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The Beginning of Electronic Music
In 1897, in the United States, in Thaddeus Cahill, Cahill first patented a telharmonium which was a large system capable of electrically generating, controlling and shaping sounds. It paved the way to a modern synthesizer. The keyboard was touch-sensitive, like a piano and the console allowed the mixing of sounds including various brass, woodwind, and string instruments heard in orchestras. -
The Invention of the Theremin
In 1920, Russian scientist, Leon Theremin invented the Theremin. The Theremin was unique because a person never touched the instrument to play it because it didn't have a keyboard, frest, or finger holes found in other instruments. The pitch was controlled by moving the hand back and forth in relation to the pitch antenna. -
Magnetic Tape Enters the Music Scene
When World War II ended, the use of magnetic tape recording technology was taking place. Magnetic tape had been invented for recording sound in 1928 in Germany. It was great because it provided a flexible means to not only store music, but also to manipulate sound, however, it took could a long time(weeks and months) to manipulate the sounds just to come up with a 4-minute song. -
The Hammond Organ Arrives
In 1929, an American inventor named Laurens Hammond developed the Hammond organ. It was built to mimic the sound of the pipe organ but it was the size of a piano. It was designed to be played in churches. It the first instrument that could play more than a single note at a time but could play chords (three or more notes at a time). The Hammond organ became was very popular in jazz and gospel music and became part of the rock and roll scene in the 60s and 70s. -
The Birth of Musique Concrète
Following WWII, the first song ever made by electromechanical means was created by two Frenchman, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. They created a new form of music using sound recording devices, natural, environmental, industrial and human sounds and incorporated it to traditional music. it was called musique concrète. -
The Early Years of Computer Age and Music
The earliest recording of music that was performed by a computer was recorded in England in 1951 as the Ferranti Mark1 computer played the songs God Save the Queen, Baa Baa Black Sheep and In the Mood. Even though the Ferranti Mark 1 was credited with the first recorded music played by a computer, the Australian computer CSIRAC actually played music shortly before the Ferranti recordings were made, however, there are no available recordings from this computer. -
First computer composed music
in 1956, the first song strictly composed by a computer was written called the Illiac Suite for String Quartet by Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Issacson. The name Illiac was used because it was produced using the Illiac computer. Hiller was ridiculed for using a computer even though he had to to program the song and the basic stylistic parameters that made it up. The computer then generated various musical elements, such as notes, rhythms and the dynamics -
Electronic Bands Bring Change to Electronic Music
Classical music used electronic methods the most until the 1960s when bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys started using synthesizers and other electronic instruments. They also incorporated multitrack tape recorders. Rock and Roll musicians as well as jazz artists became the "standard" users and distributors of electronic music to the world. -
Early Synthesizers Impact on Music
A synthesizer is a device that produces a wide variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies. RCA was the first to invent and create the worlds first synthesizer the RCA Mark II -
Moog Synthesizer
Robert Moog was the first to pioneer the first commercially available modern synthesizer. It was easier to use than the RCA Mark II, but composers had to learn how to patch cord connections and to manage the control panel settings to create a set of sounds. In 1969, Moog’s company developed the Minimoog which was much simpler and more compact designed for live performances. It was very popular This model became very popular and widely used synthesizer used worldwide. -
The Intro to the Buchla Synthesizer
In 1963, Don Buchla designed a synthesizer with touch sensitive plates because he did not like the limitations of the traditional 12-note keyboard that was used on the Moog. He wanted to build a new instrument that develop innovative sounds rather than the traditional melodies which the Moog could do. -
Turntables As Musical Instruments
Turntables were originally designed to play recorded music. They have evolved to a new art form and is even viewed by artists like Christian Marclay as a musical instrument. He is looked at as one of the most influential turntablist outside the hip-hop community. He took vinyl records and changed the recordings by warping and scratching and other techniques to create new sounds. -
Entering the Digital Age of Music
John Chowning began exploring new ways to design music synthesizers while attending Stanford in 1983. He adapted equipment to synthesize complex tones and developed a digital sound reproduction scheme called FM (frequency modulation) synthesis. This amazing discovery allowed for simple, rich sounding timbres – much different than the unpleasant timbres produced by earlier computers. -
MIDI: A Whole New Language
MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It was developed so that electronic musical instruments could communicate with every type of computer. Originally, synthesizers made by one company could not be hooked up to control a device that was made by another company. MIDI made them interchangeable. Musicians refer to this as "plug and play" because manufacturers use the same connection hardware and digital coding in their instruments. -
Music Keeps Evolving
There are many ways that electronic music has evolved since 1897. We learned about Cahill's invention of the Teleharmonium, incorporating magnetic tape use after WWII, the development of synthesizers and even the turntable becoming an instrument on its own as it is used now. There are no boundaries where music can go.
