Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center The Computer Music Center (CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. It was founded in the 1950s as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Location The CMC is h ...

'' was an album of

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

released in 1964. It was the recording of a concert performed at the McMillin Theater (later renamed the Miller Theater) at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

on May 9 and 10, 1961. The stereo version was MS 6566 and the monophonic version was ML 5966. There was a sequel released in 1998 on the New World label titled ''Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center 1961–1973''. Bülent Arel is the only artist who appears on both albums. The Arel composition is completely electronic, with articulated signals over a continuous background texture. Halim El-Dabh's composition, an "electronic drama," has a text drawn from the epic of Layla and Majnun, and consists primarily of tape manipulated instrumental and vocal sounds. Ussachevsky's work has lyrics derived from the '' Enuma Elish''

creation myth A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Cre ...

, with chorus and electronic accompaniment. Babbitt's piece is composed entirely on the RCA Synthesizer of the Columbia-Princeton Computer Music Center. Davidovsky created a work manipulating

sine wave A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or sinusoid (symbol: ∿) is a periodic function, periodic wave whose waveform (shape) is the trigonometric function, trigonometric sine, sine function. In mechanics, as a linear motion over time, this is ''simple ...

square wave Square wave may refer to: *Square wave (waveform) A square wave is a non-sinusoidal waveform, non-sinusoidal periodic waveform in which the amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimum and maximum values, with the same ...

, and

white noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used with this or similar meanings in many scientific and technical disciplines, i ...

generators. Luening's composition combines solo violin with RCA Synthesizer sound followed by tape manipulation.

Track listing

Side one

# Bülent Arel: Stereo Electronic Music No. 1 – 10:28 # Halim El-Dabh: Leiyla and the Poet – 5:20 #

Vladimir Ussachevsky Vladimir Alexeevich Ussachevsky (November 3, 1911 in Hailar, China – January 2, 1990 in New York, New York) was a Russian-American composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music. Biography Vladimir Ussachevsky was born in ...

: Creation—Prologue – 8:09

Side two

# Milton Babbitt: Composition for Synthesizer – 10:36 # Mario Davidovsky: Electronic Study No. 1 – 5:50 # Otto Luening: Gargoyles – 9:21

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (Album) 1961 live albums Columbia Records live albums Live electronic albums