreij * Otto Laske * Giacomo Lepri * Cort Lippe * Igor Lintz Maués * 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 the ...

* Hugo Morales Murguia * Yota Morimoto * Lasse Nøsted * Peter Pabon * Gabriel Paiuk * Jean Piché * 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 * Kees Tazelaar * Stan Tempelaars * Roland Kuit *

* Henry Vega *

Claude Vivier Claude Vivier ( ; baptised as Claude Roger; 14 April 19487 March 1983) was a Canadian contemporary composer, pianist, poet and ethnomusicologist of Québécois origin. After studying with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne, Vivier became an in ...

Rodney Waschka II Rodney Waschka II is an American composer known for his algorithmic compositions and his theatrical works. Biography Waschka studied at Brooklyn College, at the Institute of Sonology, then newly part of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and e ...

* Frits Weiland * Anne Wellmer * Amnon Wolman * 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