LESSON 3:

ELECTRONIC
MUSIC
Unit 1 MUSIC OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
 
 ELECTRONIC MUSIC
 One of the most significant
developments was the electronic
music which is a broad category of
modern music.
 This music used digital instruments,
electronic musical instruments and
circuitry-based music technology.
 Electronic music
 is the process of creating music using
computers in synthesizing or producing
digital audio signals.

 Using this electronic way of producing

sound, the musical sound that are
produced or composed can be played at a
slow speed or fast speed and can be
forwarded or rewound.
 THREE STAGES
OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
 Magnetic Tape Recording

it is a music made up of natural

sounds and sound effects that
were recorded and altered by
changing the speed of the
records.
A. Magnetic Tape Recording
 B. Synthesizers
 A synthesizer was a
device for combining sound
generators and sound
 The RCA
(Radio Corporation of America)

 -electronic music was an analog

programmable electronic music
synthesizer, pioneered and create by
the RCA Corporation in 1955. this
can generate any imaginable sound
or combined sounds.
Radio Corporation of America)
 2. The Moog Synthesizer
 -was pioneered and
commercially released in the
mid-1960’s. Musician used this
instrument in their
performances, who include Pink
Floyd and The Beatles, both
famous rock bands.
 2. The Moog Synthesizer

Synthesizer broadened its uses not only in live

performances but also in the field of film industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boeNxBIP9JU .
 
 THEREMIN
 -was another electronic musical
instrument, controlled without physical
contact by the performer.
 -this synthesizer was named after its
Russian inventor, Leon theremin, Who
patented this device in 1928.
 -this device was capable of editing movie
soundtracks and popular music. It was
unique as it played without being touched.
 THEREMIN
 Its two antenna made the pitch higher while
the horizontal antenna made the pitch softer.
Because there is no physical contact with the
instruments.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOLMGUcKpGA
 
 Theremin used by Musicians:

 Lothar and the Hand People

 Bonzo Doo Dah Dog Band
 Led Zeppelin
 Theremin used as movie
soundtracks:

 Day the Earth Stood Still

 It Came from Outer Space
 Spellbound
 The Lost Weekend
 C. Electronic Computer
 -electronic computer as a sound
generator featured a graph
representation of the shape of any sound
wave. The graph were described by
series of numbers, which were translated
by a device, known as a digital-analog
converter into sound tape playable on a
tape recorder.
 Electronic Computer
 It was necessary to devise a computer
program that would translate “musical
elements” (duration, pitch, timbre,
dynamics and tempo) into numbers.
 ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS

 The electronic instruments are

instruments whose sound is
produced by ordinary means, then
modified or amplified by electricity.
These can also be instruments
whose vibrations are converted
electronically into sound.
 ELECTRIC GUITAR
 -produces sound from the strings
vibrations which are converted
directly into electrical impulses.
 B. ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD
 -looks like an ordinary
keyboard except that it has no
pipes.
 C. SYTHESIZER
 -gives a composer complete
control over the sound.