Poème Électronique (1958) Edgard Varèse

Transcription

1 1 TAPE MUSIC

2 Poème Électronique (1958) Edgard Varèse 8 2

3 3 MAGNETIC TAPE

4 MAGNETIC TAPE 1928: Fritz Pfleumer invented magnetic tape for sound recording (German-Austrian engineer) 1930s: Magnetophone (AEG, Germany) 1940s: Magnetic tape and tape recorders became prominent. 1940s: Commercially developed in the late 1940s by American Jack Mullin with Bing Crosby Reel to reel audio tape recording machines spread in 1950s with companies like Ampex Using magnetic tape for recording and editing sound was the status quo until the mid 1990s when (computers and digital audio recording). 4

5 5 MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDERS

6 6 HOW IT WORKS

7 SPEED & BANDWIDTH Tape Speed (inches/s) Bandwidth Use 38 cm/s (15) 20Hz - 20kHz studio recording 19 cm/s (7.5) 30Hz - 15kHz home recording 9.5 cm/s (3.75) 40Hz - 13kHz general use 4.8 cm/s (2) 50Hz - 6kHz speech dictation 7

8 8 EDITING TAPE

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10 THE ADVANTAGES OF TAPE? 10

11 BASIC TAPE MANIPULATION PROCEDURES 1. Speed - transposition 2. Backwards - direction 3. Cutting - remove attacks, change envelopes 4. Splicing - editing, crossfade sounds 5. Tape Loops - create rhythm from repetition 6. Mixing - record multiple layers of sound 7. Delay run one tape past two machines, mix outputs 11

12 ELECTRONIC MUSIC RESEARCH CENTERS PARIS - COLOGNE - NEW YORK - LONDON - MILAN - ETC 12

13 TO RECORD OR TO SYNTHESIZE Music Concrete Elektronische Musik France Germany Recorded Sounds Synthesized Sounds Montage, Film Art Music, Serialism Pierre Schaeffer Herbert Einmert 13

14 MUSIC CONCRETE & the Paris Studio Real world sounds abstracted to be used as musical material. sound object Acousmatic sound - sound heard without seeing its cause. Liberated from its source, the sounds could then be used musically as a sequence of sound objects. GRM (Research Group on Concrete Music) established by Pierre Schaeffer in Part of RTF, the main radio station in Paris. Among the composers who worked at the studio in the 50 s: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Edgar Varese, Pierre Boulez, and Iannis Xenakis. The studio continues to thrive today and is active in computer music. 14

15 PIERRE SCHAEFFER Trained as a radio engineer for Radiodiffusion- Television Française (RTF) s worked creating radio operas, combining nonmusical sounds into montages Employed ideas of sound object from Abraham Moles working directly with sounds (waveforms), not with symbols (scores) Any sound source could become musical Listen: Etude Aux Allures (1958) 15

16 Pupitre D Espace (1951) a system for realtime sound spatialization, using four Theremin-like rings to control the intensity of four speakers: stereo pair, top and rear. The central concept underlying this method was the notion that music should be controlled during public presentation in order to create a performance situation; an attitude that remains in acousmatic music to the present day 16

17 Pierre(s) - Henry & Schaeffer teamed with Schaeffer to create Symphonie Pour Un Homme Seul Premiered in 1950, broadcast in 1951 epic work using both discs and tape. Eleven movements each exploring different types of sounds. Listen: Movement VII - Prosopopée II 17

18 ELEKTRONISCHE MUSIK & the Cologne Studio NWDR (Northwest German Broadcasting) Studio opens in 1951 Founded by Dr. Werner Meyer-Eppler, Herbert Eimert, Robert Beyer Synthesized sounds over recorded sounds An extension of serialism with all musical aspects carefully controlled, such as timbre, duration, volume, etc. Music Concrete was just fashionable and surrealistic Things changed when Stockhausen took over in 1963 (even before Stockhausen) listen: Herbert Einmart s Klangstudie II (1952) 18

19 19 Karlheinz Stockhausen

20 STUDIE II (1953) Karlheinz Stockhausen Score Excerpt Generated sound: Sine wave oscilators, filters, amplitude modulators and reverb (echo) effects Serial composition: used rows or sets of attributes (pitch, attack, timbre, etc) to determine how to manipulate sounds Processed in multiple stages: re-recording with effects and manipulations 20

21 GESANG DER JÜNGLINGE (SONG OF THE YOUTHS) ( ) Karlheinz Stockhausen combines electronic sounds with prerecorded and manipulated sounds. Recorded on five distinct tracks and one of the first surround-sound works. Three sound sources: a boy soprano, generated sine tones, and generated noises (clicks). Based on the biblical story of Daniel. Plays in the space between recognizable speech & abstract sound. Phonemes translated to sound, vowels are sine tones, consonants are bands of noises, plosives are impulses. Sound as speech, speech as sound. Built a bridge between French and German schools 21

22 KONTAKTE (1958) Karlheinz Stockhausen Focus on spatialization of sound (Quadrophonic Sound) Wanted to create the effect of sound spinning around the listener at different speeds Spatial projection of sound mixed to stereo, similar to techniques used later by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix. In 1963, Stockhausen succeeded Eimert as the director of the Cologne studio 22

23 Hugh Le Caine Canadian scientist/composer with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa Transformations of a single sound source as an organizing principle, the sound of a single drop of water Le Caine also invented the Electronic Sackbut in 1945, an early voltage controlled synthesizer (pictured) Listen: Dripsody (1955) 23

24 24 Brussels World s Fair (1958) The Philips Pavilion

25 Brussels World s Fair The Philips Pavilion Philino Agostini - projected visuals Entrance music by Xenakis Concret PH Main music by Edgard Varèse Poem Electronique Developed at the Philips laboratory in Eindhoven 350 speakers, mounted on walls, with 10 on the floor 500 people saw the 10 minute performance at a time; 2 million had seen it by the end of the Worlds Fair 25

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27 Edgard Varèse 27 Poème Électronique (1958)

28 Iannis Xenakis CONCRET PH (1958) drawn entirely from the sound of burning charcoal. 28

29 Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (1958) 29

30 Piece for Tape Recorder (1956) Vladimir Ussachevsky From Ussachevsky s Notes on Piece for Tape Recorder 30

31 BBC Radiophonic Workshop (1958) Daphne Oram, Brian Hodgson, Delia Derbyshire, David Cain, and many more... 31

32 LOOK AT ORAMICS (1961) Daphne Oram Drawing Sounds Developed Oramics in 1959, a graphically controlled synthesizer. Classically trained musician and BBC engineer. Visited Schaeffer and RTF in Paris First to notate ideas for synthetic sounds that could be reproduced by soundgenerating instruments 32

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34 DOCTOR WHO THEME (1963) Delia Derbyshire & Ron Grainer 34

35 OTHER IMPORTANT ELECTRONIC MUSIC CENTERS Studio di Fonologia Musicale, Italy (1953) Luciano Berio & Luigi Nono Nippon Koso Kyokai (NHK) Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (1954) Toshiro Mayuzumi & Toru Takemitsu 35

36 POST WWII MILESTONES Musique Concrète, abstract tape music. Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry - l ORTF radio station in Paris late 1940s First privately-built studios. Louis and Bebe Barron (1948) & Raymond Scott (1946) (both in NY) late 1940s - First multitrack tape recorder, popular & commercial music. Les Paul & Raymond Scott (in 2 weeks, Tu) Elektronische Musik, music generated by electronic means. Herbert Eimert - Cologne Studio Columbia University Studio, tape music. Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky 1950s Chance music, indeterminacy, live electronics. John Cage (Next Tuesday) Computer music! Max Mathews working at Bell Labs (in 2 weeks - Th) 36