Electronic Music - History and Commendable Advancements since the Late 19th Century - Essay Example

Electronic Music Introduction Electronic music refers to music that is produced using electronic processing and reproduced using loudspeakers. Even though any music that is produced or modified using electronic, electrical, or electromechanical means can be referred to as electronic music, a composer needs to anticipate the application of electronic processing on the musical work that he/she does for the piece of music to qualify as electronic. This means that the final product of the composition has to reflect the composer’s interaction with the electronic medium used to produce the piece of music for it to qualify as electronic music. Some experimental compositions that contain indeterminate scoring and perhaps chance elements allow a composition to qualify as electronic. Thus, if a conventional popular music piece is played on a guitar that is electronically amplified, it does not qualify as electronic music. Electronic music is normally produced from a number of sound resources. It can be produced from sound that has been picked by microphones, or even from sound that emanates from electronic oscillators. In addition to these, electronic music can be produced from sounds produced by micro-processors and complex computer installations, which are normally tape-recorded and then manipulated to form a permanent sound. In general, except for live electronic music, performance of electronic music takes the form of loud speakers that may also be accompanied by conventional musical instruments. This paper examines the history of electronic music and the subsequent use of electronic sound-producing devices in producing music. History of electronic music Electronic music started with the development of the tele harmonium at the end of the 19th century by Thaddeus Cahill. The machine was about seven tons and its size was as big as the size of a boxcar. It was designed to be listened to using telephone receivers. The developer of the machine intended to broadcast music in people’s homes, restaurants and hotels using the phone. Thus the machine was basically an assembly of telephone receivers and rotary generators that were to convert electric signals into sound. The machine failed because it was impractical, complex, and it was incapable of producing sounds because loudspeakers and amplifiers were yet to be invented. Even though the developer never realized his plan to broadcast music via phones to hotels, people’s homes and restaurants, his ideas became invaluable almost a century later because the contemporary society makes immense use of streaming media. During the period between World War I and Second World War (WWII), developments were made that formed the foundation for contemporary electronic music. However, most of these developments were not musically relevant and thus they were just technically important. First, innovators developed audio-frequency technologies. Additionally, basic circuits, filter circuits, amplifiers and most significantly loudspeakers. In addition, electrical recording was introduced in the late 1920s replacing mechanical acoustical recording (Hiller, 2013). Second, electronic and electro-mechanical instruments were developed that were meant to replace conventional instruments that were in existence. This was a commendable milestone and one that got the attention of a myriad of circuit designers and ingenious inventors. It is however important to mention at this point that organ builders intended replace harmoniums and pipe organs instead of giving novel instruments that would complement the efforts of composers of that time. Third, the novel musical instruments were developed to give timbres, which ordinary musical instruments could not provide. The 1920s saw an increase in the interest of building musical instruments. Successful instruments developed during this time were comparatively few and they were monophonic, which means that they could only one line of a melody at a time. Examples include the theremin and the trautonium (Hiller, 2013). In the years following the WWII, the use of electronic media in composition of music went into overdrive. The reason for this was that tape recorder, as well as some primitive synthesizers, were invented. Some composers of the time seized the opportunity that was presented by these new inventions because they were able to come up with compositions and sounds that could not be produced by conventional instruments. The composers therefore tested all kinds of magnetic tape operations as they made new sounds and consequently produced pieces of music that were better than those produced before the aforementioned inventions. Max Mathews of the US started the Bell Laboratories in the year 1957 with a view to use a computer in composing music (Hiller, 2013). Even though electronic music came up in the sixties when classical compositions were the order of the day, it increasingly got inclined to the pop culture of the time. Back then, composers were using synthesizers known as Moog synthesizers, which were only capable of playing a note at a time. The devices were significantly unstable and thus they were incapable of producing firm tones. World famous bands of the electronic instruments age include The Beach Boys and The Beach Boys. The former used a theremin while producing their song, ‘Good Vibrations’. This instrument was first invented by Leon Theremin in Russia in the year 1919, and its pitch could be changed by a right-hand aerial move. Early in the seventies, Germans became preoccupied with composition and production of music using electronic instruments. The most famous group in the country during this time was Kraftwerk, and it was instrumental in developing electronic music worldwide. The group gained worldwide fame in the year 1974 after they produced their album ‘Autobahn’. The album was produced using minimoog, a synthesizer that was exceptionally sophisticated during that period. The title track of the album mentioned above lasted 22 minutes and it was able to appear in worldwide charts. The band members afterwards started experimentations with the opportunities presented by electronic music. Early in the eighties, electronic instruments were further developed and composers were presented with the opportunity of being able to replace analog synthesizers and samplers with digital ones. Nevertheless, the first digital samplers that were created were very expensive. Chicago became famous for house music during the time while at the same time, Detroit gained prominence as the pioneer techno hub. Some of the relatively successful groups of that time include New Order, Depeche Mode, and The Human League (Hiller, 2013). The nineties came with falling prices of electronic equipment leading to more accessibility of electronic music to artists. Electronic music also got a major boost with the introduction of personal computing in the mid-nineties, leading to heightened interest in electronic music by innumerable artists. Computer music The use of computers in the composition and synthesis, as well as performance of music is perhaps one of the most significant innovations in electronic music so far. Music composition using computers Computer programs and applications are instrumental in the composition of music. A composer selects a given composition application and subsequently uses other computer programs for sound synthesis to convert the composition results into electronic sounds. Music composers can use computer programs and applications to compose music of all genres. A composer benefits from using computer applications in his/her music composition because computer technology enables him/her to come up with musical expressions which can hardly be produced by conventional musical instruments. At present, innovators are yet to come up with a programming language for use in composing music. This is mainly as a result of the fact that musical modes of thinking cannot be conveniently predefined like in the case of mathematical rules. In addition, music composition involves so much data that choosing what to include in the subroutines and what not to include in the same can be an uphill task. Today, considerable advancements have been made in the area of computer applications for music production. The main categories of these applications include Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) that record, mix, compose, and edit sound to come up with the desired composition; Audio Editors, which edit and manipulate audio files after they are composed and stored on the computer , and Audio Plug-ins that add desired functionalities to other applications and programs for composing music (Hiller, 2013). The line between computer sound synthesis and computer composition of music is increasingly becoming thinner. This is because sound synthesis is increasingly becoming sophisticated and music composition is being accomplished without borrowing too much from traditional musical syntax. Music synthesis using computers Computers are capable of converting periodic electric signals into sound if they amplify the signals and use a loudspeaker to give the resultant output. One way though which this is accomplished is by adding the different harmonics amplitudes until the computer gets the desired timbre, specified using a specific computer application or program. This process is known as additive synthesis. A different approach is to utilize geometric waves that have valuable harmonic content, and subsequently filter the harmonics, producing new sounds. This is referred to as subtractive synthesis. Electronic sounds that have been digitally produced are taking the place of synthesizers, oscillators, and other audio components. These have been the major electronic music resources. Digital circuitry and programming is not only cheaper but it is also versatile and accurate. The advantages of digital processing have manifested in the commercial recording industry that has replaced audio technology with digital recording. Among the most basic ways of generating sounds using computers are digital-to-analogue conversion, sign-bit extraction, as well as the use of analogue-digital hybrids. Sign-bit extraction was the option in cases where there was serious musical intent. There still exists some interest in having digital-analogue hybrid systems, perhaps because signal processing may sometimes, especially during filtering and reverberation, take undesirably long periods even when super-fast computers are used (Hiller, 2013). Music performance using computers In addition to the use of computers in the electronic composition and synthesis of music, computer software, applications and programs have also been used to complement music performances. The instruments that are normally used in aiding live music performances normally have specialized circuitry and they are dependent on sophisticated microprocessor types. The instruments however have limited capability as a result of the fact that live performances require them to perform real-time conversion and computation. The limitation in terms of capability is as a result of variety and versatility of timbres. However, the fact that a big and enthusiastic commercial market for these instruments is readily available will lead to advancement and improvement of these instruments. Although some of the instruments have specialized designs that is meant for a particular composer, most are built to replace analogue synthesizers, which implies that they are equipped with traditional keyboards that are invaluable during music composition. Additionally, computer programs and applications have been used to produce real-life 3D images of artists who have passed away. These real-life 3D images are known as holograms and theyensure that artists can give live performances even after they die. Examples of artists whose music has been performed live in the past by holograms include Michael Jackson and Tupac Shakur. Nevertheless, holograms have a major disadvantage in that they take a considerable amount of time and money to build. It is therefore clear that computer technology has had a revolutionary effect on music performance in general, and electronic music performance in particular. Conclusion From the discussion above, it is clear that electronic music has faced commendable advancements since the late 19th century. Instruments have advanced from the aforementioned seven-tonne tele harmonium to portable devices that are unbelievably efficient in producing sounds and composing music. Computer technology has particularly aided the development of electronic music because personal computers have developed from the desktops of the 90s to the laptops, PDAs and tablets of modern computing. The software and applications used for composing and producing music can now be conveniently installed on laptop computers and other portable forms of personal computers. Computer technology has also led to development of exciting music performance technology such as the holograms that are normally used to represent dead artists during performances. As mentioned in the discussion above, the idea of using holograms has been utilized in live performances for the late Tupac Shakur and the late Michael Jackson. Reference List Hiller, L. (2013). “Electronic Music”. Accessed January 17, 2015, < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/183823/electronic-music/27528/Computer-sound-synthesis > Read More