Music, Invention and Society – 7

Creative Technology

Dr Bruno Bower – bbower@ic.ac.uk

 Electricity and Sound

First sound technologies analogue/mechanical, electricity involved later

Lots of important devices eventually created to exploit electrical circuitry

Alongside the intended uses (often to do with dissemination), devices also open
up new possibilities for creating music

Two dimensions for the discussion today:

Recording and/or playback devices vs synthesised sound

Institutional vs private contexts

Overarching story of increasing accessibility follows on from previous classes
(e.g. Class 2 – Acoustic Instruments)

But diversity of users might not make it into the standard story
 Early Recording and Broadcasting

Phonograph invented late 19th-century (became known as a Gramophone after
the company)

Recording onto cylinders with various media (wax, later foil)

Electric motors incorporated in 1910s and 20s, making them easier to use and
more reliable

Electricity also makes widespread radio broadcasting possible, takes off in
1920s (via telephone-based precursors)

Focus at this stage primarily on recording and playback alone, no editing

Large-scale cuts or reordering possible, but technical capacity for more involved
changes is limited

Significant developments in editing of recordings emerge in 1930s and 40s
 Institutional Contexts (1)

Devices that emerge for editing recordings initially very expensive/bulky, so difficult
for musicians to own themselves

Radio and television and companies most likely to own it anyway since equipment
is useful for editing broadcasts, but could also be used creatively

Experiments with studio devices lead to idea of ‘musique concrète’ in mid-
1940s/early 1950s, essentially collages of live sounds

Composers start residencies in broadcasting ‘studios’ e.g. Pierre Schaeffer at
Radiodiffusion nationale, or Daphne Oram at BBC

Key factor: not everyone gets access to these studios, only those invited by the
people in charge or those who successfully apply for entry

Overall result is that only approved work produced, difficult for outsiders to make
careers through these channels
 Personal Devices (1)

For as long as recording/playback devices have existed, versions are
eventually created for personal use

Discs take over from cylinders, made of shellac until WW2 shortage, leading
to re-investigation of material that became known as vinyl

Magnetic tape invented in 1928 in Germany, kept secret until a device was
captured by the Allies towards end of WW2

Developed in America post-War alongside records: tape masters often used
to create vinyl discs

New techniques become possible: looping, reversing, splicing etc.,

All of these options become available to individuals once devices are cheap
enough
 Creativity with Devices

Lots of creative ways to use recording and playback devices in themselves

Important component of ‘experimental music’, e.g. challenging what counts as
a valid instrument

John Cage wrote several pieces for radios, e.g. Imaginary Landscape No.4

Idiosyncrasies of tape players led to Steve Reich’s interest in ‘phasing’ via
Come Out (1966)

Tape doesn’t have to go through a machine, e.g. Laurie Anderson’s Tape-Bow
Violin
 Creativity with Devices

Lots of creative ways to use recording and playback devices in themselves

Important component of ‘experimental music’, e.g. challenging what counts as a
valid instrument

John Cage wrote several pieces for radios, e.g. Imaginary Landscape No.4

Idiosyncrasies of tape players led to Steve Reich’s interest in ‘phasing’ via Come
Out (1966)

Tape doesn’t have to go through a machine, e.g. Laurie Anderson’s Tape-Bow
Violin

In principle any device that makes a sound could count as well

Actively draws attention to technology as the point of the piece in itself, rather than
being ‘just’ the medium through which it happens
 Recording and Obsolescence

History of recording and broadcasting normally described as ‘progression’
through different devices and storage media, each one an improvement

But you could also write this history as a sequence of things falling out of
use

DAB overtaking traditional LW/FM radio, might eventually make Cage’s
pieces for radios unperformable

Old storage media can no longer be used as device manufacture stops

Emerging concept of ‘digital rot’ refers to loss of information over time as
systems change – could include songs/pieces of music

Vinyl has made a resurgence, perhaps because (unlike others) it retains
flexibility for live manipulation
Break
 Reminders

Registration for next term’s modules closes at midnight
tonight, sign up today if you want to do another subject

Submit your proposed Essay/Podcast/Vlog topic via
Google Form by 6pm on Wednesday 15th December

Reflective Diary should be submitted via Blackboard,
due by 4pm on 20th December

Main Assessment should be submitted via Blackboard,
due by 4pm on 7th January
 Synthesised Sound

Creation of sound from purely technical source rather than an acoustic
source

Various different methods of achieving this, technically

Early instruments might use capacitors (Theremin, 1920), or vacuum tubes
and radio oscillators (Ondes Martenot, 1928)

Later instruments based on increasingly digital production methods

Deep transformation of music recognised almost immediately

Possibility to create any sound, beyond human or acoustic limitations,
stimulates huge amount of creative activity

Though took time for reality to catch up with ideas
 Institutional Contexts (2)

Initially part of the (West) German institutional/corporate context

Same techniques as tape (looping, reversing, splicing), but now new options,
including filtering and reverb

Still very exclusive, e.g. Karlheinz Stockhausen controlling access to studios in Köln
(Cologne)

Pieces are not necessarily exclusively synthesised, e.g. acoustic sounds blended
into Gesang der Jünglinge (1956)

Work with synthesised sound in radio and television studios naturally filters through
to broadcast products

Especially common for sci-fi (and fantasy), e.g. theremins for ‘ghost’ noises

Forbidden Planet score by Bebe and Louis Barron (1956) an important early
example, though via a non-institutional route
 Influence on Acoustic Sound

Possibilities for synthesised sounds start to feed back into how people
treat acoustic instruments

Spectralist music a very literal example: pieces for acoustic instruments
based on spectrograms of sound, e.g. Gérard Grisey Partiels (1975)

Unusual sounds/gestures for instruments in avant-garde or experimental
music might have origins in artificial sonic effects

Hyper-detailed notation for some music relies on idea that such accuracy
increasingly is achievable, even if only electronically

Superhuman demands on performers have to be met as best as
possible, pieces might not come across as precisely as intended
 Personal Devices (2)

Some of the most important developments in synthesised sound for 1960s and
70s happen outside institutional contexts

e.g. Robert Moog experimenting with new devices over 1960s (started out with
Theremin kits)

Moog Synthesisers gave total control over sounds coming out of a keyboard

Later models (e.g. Minimoog) were among first truly portable synthesisers

Taken up by a range of classical composers, e.g. Ruth White, but also becomes
associated with popular music very quickly

Once anyone can create sounds, no longer limited to avant-garde elite

Avant-garde circles start to use the word ‘research’ to describe their musical
activities, retains prestige even as pop usage gets equally sophisticated
 Technology and Performance

Music created using these technologies raise new questions about how it
should be performed

If the piece still requires a live performance, what does this look like? How
does the performer behave?

If a piece only exists only in recorded form, where is it presented? How is it
premiered?

Which one a creator prefers can tell you a lot about their approach to music

Those who want control over all aspects of how a piece sounds will prefer
recordings, creating a ‘perfect’ version that will never change

Those who are interested in chance or spontaneity will produce music that
requires live performers and events
 Technology and Diversity

Electronic and digital technologies take off during era of feminism and civil
rights, makes for greater diversity in history

Women take advantage of limited stereotypes for theremin, becoming main
champions of new instrument, e.g. Clara Rockmore or Lucie Bigelow Rosen

Global phenomenon, depending on resources: Halim El-Dabh and musique
concrète in 1940s Cairo, or Toshiro Mayuzumi in NHK Studio from 1954

Trans history too, e.g. Wendy (née Walter) Carlos, another Moog pioneer

Nonetheless, standard history is already overwhelmingly white and male

Influential composers quickly forgotten if institutions don’t care to remember

E.g. lack of interest in Bebe Barron separately from her husband
 Institutional/Private Crossover

Corporate vs private distinction has started breaking down over last few decades

Laptops and sound software for individual users very big business, ditto online
streaming platforms for listeners

Musicians increasingly expected to know how to use these products, taking
hours to learn

Pieces once made over days/weeks using extremely specialised equipment
could now be created in minutes, and broadcast almost immediately on YouTube

Responses vary: some push for ‘real’ acoustic sound or ‘traditional’ instruments

Others turn to hardware hacking, making DIY electronic sound devices rather
than corporate products, ‘just like they did back in the 50s and 60s’

Widespread digital training means tech won’t be going away any time soon
 Next Week: The Future of Music

Field trip, meet at the Front Desk of the Royal College
of Music for a 4pm start, allowing time to sign in.

Guest Lecturer: Dr George Waddell, from the RCM’s
Centre for Performance Science

Come prepared to give a 30-second ‘elevator pitch’ for a
music-related technology, ignoring any practical
limitations. It could be viable in 5, 10, 20, or 50 years.
What do you want to see?

(No slides or props please!)