ELECTRONIC MUSIC

Total control in the full sense could be achieved only by eliminating

the human performer. This radical step was accomplished during the
1950's in electronic music. This term is used loosely to describe music
produced on electronic instruments such as the Theramin or Ondes
Martinot which are "played" by moving the hands towards or away
from a sensitive tube, resulting in a whining, musical-saw effect. The
term also includes electric instruments that simulate the sound of the
organ, guitar, or other conventional instruments.
Used more precisely, the term electronic music has nothing to
do with synthetic instruments. It refers to a kind of music which originated
in the Studio for Electronic Music of the West German Radio, in
Cologne, and its sound material is produced by electronic devices, recorded
on magnetic tape, and heard through loudspeakers. It is this
type of electronic music which will be described here.
The basic sound of electronic music is a pure (free from overtones
) sinus tone produced by an oscillator. Because there are no limitations
imposed by either instruments or humans, any and all pitches
within the thresholds of audibility ( 16 to 20,000 vibrations ) are available,
instead of the eighty-eight fixed tones that more than suffice for
conventional music. Moreover, the possibilities of dynamic levels are
greatly increased since every perceptible level of loudness can be accurately
specified. Duration and timbre possibilities are likewise unrestricted.
Needless to say, Western music up to this time has used
only a fraction of these total resources.
The problem for the composer of electronic music is that of
constructing order in this new aural universe, and serial music, particularly
that of Webern, has provided clues for doing so. Electronic
music may rightly be considered a direct outgrowth of the second'
Viennese school.

One of the special problems has been the creation of a system

of notation. The conventional symbols, geared to the chromatic scale,
are useless of course. Example 187 shows a page from Stockhausen's
Elektronische Studien II. This is not so much a score as "working
instructions for the electro-acoustical realization of the composition."
The upper section, calibrated from 100 to 17,200, refers to pitch and
timbre. The individual pitches used in this composition are chosen
from a scale of eighty-one steps with a constant interval ratio of 25 V5
(the tempered scale is based on a ratio of 12\/2), and one hundred
and ninety-three mixtures constructed from them. The heavy horizontal
lines indicate the high and low frequencies of the first sound mixture
to which another overlapping mixture is soon added.
The two horizontal lines in the middle of the page indicate the
duration of the sounds in terms of centimeters of tape moving at a
specified speed. The triangular shapes at the bottom indicate volume
in decibels.
In order to "realize" the composition, i.e. "perform" it, a tape
recording would first be made of the one hundred and ninety-three
tone mixtures that serve as its basic material. This is the "keyboard,"
the gamut of sounds from which selections would be chosen and recorded
following the instructions of the diagrams.
Electronic music is still in its infancy. A number of first-rate
musical minds are excited by its possibilities and future developments
might be of importance.