1. History and Practice of Electronic Music
Instruments, Technology, Organizations, Composers, Performers, Schools of Thought

2. Music + Technology A sidenote before we start….
Music has always been tied to technology!
From the development of early instruments to the latest in DSP processing!
There is a balance between inventor/performer/composer with each new invention
Each respective creator has a role in the evolution of music and its technology

3. The Telharmonium Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) Aka: Dynamophone Huge
“Father of Muzak”
Aka: Dynamophone
Huge
Bigger than your living room!
Transmitted through telephone lines
Complete failure!
Demise brought on by advent of radio
Triggered birth of electronic music

4. The Telharmonium Patented in 1897 Music-generation: Two parts
Pitch shafts, or axles, which were mounted “tone wheels” that were made of metal and notched
Used multiple tone wheels per pitch to make multiple overtones per pitch to create a warm sound
Two parts
Keyboard console
Machinery in a different room

5. The Telharmonium Absolutely massive!
12 pitch shafts, 30 feet each!
2,000 switches!
200 tons!
Moving it required 30 railroad cars
Used an enormous amount of power
The power grid could not grow exponentially
Pressing more key would split available power and reduce the volume on each note

6. The Telharmonium Concerts began in NY in 1906
Initially successful, then amazingly unsuccessful
It was too expensive to operate
Not portable
Run concerts over phone lines
People just lost interest
Final Concert in 1908
No known recordings

7. The Telharmonium

8. The Theremin 1917 (1920) Leon Theremin
Protruding metal antennae = pitch
Metal loop = volume
Monophonic continuous tone
Fixed Timbre

9. The Theremin Leon Theremin (1896-1993)
(Russian name Lev Termen)
Important pioneer of electronic music
1920s-moved to US
Patented Theremin
1938-kidnapped by Russians!
put in Siberian prison
Thought to be dead
Created first “bug” for tracking and listening to people without their knowledge
Later taught at Moscow Conservatory

10. How Does it work? Uses a method called Heterodyning
2 supersonic radio frequencies
Near in frequency
Mixed
The “combination tones” are heard
Tones that are the difference between the frequencies
F1+F2 combined with F1-F2 (sound familiar?)
Frequencies are mixed in the Theremin and output

11. Theremin John Cage’s early view: Unfortunately used mostly as novelty
People performed single-line literature that could be played on a stringed instrument
John Cage’s early view:
“When Theremin provided an instrument with genuinely new possibilities, Thereminists did their utmost to make the instrument sound like some old instrument, giving it a sickeningly sweet vibrato, and performing upon it, with difficulty, masterpieces from the past. Although the instrument is capable of a wide variety of sound qualities, obtained by the turning of the dial, Thereminists act as censors, giving the public those sounds they think the public will like. We are shielded from new sound experiences.” From Silence

12. Famous Performers Theremin could play the instrument
Two virtuosic students
Clara Rockmore ( )
Played mostly rep for other instruments
Remembered at the greatest master
Lucie Bigelow Rosen ( )
Pioneer of new music
Explore new territories
Commissioned several composers
Many others could play the Theremin, but not with the skill and aptitude of Rockmore and Rosen
Theremins still make their way into film soundtracks and popular music today!

13. The Ondes Martenot 1928 Maurice Martenot (1898-1980)
Influenced by Theremin
First successful electronic instrument
Still used today!
Early-string attached to finger ring
Later- keyboard added
Expression key to change timbre

14. The Ondes Martenot Used by many composers! (>300) Messiaen Varese
Milhaud
Honegger
Peringer
Messiaen - “Turangalila Symphony” (excerpt)

15. The Ondes Martenot

16. Ondes Martenot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9UBjrUjwo
A few videos to check out:
kSW4KA

17. First Generation of EA Composition
France, Germany, Italy, United States

18. Musique Concréte Construction of music using: 1948 - France (Paris)
Sound recording tools
Natural sounds
Electronic signals
Instrumental sounds
France (Paris)
Pierre Schaeffer
Radio engineer, broadcaster, writer, and biographer
Pierre Henry
Classically trained composer

19. Musique Concréte Different approach from traditional composing.
Works directly with the sound material
Rather than with a score
The material preceded the structure
Not all pieces were written this way, but its the approach Schaeffer used to develop his aesthetic ideas

20. L’Objet Sonore
Means “the sound object”
Developed by Schaeffer and Abraham Moles ( )
Moles view on musical material,
“separable in experiments from the continuity of perception”
Sound object is sound that exists apart from human perception.
Music becomes a “sequence of sound objects” in musique concrete
3 characteristics; amplitude, frequency, time

21. RTF Radiodiffusion-Television Français
Schaeffer worked in the Studio d’Essai of the Radiodiffusion Nationale (he developed in 1943)
Devoted to experiments in radio production and musical acoustics
Had a wealth of radio broadcasting equipment
Filters, microphones, disc-cutting lathes, reverb chamber, portable recording, SFX library

22. Pierre Schaeffer “Etude aux Chemins de Fer” (1948)
First EA piece
Uses turntables
From Études de Bruits
“Studies of noise”
Significance to electronic music:
Composing was realized through technological means
Any manner of sounds were used
Could be replayed identically over and over
Presentation of the work required no performers

23. RTF Music Symphonie pour un homme seul (1949-50)
“Symphony for a Man Alone”
First major collaboration between Schaeffer and Henry
12-Movements
Early use of turntables for composition and not just for record playback
Based on two categories of sounds:
Human sounds (breathing, vocal fragments, shouting, humming whistling)
Non-Human sounds (foot stomping, knocking, percussion, prepared piano, orchestral instruments)

24. GRM Groupe de Recherches Musicales
Originally called GRMC (musique concréte), 1951
Henry resigned and Schaeffer renamed it GRM in 1958
Originators (GRM):
Pierre Schaeffer
Iannis Xenakis
Francois Bayle
Luc Ferrari

25. Sidenote…Schaeffer Never was comfortable as a composer:
“I fought like a demon throughout all the years of discovery and exploration in musique concréte. I fought against electronic music [electronische musik, germany], which was another approach, a systemic approach, when I preferred an experimental approach actually working directly, empirically with the sound. But at the same time, as I defended the music I was working on, I was personally horrified at what I was doing…I was deeply unhappy at what I was doing. I was happy at overcoming great difficulties- my first difficulties with the turntables when I was working on Symphonie pour un homme seul…that was good work, I did what I set out to do…But each time I was to experience the disappointment of not arriving at music. I couldn’t get to music, what I call music. I think of myself as an explorer struggling to find a way through the far north, but I wasn’t finding a way through.”
- from Interview with Pierre Schaeffer

26. Elektronische Musik 1951 - Germany (Cologne) Herbert Eimert
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
Electronically-generated sounds
(Uses oscillators, amplifiers, etc.)
Extension of serialism

27. WDR vs. RTF
There was animosity between the Germans and the French studios
The roots of dislike was formed by Schaeffer
“…we liberated ourselves politically, but music was still under an occupying foreign power, the music of the Vienna School.”
The Germans had little respect for musique concréte, which they saw as “fashionable and surrealistic”.
Eimert’s thoughts on French music was that they were “any incidental manipulations or distortions haphazardly put together for radio, film or theater music.”

28. Similarities Eimert said it best:
Both sides of the line were aware of the importance of electronic music, not as novelty, but as a part of the future of music.
A split from the traditional, and a different view of what “music” is, questions we still explore today
Eimert said it best:
“Electronic music is, and remains, part of our music and is a great deal more than mere “technology.” But the fact that it cannot be expected either to take over or imitate the functions of traditional music is clearly shown by the unequivocal difference of its material from that of traditional music. We prefer to see its possibilities as the potentialities of sound itself.
-from die Reihe (1955)

29. Karlheinz Stockhausen
Gesang der Junglinge (1956)
“Song of the Youths”
Idea of unifying vocal sounds and electronically produced sounds
Sung sounds - appear to be electronic; and electronic to be sung
Composed for 5 groups of loudspeakers to be distributed in space around listeners (later changed to 4 channels)

30. WDR
For as much as they were divided aesthetically, the audio results of WDR were often indistinguishable from RTF
Even as early at 1952
Other notable composers:
Henri Pousseur
Gyorgi Ligeti
Mauricio Kagel

31. Studio de Fonologia “The Italians” 1955 Milan Started by:
Luciano Berio
Bruno Maderna
Maderna and Berio both studied in Germany at Darmstadt with Stockhausen and Boulez (both of whome are associated with WDR and GRM)

32. “The Italians” Radio Audizioni Italiane (RAI)
Italian public broadcasting network
Started the Studio di Fonologia Musicale
One of the best-equipped studios in Europe for many years
Did not align themselves aesthetically with the French or Germans, as Berio states:
“Bruno and I immediately agreed that our work should not be directed in a systematic way, either toward recording acoustic sounds or toward a systematic serialism based on discrete pitches.”
Known also for using speech as sound material

33. Luciano Berio “Thema Omaggio a Joyce” (1958)
Based on beginning of Ch. XI of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” (so-called siren chapter)
Idea was to create “continuity between music and literature, to make possible and imperceptible transition from the one to the other.”
Recorded material with electronic sounds

34. But what about the USA?
Music in the US during the 1950s was neither organized or institutional
America’s “rugged individualism” was apparent in the way electronic music developed
US composers did not adhere to a “school” of thought in their aesthetics
Viewed with amusement the aesthetic wars in France and Germany
France – rooted in experimentation and freedom of thought
Germany – rooted in systemization and extremely calculated music

35. The Barron’s
Louis ( ) and Bebe Barron (b.1927) were two of the first electronic composers in the US
Heavenly Menagerie (1950)
First electronic piece in US, magnetic tape
“We had to earn a living somehow so we opened a recording studio that catered to the avant-garde. We had some pretty good equipment, considering. A lot of it we built ourselves…”
Located in NYC

36. Barrons Had a lot of gear, some of it unorthodox
Louis did circuitry design, Bebe composing and production
Worked with influential NYC composers:
John Cage
David Tudor
Earle Brown
Morton Feldman
Christian Wolff
1951, Cage started Project of Music for Magnetic Tape
Most well known for composing score to Forbidden Planet (1956)
First soundtrack to be entirely composed with electronic instruments
Sound effects and music were amazing for the time
When the spacecraft landed on Altair IV the crowd erupted in applause.

37. NY School
The “NY school” are a collective of composers, artists, etc. who were on the edge of the US avant-garde.
They contributed not only to electronic music, but American music and experimentalism
John Cage is the most well-known composer from this group
His ideas were revolutionary, thought-provoking, and on the edge of music thought at the time

38. NY School’s Music
Here’s a short list of the NY school’s electronic output in the 1950s
John Cage:
Imaginary Landscape #1 (1939)
Williams Mix (1952) - with David Tudor
Imaginary Landscape #5 (1952) - w/Tudor
Fonatana Mix
Earle Brown:
Octet I (1953)
Morton Feldman (SUNY Buffalo)
Intersection (1953)
Christian Wolff (SUNY Buffalo)
For Magnetic Tape (1953)

39. Columbia-Princeton Studios
1959

40. Columbia-Princeton Studios
Columbia Composers:
Vladimir Usschevsky ( )
Otto Luening ( )
Princeton Composers:
Milton Babbitt (b. 1916)
Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934)
Columbia started with tape manipulation
Had success as tape composers, using initially recorded instruments to expand their sounds and create new timbers

41. Luening and Ussachevsky
Became the US spokesmen for electronic music
Featured on television
Live appearance on NBC’s Today show
After a few years of lecturing, demonstrating, and performing, received Rockefeller grant and visited the French and German studios, among more
Both were successful composers and researchers in the early developments of electronic music

42. Columbia-Princeton Music
Milton Babbitt
Ensembles for Synthesizer ( )
Ussachevsky
Linear Contrasts (1958)
Ussachevsky and Luening
Mathematics (1958)
Edgard Varese (French composer)
Desertes (INSERT DATE HERE)

43. Indiana University
Indiana University (Bloomington) had a prominent electronic music studio in the early days of American electronic music
Fred Fox was a key figure in the department
However, the electronic music research at IU was headed primarily by Iannis Xenakis
And why is Xenakis important?

44. San Francisco Tape Music Center
Started in 1960s
Home to composers:
Terry Riley
Morton Subotnik
Pauline Oliveros
Independent cooperative of musicians
Not funded by academia

45. IRCAM Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique
Est. 1969, Paris
Pierre Boulez, director
Today a huge influence on computer music
Max/MSP and jMax were both developed there

46. Instruments, People, Styles
Monumental technological advances in performances
Styles and genres of EA music
Key figures in the development of EA music

47. Columbia-Princeton
Ussachevsky and Luening were important figures in American electronic music
Eventually they received a grant to do research in Europe
Traveled to studios in Germany, France, Italy and many others
Main idea was to find new advances in technology and equipment. When they returned to America they found this waiting for them…

48. The RCA Mark II Synthesizer
First instrument developed in US to use synthesis and sequencing. Other instruments were manually operated in real-time
Oscillators and noise generators
Operator gave instructions on punch paper roll
Pitch, volume, duration, timbre
Milton Babbitt was one of the leading composers who used the RCA Mark II
RCA Mark II Synthesizer
plays “Blue Skies”

49. The Moog Synthesizer Robert Moog 1964 Began by making Theremins!
Became more common in pop music
Beatles
Mick Jagger
Set a future standard for the analog synthesizer

50. Wendy Carlos Wendy Carlos (formerly Walter) Used Moog Synths
Switched on Bach” (1968)
Top-selling classical album of the year
Commercialization of electronic music
Switched on Bach
Well-Tempered Synthesizer
Digital Moonscapes
Semi-famous movie scores:
A Clockwork Orange
Tron (the original). Not the Daft Punk version…

51. The Buchla Synthesizer
Don Buchla - designer
Built instruments for live electronic music and composing
Built the first analog sequencers
Still in business -- mostly making MIDI controllers

52. The Buchla Synthesizer
Morton Subotnik
Silver Apples of the Moon (1967)
1st composition made specifically for a record
The Wild Bull (1968)

53. Buchla Did not experience as much commercial success as Moog.
But was able to remain independent during the synth boom of the 70s and 80s
However, Moog liked the designs of Buchla’s synths and made attempts to capture the portability of them into his own equipment.

54. Synclavier
Digital synthesizer, polyphonic sampler, sequencer/workstation
All-in-one unit!
: original design
Originated at Dartmouth college through work with Jon Appleton, Sydney Alonso and Cameron Jones.
Operated entirely using FM synthesis and was mostly sold to universities

55. Synclavier II 1980: Synclavier II was introduced.
Had a keyboard interface, making it a performance tool as well as a composition tool
Also introduced digital sampling system and recording memory. Became popular for use in television and movies as well as music recording studios

56. Synclavier II
Possibly the most influential piece of equipment in music and recording history
Genesis, Chic Corea, Michael Jackson, Pat Metheny, Mr. Mister, John McLaughlin, Mannheim Steamroller, Triumph, Howard Shore, Sting…and many more
Can be heard on the soundtracks of Apocalypse Now, the Princess Bride, the X-files and the amazing Rocky IV
Frank Zappa was one of the most influential synclavier users and one of the first people to own one of his own.
Jazz from Hell was an album that consisted of music made entirely on a Synclavier II

57. MIDI Transition from analog synths to computers in late 70s early 80s
No standardization for linking synths to computers until….
1984!
With the introduction of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
Represents the merging of analog and digital domains!

58. MIDI beginnings Many companies bickered as to how to standardize
Roland, Oberhein, Sequential Circuits, Yamaha, Korg, and Kawaii
All “worked” together to develop MIDI
Unleashed in August 1983
Conceived of with keyboards in mind
Limitations overcome throughout the years as composers creatively adapted it

59. Through today At this point in history we move to digital concepts
Electronic music branches out into a less organized and easily definable “schools.”
Much of the electronic music produced from 1980 onward is categorized not by where it is written, but whether or not it is classified as fixed media, acousmatic, computer music, live/interactive or multimedia
Spectralism is possibly the only definable school of electronic composition, however it exists as a method of acoustic composition as much as electronic composition

60. Acousmatic music Music intended to be diffused through loudspeakers
Fixed media – uses a fixed recording and is heard the same way each time it is performed
The term goes back to Schaeffer and the early GRM composers
Uses the idea of sound objects
emprentes Digitales is a record label that specializes exclusively in releasing CDs by acousmatic composers (primarily European and Canadian)
INSERT LINK TO WEBSITE HERE!

61. Computer Music Max Mathews, The Father of Computer Music (1926-2011)
Bell Labs
Computer programs generating sound materials
The MUSIC Series
MUSIC I (1957)- Single voice, created a 17 sec. piece
MUSIC II - 4 voices, wavetable synth
MUSIC III - Even better
MUSIC V (1969) - ran on FORTRAN computer language
Multi-platform so anyone could program with it
After V, called MUSIC N and many composers/programmers developed other programs

62. A little smile for you Bicycle Built for Two (1961)
One of the more famous moments in Bell Labs' synthetic speech research was the sample created by John L. Kelly in 1962, using an IBM 704 computer. Kelly's vocoder synthesizer recreated the song "Bicycle Built for Two," with musical accompaniment from Max Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke, then visiting friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility, saw this remarkable demonstration and later used it in the climactic scene of his novel and screenplay for "2001: A Space Odyssey," where the HAL9000 computer sings this song as he is disassembled by astronaut Dave Bowman.

63. Computer Music
Computer music is a term that generally applies to any music created entirely by computers or software synthesizers.
Uses an array of software platforms:
Max/MSP
Open Music
Csound
Supercollider
nGen
Unix
Can be acousmatic/fixed media, live performance (with or without an instrument), multimedia, installation, live coding, etc.

64. Live/Interactive
Live performers with electronics, in which the performers control and manipulate the electronics
The electronics don’t exist without the performer’s input!
Often includes a great deal of improvisation
Uses software programs such as Max/MSP, KIMA, CHUCK, and PureData for live processing (but more on that in tech 3…)
Interactive electronic music is computer music, but not all computer music is classified as live/interactive EA music

65. Laptop Orchestras Started at Princeton University: PLOrk!
Ensemble of composers, programmers, and tech enthusiasts
Everyone has a computer and omnidirectional speaker
Group play laptops using live processing/coding to create entirely interactive and improvised computer music
Many exist worldwide
SLOrk – Stanford Laptop orchestra
Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, Seattle
Toshiba-funded virtual laptop orchestra
Jomenico – one-time only show at SEAMUS 2004

66. Laptop orchestras Not a new invention with PLOrk! Just a new approach
PLOrk and SLOrk developed a new “standardized” approach to live avant-garde computer music

67. Multimedia
Includes electronic music (fixed and interactive), live performers, video, dancers, etc.
Multimedia is a kind of interdisciplinary field of art in which multiple avenues of electronic/digital media come together to form a single piece of digital artwork.
Big Robot! Dr. Lillios’ video piece

68. Spectralism
Movement pioneered by Gerard Grisey and his student Tristan Murail
Strong focus on timbre and instrument color
Composers use spectral analysis of sounds as a starting point for composition.
Often uses altered tuning systems or “out of tune” chords to create difference tones or for psychoacoustic effects
Prominent spectral composers:
Grisey (French)
Murail (French)
Philippe Leroux (French)
Philippe Manoury (French)
Josh Fineberg (American)
Georg Friederich Haas (German)

69. Pioneers of Electronic Music
This is a short list of some accomplished/important figures in electronic music
Mostly composers/innovators
Different aesthetics/philosophies of music

70. Edgard Varése 1883-1965 Very very very very…very Experimental composer
Focused on timbre and rhythm
Coined the term “organized sound”
Some famous acoustic works
Density 21.5 (flute solo)
Hyperprism
Octandre

71. Edgard Varése Two famous Electronic works Déserts (1954)
Composed at GRM
For orchestra and tape
7 sections, 4 orchestra, 3 tape
Dovetailed so that tape and orchestra never played simultaneously
Criticized for the different sections
Later reworked and completed at the Columbia-Princeton studios with help from Ussachevsky and Luening.

72. Desérts Was not well received at premiere in Paris
Crowd was really waiting for Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony
“A riot almost as furious and bloody as that provoked by the first performance of Le Sacre ensued, and the work was often inaudible through the barrage of stamping, clapping, and catcalls that arose after a few minutes. Even for those listening to the radio broadcast, the music was completely submerged in the general melee.”
-“review of Deserts”, The Score, 1955

73. Poéme électronique Commissioned for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair
The Phillips Pavilion was designed for Varése’s new piece.
Inside were 400 loudspeakers
Accompanied by visual projections
Composed in the Phillips studio in Eindhoven
The directors of Phillips did not understand his music and tried to take him off the project
Received well!
500 people at a time listened to it
Over 2 million people experienced it!

74. Iannis Xenakis Designed the Phillips Pavilion for 1958 World’s Fair
Greek composer, theorist, architect
Used stochastic (mathematical/random) methods to create music
Designed the Phillips Pavilion for 1958 World’s Fair
Also composed a piece to be played after every two repeats of Poemé électronique, called Concret PH
Important works:
Metastasis (1964) - Orchestra
Orient-Occident (1960) - tape
Bohor (1962) - tape

75. Alvin Lucier Other important works: b. 1931
Godfather of process music (even if he doesn’t have the title)
Piece begins a process that is carried out throughout according to the written rules
Most famous work:
I Am Sitting in a Room (1970)
Recording of Lucier’s voice reading a paragraph, played back and re-recorded in a space
Other important works:
Music for Solo Performer (1965), for brain waves and instruments
Music on a Long Thin Wire (1977), for stretched piano wire
Nothing Is Real (1990), for piano, recorder and amplified teapot

76. John Chowning Born 1934 Stanford student, and now professor
Worked on improving quality of computer sounds
Using FM synthesis and only two-oscillators was making brass sounds more realistic than more complicated processes
Patented this process, then bought by Yamaha in 1974
Became the DX-7 Digital Synth in 1985, probably the top-selling synth of all time
A few representative works
Turenas (1972)
Stria (1977)
Phoné ( )

77. Terry Riley b. 1935 Worked at the SF Music Tape Center
Process music, but very different from Lucier’s version of process music
Minimalism:
Music that is based mostly in consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile drones), stasis and slow transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells.
People use process music interchangeably with Minimalism
This is not entirely correct, although minimalism deals with transformation over time, it may not be as strict as process music

78. Terry Riley Famous works: In C (1964) A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969)
Any instrument combinations/#players performs small musical fragments, performers decide how many repetitions to play before moving to the next
A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969)
Shri Camel (1980)
Used organs and synths to create transcendental atmospheres

79. Pauline Oliveros b. 1932 Founding member of SFTMC
Founded “Deep Listening”
A philosophy of listening beyond your ears, uses whole body and more
“Sonic Awareness”
is the ability to consciously focus attention upon environmental and musical sound, requiring continual alertness and an inclination towards always listening

80. Pauline Oliveros Uses tape loops to create process music
I of IV (1966)
Used 2 tape machines on an eight second delay, then sound fed back into the first tape recorder, with addition of reverb the result was a barrage of slowly unfolding undulations that changed dynamically as sounds were repeated
Could be replicated live

81. Steve Reich b. 1936 Pioneer of minimalism
Uses a lot of “phasing” in acoustic music
Playing a repeating pattern that gets shifted by a small duration.
Used in acoustic and electronic music

82. Reich Works Two famous tape loop pieces Pieces for tape and performer
Both employ phase shifting
Come Out (1966)
It’s Gonna Rain… (1965)
Pieces for tape and performer
Different Trains (1988) String Quartet, tape
Electric Counterpoint (1987) E. Guitar, tape
New York Counterpoint (1985) Clarinet, tape

83. Mario Davidovsky b. 1934 Serial composer
Originally a Princeton composer. Now teaches at Mannes College in NYC
Famous series of works:
Synchronisms (up to 12 now)
For instrument and tape
No. 6 (piano and tape) won the Pulitzer prize in 1971

84. Jonathan Harvey
Highly celebrated composer. Taught at many universities and summer festivals around Europe and the US
Did important work in the field of speech synthesis at IRCAM in the 80s
Important works:
Speakings for large orchestra and electronics
Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco for computer manipulated sounds
Bhakti for 15 players and quadriphonic tape

85. Jon Appleton B. 1939 Important figure in American electronic music
Taught at Dartmouth College for many years and developed what would eventually become the Synclavier system
Founded SEAMUS (Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States) after becoming part of international EA music societies.
SEAMUS is currently the leading society for electroacoustic art music in the United States
Has composed a great deal of music, both electronic and acoustic, and has done lots of monumental work and research in computer music

86. Denis Smalley
B. 1946
British composer, specializes in acousmatic music
Studied at the Paris Conservatory, GRM and with musique concrete pioneer Francois Bayle
Developed the idea of spectromorphology, the manner in which a composer develops source sounds over time
Pentes (1974) for tape is regarded as one of the classic pieces in the acousmatic EA literature

87. Russell Pinkston
B. 1949
Studied at Dartmouth (with Jon Appleton) and later at Columbia University
Currently head of composition and computer music at University of Texas – Austin
Co-founder of SEAMUS and former president
Important figure in development of live processing and interactive electronic music for performers and dance

88. Curtis Roads Composer, researcher, computer programmer, author…
Studied at Cal-Arts and UC-Sand Diego. Now teaches at UC- Santa Barbara
Co-founded the International Computer Music Associated in and edited the Computer Music Journal from Also wrote the Computer Music Tutorial in 1996.
First composer to implement digital granular synthesis

89. Jonty Harrisson
B. 1952
British composer of acousmatic music and researcher in computer music
Professor at University of Birmingham, specializing at the British Electroacoustic Sound Theater (BEAST)
Contains a 100-channel 3-D sound diffusion system
Key figure in acousmatic music and electronic music of the late 20th century
Important pieces:
Klang
Unsound Objects

90. Miller Puckette
b. 1957?
The new Max Matthews?
B.A. in Mathematics from MIT. PhD in Mathematics from Harvard
Researcher at IRCAM
Developed Max and later Max/MSP while there
Also developed Puredata (“freeware version of Max”)
Teaches composition and computer music at UCSD

91. Brian Eno b. 1948 Father of Ambient music
Pop musician, composer, producer, etc….
Played in the band Roxy Music and later became a successful solo musician. Produced albums by Devo, Talking Heads and many other experimental electronic sound artists of the 80s
Famous works:
Music for Airports (1978)
Discreet Music (1975)

92. Frank Zappa
Rock musician, composer, film maker, writer, visual artist…modern-day Renaissance man
Most prominent as a career rock musician
Also wrote a lot of orchestral music and did pioneering work in electronic music and avant-garde/pop crossover music
One of the first people to personally own a Synclavier. Also was invited to IRCAM by Pierre Boulez

93. Jonny Greenwood B. 1971 Guitarist, composer and computer programmer
Known best for his work with Radiohead
Also a prominent film composer (There Will Be Blood)
Effects rig contains an array of digital effects (some built by Greenwood)
Also incorporates Max/MSP in his gear and writes software programs used in Radiohead and other side/solo projects

94. Want more… For more great reading about EA music, check the following:
empreintes Digitales
SEAMUS online
ICMC
Canadian Electroacoustic Community