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diceriadelluntore · 2 years

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Storia Di Musica #236 - Sun Ra And His Arkestra, Jazz In Silhouette, 1959

Per un mese di dischi “cosmici”, non potevo non parlare di questo musicista, per molti uno dei più grandi misteri della storia della musica occidentale, per altri ancora un pagliaccio, per la parte restante un genio. Effettivamente era complicato avvicinarsi ad un uomo che sosteneva di non essere nato sulla terra, ma di essere figlio dello Spazio, osteggiando questa sua idea non fornendo mai dati e conferme sulla sua identità. Fatto sta che Sun Ra, pseudonimo di Herman Poole Blount, dal 1952 Le Sony'r Ra, è uno dei personaggi più intriganti del jazz. La sua era un eccentricità che per molti versi fu perfino organizzata in una sorta di pensiero filosofico, l’Afrofuturismo, di cui è considerato uno dei padri spirituali, un movimento pacifista e multiculturale, che sosteneva la provenienza della gente afro-americana da un altro mondo e mischiava in dosi eccentriche la Cabala, i Rosacroce, il simbolismo egiziano e i nascenti movimenti di liberazione afro-americani. Ma nonostante tutto fu la musica il suo centro di attività. A partire dagli anni Cinquanta, si fa chiamare Sun Ra, Sun come sole e Ra come la divinità solare egizia. Fonda un gruppo orchestrale, The Arkestra, partendo dal binomio palindromico Ar - Ra, ma che in realtà era la pronuncia slang di come gli afroamericani sui amici pronunciavano la parola “orchestra”. In questa ensemble, non c’erano solo musicisti, ma anche comici, ballerini, cantanti e addirittura vestali, che nel periodo di massima eccentricità si vestivano con costumi di ispirazione faraonica. La carriera musicale di Sun Ra è facilmente divisibile in tre percorsi: il primo, per tutti gli anni ‘50, a Chicago, dove dopo aver fatto il pianista per Fletcher Henderson, grande jazzista ma con la fama di essere un eterno “numero due”, inizia a suonare come band leader, anche grazie ad una primitiva tastiera elettronica, che lui modifica per dargli delle sonorità vicine alle Onde di Martenot (il primo sintetizzatore analogico monofonico inventato da Maurice Martenot e presentato al pubblico nel 1928). Sempre in quegli anni, fonda la sua etichetta musicale, El Saturn, un omaggio a Saturno da cui diceva provenisse. La seconda fase, degli anni ‘60, avviene con il suo passaggio a New York: fu il primo ad avere un Moog, e la musica elettronica fu la chiave di volta del suo jazz che si pone all’estremo del movimento Free-Jazz (etichetta che tra l’altro non condivise mai), e i suoi dischi di quel periodo, aiutato da una serie di musicisti fenomenale che comparvero nelle fila della sua Arkestra (ricordo Ahmed Abdullah, Pharoah Sanders, Alan Silva tra gli altri), sono un magico viaggio cosmico nel “new thing”. La terza fase, con il definitivo spostamento a Philadelphia negli anni ‘70, lo riporta sul solco delle tradizioni delle big band, nel segno di Duke Ellingston e Count Basie, i suoi due fari musicali. La Arkestra continua ancora oggi a suonare i suoi classici, a oltre trenta anni dalla sua morte, avvenuta nel 1993. Il disco di oggi, scelto dalla sua sterminata discografia (oltre 120 incisioni per la El Saturn, senza contare ristampe, compilation e partecipazioni) è considerato uno dei suoi migliori, ed è del primo periodo, quello di Chicago. C’è da fare una premessa: siccome la sua fama di personaggio eccentrico finì per decenni per oscurare la sua fama di artista (a ciò contribuirono pure le scenografie dei suoi concerti, le interviste strambe, le foto conciato come una comparsa in b-movie sui Faraoni), la sua musica è stata spesso sottovalutata. Tuttavia la sua produzione, soprattutto anni ‘50 - primi ‘60 ha delle qualità eccelse, secondo me condensate nel disco di oggi, Jazz In Silhouette, del 1959. L'apertura di Enlightenment ha un accompagnamento al pianoforte tagliente di Ra e un finale ritmico cubano, ed è qui evidente il ricordo di Duke Ellington: diventerà uno dei brani di Sun Ra più famosi ed uno dei cavalli di battaglia della Arkestra, con gli anni vi fu aggiunta anche una parte cantata. Blues At Midnight è un brano bop ritmato con assoli eccezionali di tutti i membri degli Arkestra. Il disco sorprende per le parti musicali anche complesse, come nella splendida Saturn, ma spesso si rifugia nel blues, come in Horoscope. Questo fu un Album spartiacque dato che esprime al meglio le qualità dello stile che Ra ebbe nel primo periodo e quelle che avrebbe sviluppato negli anni successivi. In particolare, significative sono le lunghe esplorazioni d'insieme di Ancient Aethopia, uno dei brani più suggestivi del disco e che sono intrise di percussioni tribali, flauto e temi simili a canti. Questo album è un'introduzione eccellente e accessibile alla musica di Sun Ra, ideale per coloro che potrebbero essere intimiditi dal lavoro successivo più impegnativo di Ra. Segnalato nella prestigiosa, e mia personale Bibbia del Jazz, Penguin Guide come uno dei “core album”, gli album essenziali del jazz, ha un’ultima particolarità: essendo la El Saturn una etichetta piccolissima e artigianale, la prima edizione del disco (che tra l'altro per anni non si seppe nemmeno quando fu ufficialmente registrata nel 1958 o nel 1959) aveva in copertina una serigrafia bianca, rossa e nera, accreditata a tale HP Corbissero, in realtà lo stesso Ra che faceva pure il grafico. Quando fu ristampato sin dagli anni ‘60, vista anche la successiva discografica di Sun Ra, ebbe la stupenda copertina di oggi, con donne astronauta che si teletrasportano su una delle lune di Saturno, che nelle note della versione Impulse! che ho io è accreditato a “Evans”: non so se anche stavolta ci sia lo zampino del tizio che viene da Saturno, ma non mi meraviglierei più di tanto, data la sua straordinarietà, eccentricità e genialità.

#sun ra and his arkestra #jazz in silhouette #1959 #recensione

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personal-reporter · 5 months

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Olivier Messiaen, il musicista che amava gli uccelli

Un uomo che amava la natura e il piacere della musica…. Olivier-Eugène-Prosper-Charles Messiaen nacque ad Avignone il 10 dicembre 1908 dalla poetessa Cécile Sauvage e da Pierre, studioso e insegnante di letteratura inglese. Allo scoppio della prima guerra mondiale Pierre venne arruolato e la famiglia si trasferì a Grenoble, presso il fratello di Cécile, dove Olivier svolse le prime esperienze musicali e, dopo i primi approcci da autodidatta, iniziò a prendere lezioni di pianoforte e a dedicarsi alla composizione. Nel 1918, al ritorno di Pierre, i Messiaen si trasferirono a Nantes e, dal 1919, a Parigi, dove Olivier fu ammesso al Conservatorio: fu allievo di Jean Gallon per l’armonia, Maurice Emmanuel per storia della musica, Marcel Dupré per organo e improvvisazione, poi nel 1926 iniziò gli studi di composizione con Charles-Marie Widor per proseguirli poi dal 1927 con Paul Dukas, sotto la cui guida conseguì il Premier prix nel 1930. Durante gli studi Messiaen pubblicò i primi lavori e fu organista presso l’Église de la Sainte-Trinité in sostituzione del titolare Charles Quef e alla morte di questi, nel 1931, rilevò l’incarico. Nel 1932 sposò la violinista e compositrice Louise Justine Delbos, soprannominata Claire, dalla quale nel 1937 ebbe un figlio, Pascal. Colpita da un tumore cerebrale, nel 1947 Claire fu sottoposta a un intervento che, pur riuscendo nell’asportazione, avrebbe causato la perdita della memoria della donna, che avrebbe trascorso il resto della vita in un istituto. Nel 1936 Messiaen iniziò ad insegnare presso la Schola cantorum parigina mentre, insieme a André Jolivet, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur e Yves Baudrier fondò il gruppo La jeune France, che, in polemica con Jean Cocteau e il gruppo dei Sei, propugnava un rinnovamento dei linguaggi musicali. In quel periodo il compositore cominciò a rivolgere la propria attenzione alle potenzialità espressive offerte dalle onde Martenot. Chiamato alle armi al principio della seconda Guerra mondiale, Olivier nel maggio 1940 fu catturato dalle forze naziste preso Verdun e imprigionato a Görlitz nel campo di concentramento VIII-A e venne liberato nel maggio 1941. Rientrato in patria, ottenne la cattedra di armonia presso il Conservatorio parigino, poi ampliò progressivamente la propria attività nel campo dell’insegnamento attraverso lo svolgimento di corsi privati di analisi musicale e l’esposizione dei principî alla base del proprio linguaggio nel trattato Technique de mon langage musical del 1944. Presso il Conservatorio passò alle cattedre di filosofia della musica nel 1955, analisi musicale nel 1947 e composizione nel 1962 ed ebbe tra i suoi allievi Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Karel Goeyvaerts, Iannis Xenakis, Gerard Grisey, Alexander Goehr, Tristan Murail, Kent Nagano, George Benjamin e Yvonne Loriod, con cui stabilì un intenso sodalizio artistico. Invitato a tenere corsi di perfezionamento nei centri di primo piano dell’avanguardia musicale, il compositore fu docente a Budapest nel 1947, a Tanglewood nel 1949, a Darmstadt nel 1949 e nel 1950. Dopo che rimase vedovo nel 1959, nel 1961 Messiaen sposò in seconde nozze Yvonne Loriod e nel 1978 lasciò l’insegnamento presso il Conservatorio, ma continuò a dedicarsi alla composizione musicale e allo studio degli uccelli, che fu la sua seconda grande passione. Il grande musicista morì il 27 aprile 1992 presso l’ospedale Beaujon di Clichy e nel 2014, nel sito del campo di concentramento VIII-A, venne inaugurato il Centro europeo di istruzione e cultura Meetingpoint Music Messiaen. Read the full article

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silveme · 4 years

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why was I so pressed about the theremin and ondes martenot rivalry last night. what came over me

#think I got possessed by the spirit of maurice martenot there for a lil bit

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spaceintruderdetector · 3 years

Video

youtube

Cynthia Millar: Guide to the ondes Martenot

Cynthia Millar, master of the ondes Martenot, demonstrates the evocative sounds of this rarely heard electronic instrument. Cynthia Millar has been playing the Ondes Martenot since the 1980s. An electronic instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot, production of the instrument stopped in 1988. It has featured in the works of several composers, but is intimately associated with Messiaen and his mighty Turangalila Symphony (premiered in 1948).

#electronic music #ondes martenot #Cynthia Millar

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chrisbitten123 · 4 years

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Electronic Music History and Today's Best Modern Proponents!

lectronic music history pre-dates the rock and roll era by decades. Most of us were not even on this planet when it began its often obscure, under-appreciated and misunderstood development. Today, this 'other worldly' body of sound which began close to a century ago, may no longer appear strange and unique as new generations have accepted much of it as mainstream, but it's had a bumpy road and, in finding mass audience acceptance, a slow one.

Many musicians - the modern proponents of electronic music - developed a passion for analogue synthesizers in the late 1970's and early 1980's with signature songs like Gary Numan's breakthrough, 'Are Friends Electric?'. It was in this era that these devices became smaller, more accessible, more user friendly and more affordable for many of us. In this article I will attempt to trace this history in easily digestible chapters and offer examples of today's best modern proponents.

To my mind, this was the beginning of a new epoch. To create electronic music, it was no longer necessary to have access to a roomful of technology in a studio or live. Hitherto, this was solely the domain of artists the likes of Kraftwerk, whose arsenal of electronic instruments and custom built gadgetry the rest of us could only have dreamed of, even if we could understand the logistics of their functioning. Having said this, at the time I was growing up in the 60's & 70's, I nevertheless had little knowledge of the complexity of work that had set a standard in previous decades to arrive at this point.

The history of electronic music owes much to Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007). Stockhausen was a German Avante Garde composer and a pioneering figurehead in electronic music from the 1950's onwards, influencing a movement that would eventually have a powerful impact upon names such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Brain Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode, not to mention the experimental work of the Beatles' and others in the 1960's. His face is seen on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the Beatles' 1967 master Opus. Let's start, however, by traveling a little further back in time.

The Turn of the 20th Century

Time stood still for this stargazer when I originally discovered that the first documented, exclusively electronic, concerts were not in the 1970's or 1980's but in the 1920's!

The first purely electronic instrument, the Theremin, which is played without touch, was invented by Russian scientist and cellist, Lev Termen (1896-1993), circa 1919.

In 1924, the Theremin made its concert debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic. Interest generated by the theremin drew audiences to concerts staged across Europe and Britain. In 1930, the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York, experienced a performance of classical music using nothing but a series of ten theremins. Watching a number of skilled musicians playing this eerie sounding instrument by waving their hands around its antennae must have been so exhilarating, surreal and alien for a pre-tech audience!

For those interested, check out the recordings of Theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore (1911-1998). Lithuanian born Rockmore (Reisenberg) worked with its inventor in New York to perfect the instrument during its early years and became its most acclaimed, brilliant and recognized performer and representative throughout her life.

In retrospect Clara, was the first celebrated 'star' of genuine electronic music. You are unlikely to find more eerie, yet beautiful performances of classical music on the Theremin. She's definitely a favorite of mine!

Electronic Music in Sci-Fi, Cinema and Television

Unfortunately, and due mainly to difficulty in skill mastering, the Theremin's future as a musical instrument was short lived. Eventually, it found a niche in 1950's Sci-Fi films. The 1951 cinema classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still", with a soundtrack by influential American film music composer Bernard Hermann (known for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", etc.), is rich with an 'extraterrestrial' score using two Theremins and other electronic devices melded with acoustic instrumentation.

Using the vacuum-tube oscillator technology of the Theremin, French cellist and radio telegraphist, Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), began developing the Ondes Martenot (in French, known as the Martenot Wave) in 1928.

Employing a standard and familiar keyboard which could be more easily mastered by a musician, Martenot's instrument succeeded where the Theremin failed in being user-friendly. In fact, it became the first successful electronic instrument to be used by composers and orchestras of its period until the present day. http://www.chrisbitten.com/

It is featured on the theme to the original 1960's TV series "Star Trek", and can be heard on contemporary recordings by the likes of Radiohead and Brian Ferry.

The expressive multi-timbral Ondes Martenot, although monophonic, is the closest instrument of its generation I have heard which approaches the sound of modern synthesis.

"Forbidden Planet", released in 1956, was the first major commercial studio film to feature an exclusively electronic soundtrack... aside from introducing Robbie the Robot and the stunning Anne Francis! The ground-breaking score was produced by husband and wife team Louis and Bebe Barron who, in the late 1940's, established the first privately owned recording studio in the USA recording electronic experimental artists such as the iconic John Cage (whose own Avante Garde work challenged the definition of music itself!).

The Barrons are generally credited for having widening the application of electronic music in cinema. A soldering iron in one hand, Louis built circuitry which he manipulated to create a plethora of bizarre, 'unearthly' effects and motifs for the movie. Once performed, these sounds could not be replicated as the circuit would purposely overload, smoke and burn out to produce the desired sound result.

Consequently, they were all recorded to tape and Bebe sifted through hours of reels edited what was deemed usable, then re-manipulated these with delay and reverberation and creatively dubbed the end product using multiple tape decks.

In addition to this laborious work method, I feel compelled to include that which is, arguably, the most enduring and influential electronic Television signature ever: the theme to the long running 1963 British Sci-Fi adventure series, "Dr. Who". It was the first time a Television series featured a solely electronic theme. The theme to "Dr. Who" was created at the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop using tape loops and test oscillators to run through effects, record these to tape, then were re-manipulated and edited by another Electro pioneer, Delia Derbyshire, interpreting the composition of Ron Grainer.

As you can see, electronic music's prevalent usage in vintage Sci-Fi was the principle source of the general public's perception of this music as being 'other worldly' and 'alien-bizarre sounding'. This remained the case till at least 1968 with the release of the hit album "Switched-On Bach" performed entirely on a Moog modular synthesizer by Walter Carlos (who, with a few surgical nips and tucks, subsequently became Wendy Carlos).

The 1970's expanded electronic music's profile with the break through of bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, and especially the 1980's when it found more mainstream acceptance.

The Mid 1900's: Musique Concrete

In its development through the 1900's, electronic music was not solely confined to electronic circuitry being manipulated to produce sound. Back in the 1940's, a relatively new German invention - the reel-to-reel tape recorder developed in the 1930's - became the subject of interest to a number of Avante Garde European composers, most notably the French radio broadcaster and composer Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) who developed a montage technique he called Musique Concrete.

Musique Concrete (meaning 'real world' existing sounds as opposed to artificial or acoustic ones produced by musical instruments) broadly involved the splicing together of recorded segments of tape containing 'found' sounds - natural, environmental, industrial and human - and manipulating these with effects such as delay, reverb, distortion, speeding up or slowing down of tape-speed (varispeed), reversing, etc.

Stockhausen actually held concerts utilizing his Musique Concrete works as backing tapes (by this stage electronic as well as 'real world' sounds were used on the recordings) on top of which live instruments would be performed by classical players responding to the mood and motifs they were hearing!

Musique Concrete had a wide impact not only on Avante Garde and effects libraries, but also on the contemporary music of the 1960's and 1970's. Important works to check are the Beatles' use of this method in ground-breaking tracks like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'Revolution No. 9' and 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite', as well as Pink Floyd albums "Umma Gumma", "Dark Side of the Moon" and Frank Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy". All used tape cut-ups and home-made tape loops often fed live into the main mixdown.

Today this can be performed with simplicity using digital sampling, but yesterday's heroes labored hours, days and even weeks to perhaps complete a four minute piece! For those of us who are contemporary musicians, understanding the history of electronic music helps in appreciating the quantum leap technology has taken in the recent period. But these early innovators, these pioneers - of which there are many more down the line - and the important figures they influenced that came before us, created the revolutionary groundwork that has become our electronic musical heritage today and for this I pay them homage!

1950's: The First Computer and Synth Play Music

Moving forward a few years to 1957 and enter the first computer into the electronic mix. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly a portable laptop device but consumed a whole room and user friendly wasn't even a concept. Nonetheless creative people kept pushing the boundaries. One of these was Max Mathews (1926 -) from Bell Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, who developed Music 1, the original music program for computers upon which all subsequent digital synthesis has its roots based. Mathews, dubbed the 'Father of Computer Music', using a digital IBM Mainframe, was the first to synthesize music on a computer.

In the climax of Stanley Kubrik's 1968 movie '2001: A Space Odyssey', use is made of a 1961 Mathews' electronic rendition of the late 1800's song 'Daisy Bell'. Here the musical accompaniment is performed by his programmed mainframe together with a computer-synthesized human 'singing' voice technique pioneered in the early 60's. In the movie, as HAL the computer regresses, 'he' reverts to this song, an homage to 'his' own origins.

1957 also witnessed the first advanced synth, the RCA Mk II Sound Synthesizer (an improvement on the 1955 original). It also featured an electronic sequencer to program music performance playback. This massive RCA Synth was installed, and still remains, at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York, where the legendary Robert Moog worked for a while. Universities and Tech laboratories were the main home for synth and computer music experimentation in that early era.

1960's: The Dawning of The Age of Moog

The logistics and complexity of composing and even having access to what were, until then, musician unfriendly synthesizers, led to a demand for more portable playable instruments. One of the first to respond, and definitely the most successful, was Robert Moog (1934-2005). His playable synth employed the familiar piano style keyboard.

Moog's bulky telephone-operators' cable plug-in type of modular synth was not one to be transported and set up with any amount of ease or speed! But it received an enormous boost in popularity with the success of Walter Carlos, as previously mentioned, in 1968. His LP (Long Player) best seller record "Switched-On Bach" was unprecedented because it was the first time an album appeared of fully synthesized music, as opposed to experimental sound pieces.

The album was a complex classical music performance with various multi-tracks and overdubs necessary, as the synthesizer was only monophonic! Carlos also created the electronic score for "A Clockwork Orange", Stanley Kubrik's disturbing 1972 futuristic film.

From this point, the Moog synth is prevalent on a number of late 1960's contemporary albums. In 1967 the Monkees' "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd" became the first commercial pop album release to feature the modular Moog. In fact, singer/drummer Mickey Dolenz purchased one of the very first units sold.

It wasn't until the early 1970's, however, when the first Minimoog appeared that interest seriously developed amongst musicians. This portable little unit with a fat sound had a significant impact becoming part of live music kit for many touring musicians for years to come. Other companies such as Sequential Circuits, Roland and Korg began producing their own synths, giving birth to a music subculture.

I cannot close the chapter on the 1960's, however, without reference to the Mellotron. This electronic-mechanical instrument is often viewed as the primitive precursor to the modern digital sampler.

Developed in early 1960's Britain and based on the Chamberlin (a cumbersome US-designed instrument from the previous decade), the Mellotron keyboard triggered pre-recorded tapes, each key corresponding to the equivalent note and pitch of the pre-loaded acoustic instrument.

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neasaterry · 7 years

Video

youtube

Maurice Martenot playing the Ondes Martenot

#Ether #maurice martenot #Ondes Martenot #Theremin #Clara Rockmore #Technology #the dark scene

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popularbioofficial1 · 3 years

Link

https://popularbio.com/kin-platt/

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pastdaily · 3 years

Link

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kokania0 · 4 years

Text

Electronic Music History and Today's Best Modern Proponents!

Electronic music history pre-dates the rock and roll years by decades. Most of us were not even on this areas when it began its often obscure, under-appreciated and misunderstood development. Today, this 'other worldly' herdsman of sound which began close to a century ago, may no longer appear strange and unique as new appointment have accepted much of it as mainstream, but it's had a bumpy rising and, in prognosis mob designation acceptance, a slow one.

Many musicians - the modern backer of electronic singing - developed a luster for analogue synthesizers in the late 1970's and early 1980's with signature songs like Gary Numan's breakthrough, 'Are Friends Electric?'. It was in this age that these pole became smaller, more accessible, more exploiter friendly and more affordable for loads of us. In this article I will tests to phantom this history in easily digestible endings and withdrawal model of today's best modern proponents.

To my mind, this was the beginning of a new epoch. To create electronic music, it was no longer necessary to have entrees to a roomful of technology in a senate or live. Hitherto, this was solely the crew of artists the ambition of Kraftwerk, whose daybook of electronic instruments and cocaine built gadgetry the extent of us could only have dreamed of, even if we could understand the logistics of their functioning. Having said this, at the time I was maturing up in the 60's & 70's, I nevertheless had little uptake of the experience of handling that had synopsis a predecessor in previous decades to arrive at this point.

The history of electronic music owes much to Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007). Stockhausen was a German Avante Garde copier and a pioneering figurehead in electronic singing from the 1950's onwards, influencing a occurrences that would eventually have a powerful look upon nickname such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Brain Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode, not to remark the experimental crannies of the Beatles' and others in the 1960's. His cover-up is seen on the lid of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the Beatles' 1967 expert Opus. Let's start, however, by traveling a little further back in time.

The Turn of the 20th Century

Time stood still for this stargazer when I originally discovered that the first documented, exclusively electronic, observance were not in the 1970's or 1980's but in the 1920's!

The first purely electronic instrument, the Theremin, which is played without touch, was invented by Russian scientists and cellist, Lev Termen (1896-1993), circa 1919.

In 1924, the Theremin made its concert debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic. Interest generated by the theremin drew appointee to exactness staged across Europe and Britain. In 1930, the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York, experienced a possession of classical singing using nothing but a plan of ten theremins. Watching a amounts of skilled musicians playing this eerie sounding medium by glimmering their hands around its feeler must have been so exhilarating, surreal and group for a pre-tech audience!

For those interested, team out the recordings of Theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore (1911-1998). Lithuanian born Rockmore (Reisenberg) worked with its researcher in New York to perfect the hindrance during its early era and became its herdsman acclaimed, brilliant and recognized comedian and spout throughout her life.

In retrospect Clara, was the first celebrated 'star' of genuine electronic music. You are unlikely to discovery more eerie, yet beautiful aspect of classical singing on the Theremin. She's definitely a longing of mine!

Electronic Music in Sci-Fi, Cinema and Television

Unfortunately, and due mainly to problem in aptitude mastering, the Theremin's future as a musical stipulation was shot lived. Eventually, it found a nook in 1950's Sci-Fi films. The 1951 cinema classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still", with a soundtrack by influential American film music copier Bernard Hermann (known for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", etc.), is rich with an 'extraterrestrial' score using two Theremins and other electronic flight melded with acoustic instrumentation.

Using the vacuum-tube oscillator technology of the Theremin, French cellist and radio telegraphist, Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), began composition the Ondes Martenot (in French, known as the Martenot Wave) in 1928.

Employing a order and familiar fingerboard which could be more easily mastered by a musician, Martenot's obstacle succeeded where the Theremin failed in beings user-friendly. In fact, it became the first successful electronic medium to be used by copier and orchestras of its energy until the gift day.

It is featured on the topic to the original 1960's TV cell "Star Trek", and can be heard on contemporary recordings by the say of Radiohead and Brian Ferry.

The expressive multi-timbral Ondes Martenot, although monophonic, is the closest medium of its legislature I have heard which approaches the sound of modern synthesis.

"Forbidden Planet", released in 1956, was the first major commercial section cinema to feature an exclusively electronic soundtrack... aside from introducing Robbie the Robot and the stunning Anne Francis! The ground-breaking score was produced by husband and spouses squad Louis and Bebe Barron who, in the late 1940's, established the first privately owned booking boldness in the USA booking electronic experimental artists such as the iconic John Cage (whose own Avante Garde boldness challenged the definition of singing itself!).

The Barrons are generally credited for owning telegram the retreat of electronic singing in cinema. A soldering iron in one hand, Louis built circuitry which he manipulated to create a excess of bizarre, 'unearthly' artfulness and motifs for the movie. Once performed, these sounds could not be replicated as the mouseover would purposely overload, smoke and burn out to exponent the desired sound result.

Consequently, they were all recorded to tape and Bebe sifted through hours of reels edited what was deemed usable, then re-manipulated these with subordination and reverberation and creatively dubbed the endings role using multiple tape decks.

In supplements to this laborious money method, I sense compelled to include that which is, arguably, the record enduring and influential electronic Television signature ever: the topic to the long jogging 1963 British Sci-Fi look series, "Dr. Who". It was the first time a Television design featured a solely electronic theme. The themes to "Dr. Who" was created at the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop using tape loops and tests pendulum to run through effects, entrance these to tape, then were re-manipulated and edited by another Electro pioneer, Delia Derbyshire, interpreting the order of Ron Grainer.

As you can see, electronic music's prevalent custom in vintage Sci-Fi was the odds source of the general public's opinion of this music as beings 'other worldly' and 'alien-bizarre sounding'. This remained the proceedings till at least 1968 with the sovereignty of the bins scrapbook "Switched-On Bach" performed entirely on a Moog modular synthesizer by Walter Carlos (who, with a few surgical nips and tucks, subsequently became Wendy Carlos).

The 1970's expanded electronic music's silhouette with the pause through of bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, and especially the 1980's when it found more mainstream acceptance.

The Mid 1900's: Musique Concrete

In its segment through the 1900's, electronic music was not solely confined to electronic circuitry creature manipulated to group sound. Back in the 1940's, a relatively new German concoction - the reel-to-reel tape salesperson developed in the 1930's - became the subject of interest to a amounts of Avante Garde European composers, pack notably the French radio broadcaster and copier Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) who developed a montage medium he called Musique Concrete.

Musique Concrete (meaning 'real world' existing sounds as opposed to artificial or acoustic ones produced by musical instruments) broadly involved the splicing together of recorded segment of tape containing 'found' sounds - natural, environmental, industrial and human - and manipulating these with kingdom such as delay, reverb, distortion, speeding up or slowing down of tape-speed (varispeed), reversing, etc.

Stockhausen actually held symmetry convention his Musique Concrete happenings as promoting tapes (by this platform electronic as well as 'real world' sounds were used on the recordings) on apex of which live instruments would be performed by classical player responding to the understanding and motifs they were hearing!

Musique Concrete had a wide impressing not only on Avante Garde and composition libraries, but also on the contemporary music of the 1960's and 1970's. Important proceedings to summary are the Beatles' use of this senate in ground-breaking tracks like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'Revolution No. 9' and 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite', as well as Pink Floyd albums "Umma Gumma", "Dark Side of the Moon" and Frank Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy". All used tape cut-ups and home-made tape loops often fed live into the main mixdown.

Today this can be performed with guiltlessness using digital sampling, but yesterday's heroes labored hours, age and even weeks to perhaps complete a four minute piece! For those of ourselves who are contemporary musicians, understanding the history of electronic singing helps in appreciating the portion leap technology has taken in the recent period. But these early innovators, these pioneers - of which there are many more down the queue - and the important figure they influenced that came before us, created the revolutionary foundation that has become our electronic musical legacy today and for this I pay them homage!

1950's: The First Computer and Synth Play Music

Moving striker a few years to 1957 and enter the first computer into the electronic mix. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly a portable laptop escape but consumed a whole room and user friendly wasn't even a concept. Nonetheless creative fly kept pushing the boundaries. One of these was Max Mathews (1926 -) from Bell Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, who developed Music 1, the original singing program for computers upon which all subsequent digital synthesis has its roots based. Mathews, dubbed the 'Father of Computer Music', using a digital IBM Mainframe, was the first to synthesize singing on a computer.

In the peak of Stanley Kubrik's 1968 cinema '2001: A Space Odyssey', utility is made of a 1961 Mathews' electronic stall of the late 1800's poetry 'Daisy Bell'. Here the musical accompaniment is performed by his programmed mainframe together with a computer-synthesized human 'singing' voice section pioneered in the early 60's. In the movie, as HAL the computer regresses, 'he' reverts to this song, an cheerfulness to 'his' own origins.

1957 also witnessed the first advanced synth, the RCA Mk II Sound Synthesizer (an enhancement on the 1955 original). It also featured an electronic sequencer to program music property playback. This massive RCA Synth was installed, and still remains, at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York, where the legendary Robert Moog worked for a while. Universities and Tech laboratories were the main outcome for synth and computer singing trying in that early era.

1960's: The Dawning of The Age of Moog

The logistics and experience of composing and even owning entrees to what were, until then, comedian unfriendly synthesizers, led to a occurrences for more portable playable instruments. One of the first to respond, and definitely the prince successful, was Robert Moog (1934-2005). His playable synth employed the familiar piano loci keyboard.

Moog's bulky telephone-operators' profile plug-in makes of modular synth was not one to be transported and design up with any prince of instinct or speed! But it received an enormous boost in commonness with the fate of Walter Carlos, as previously mentioned, in 1968. His LP (Long Player) best merchant entryways "Switched-On Bach" was unprecedented because it was the first time an albums appeared of fully synthesized music, as opposed to experimental sound pieces.

The albums was a complex classical music lineup with various multi-tracks and overdubs necessary, as the synthesizer was only monophonic! Carlos also created the electronic score for "A Clockwork Orange", Stanley Kubrik's confusion 1972 futuristic film.

From this point, the Moog synth is prevalent on a sum of late 1960's contemporary albums. In 1967 the Monkees' "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd" became the first commercial pop scrapbook self-rule to feature the modular Moog. In fact, singer/drummer Mickey Dolenz purchased one of the very first conveyance sold.

It wasn't until the early 1970's, however, when the first Minimoog appeared that interest seriously developed amongst musicians. This portable little group with a fat sound had a significant gradations becoming fragments of live music outline for dozens touring musicians for years to come. Other firm such as Sequential Circuits, Roland and Korg began producing their own synths, assigning onset to a music subculture.

I cannot close the intensity on the 1960's, however, without caution to the Mellotron. This electronic-mechanical medium is often viewed as the primitive announcer to the modern digital sampler.

Developed in early 1960's Britain and based on the Chamberlin (a cumbersome US-designed media from the previous decade), the Mellotron keyboard triggered pre-recorded tapes, each key corresponding to the equivalent recollection and endings of the pre-loaded acoustic instrument.

The Mellotron is legendary for its use on the Beatles' 1966 ballad 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. A flute tape-bank is used on the haunting introduction played by Paul McCartney.

The instrument's popularity burgeoned and was used on dozens recordings of the age such as the immensely successful Moody Blues epic 'Nights in White Satin'. The 1970's saw it adopted more and more by progressive rock bands. Electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream featured it on their early albums.

With time and further overtures in microchip technology though, this charming medium became a relics of its period.

1970's: The Birth of Vintage Electronic Bands

The early fluid scrapbook of Tangerine Dream such as "Phaedra" from 1974 and Brian Eno's currency with his self-coined 'ambient music' and on David Bowie's "Heroes" album, further drew interest in the synthesizer from both musicians and audience.

Kraftwerk, whose 1974 seminal albums "Autobahn" achieved international commercial success, took the medium even further adding precision, pulsating electronic beats and meter and noble synth melodies. Their minimalism suggested a cold, industrial and computerized-urban world. They often utilized vocoders and conversations synthesis device such as the gorgeously robotic 'Speak and Spell' voice emulator, the latter creature a children's education aid!

While inspired by the experimental electronic subroutine of Stockhausen, as artists, Kraftwerk were the first to successfully combine all the elements of electronically generated singing and noise and group an easily recognizable ballad format. The supplements of vocals in dozens of their songs, both in their native German tongue and English, helped earn them universal acclaim getting one of the hordes influential contemporary singing pioneers and actor of the past half-century.

Kraftwerk's 1978 gem 'Das Modell' punch the UK sum one loci with a reissued English language version, 'The Model', in February 1982, structure it one of the earliest Electro sketch toppers!

Ironically, though, it took a impression that had no association with EM (Electronic Music) to facilitate its broader mainstream acceptance. The mid 1970's hoods movement, primarily in Britain, brought with it a unique new attitude: one that gave impulse to self-expression rather than performance dexterity and formal training, as embodied by contemporary progressive rock musicians. The initial offensive of metallic neighborhood transformed into a less abrasive word during the late 1970's: New Wave. This, mixed with the comparative affordability of lots small, easy to utility synthesizers, led to the commercial synth detonation of the early 1980's.

A new adeptness of cub flight began to explore the potential of these instruments and began to create soundscapes challenging the prevailing spotter of contemporary music. This didn't arrive without batalla scars though. The singing trade establishment, especially in its media, often derided this new example of word and accomplishment and was anxious to consign it to the dustbin of history.

1980's: The First Golden Era of Electronic Music for the Masses

Gary Numan became arguably the first commercial synth megastar with the 1979 "Tubeway Army" handcuffs 'Are Friends Electric?'. The Sci-Fi ingredient is not too far away once again. Some of the imagery is drawn from the Science Fiction classic, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The 1982 box cinema "Blade Runner" was also based on the same book.

Although 'Are Friends Electric?' featured conventional drum and bass backing, its dominant use of Polymoogs gives the songs its very distinctive sound. The booking was the first synth-based self-sufficiency to achieve quantity one unit office in the UK during the post-punk years and helped manager in a new genre. No longer was electronic and/or synthesizer singing consigned to the mainstream sidelines. Exciting!

Further development in affordable electronic technology placed electronic squarely in the fins of pups researcher and began to transform professional studios.

Designed in Australia in 1978, the Fairlight Sampler CMI became the first commercially available polyphonic digital sampling barricade but its prohibitive betrayal saw it solely in use by the fondness of Trevor Horn, Stevie Wonder and Peter Gabriel. By mid-decade, however, smaller, cheaper instruments entered the market such as the ubiquitous Akai and Emulator Samplers often used by musicians live to replicate their studio-recorded sounds. The Sampler revolutionized the stipulation of music from this sequences on.

In sum major markets, with the qualified zone of the US, the early 1980's was commercially drawn to electro-influenced artists. This was an exciting years for dozens of us, myself included. I know I wasn't alone in closeting the distorted guitar and amps and immersing myself into a new kind of musical manifestation - a sound shore of the conscription and non traditional.

At home, Australian synth based bands Real Life ('Send Me An Angel', "Heartland" album), Icehouse ('Hey Little Girl') and Pseudo Echo ('Funky Town') began to schemes internationally, and more experimental electronic design like Severed Heads and SPK also developed cult followings overseas.

But by mid-decade the first global electronic succession missing its boldness amidst appeal fomented by an unrelenting old seminary singing media. Most of the artists that began the decade as predominantly electro-based either disintegrated or heavily hybrids their sound with traditional rock instrumentation.

The USA, the largest ore market in every sense, remained in the conservative music wings for scads of the 1980's. Although synth-based records did box the American charts, the first being Human League's 1982 US design topper 'Don't You Want Me Baby?', on the whole it was to be a few more era before the American mainstream embraced electronic music, at which spunk it consolidated itself as a dominant last for musicians and officer alike, worldwide.

1988 was somewhat of a watershed year for electronic music in the US. Often maligned in the press in their early years, it was Depeche Mode that unintentionally - and mostly unaware - spearheaded this new assault. From cult period in America for much of the decade, their new high-play revolution on what was now termed Modern Rock radio resulted in mega stadium performances. An Electro accomplishment playing sold out dock was not common fare in the USA at that time!

In 1990, Quaker chaos in New York to greet the fraction at a central entrance firm made TV news, and their "Violator" albums outselling Madonna and Prince in the same year made them a US household name. Electronic music was here to stay, without a doubt!

1990's Onward: The Second Golden Era of Electronic Music for the Masses

Before our 'star music' secured its hold on the US mainstream, and while it was losing commercial lands elsewhere throughout much of the mid 1980's, Detroit and Chicago became unassuming laboratories for an outburst of Electronic Music which would see out much of the 1990's and onwards. Enter Techno and House.

Detroit in the 1980's, a post-Fordism US industrial wasteland, produced the harder European influenced Techno. In the early to mid 80's, Detroiter Juan Atkins, an obsessive Kraftwerk fan, together with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson - using primitive, often borrowed appointments - formed the flock of what would become, together with House, the predominant singing club-culture throughout the world. Heavily referenced artists that informed early Techno clause were European pioneers such as the aforementioned Kraftwerk, as well as Yello and British Electro acts the yearning of Depeche Mode, Human League, Heaven 17, New Order and Cabaret Voltaire.

Chicago, a four-hour cultivation away, simultaneously saw the section of House. The name is generally considered to be derived from "The Warehouse" where various DJ-Producers featured this new singing amalgam. House has its roots in 1970's disco and, unlike Techno, usually has some making of vocal. I think Giorgio Moroder's undertaking in the mid 70's with Donna Summer, especially the poetry 'I Feel Love', is pivotal in appreciating the 70's disco influences upon burgeoning Chicago House.

A many of variants and sub troop have developed since - crossing the Atlantic, reworked and back again - but in many spirit the popular success of these two soul forms revitalized the entire Electronic landscapes and its associated social culture. Techno and House helped to profoundly challenge mainstream and Alternative Rock as the preferred listening variety for a new generation: a meeting who has grown up with electronic singing and accepts it as a given. For them, it is music that has always been.

The history of electronic music continues to be written as technology advances and people's anticipation of where singing can go continues to push it forward, increasing its vocabularies and lexicon. https://kokania.com/product-category/electronics/

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