Electronic Music Blossoms

   
    There have been a variety of composer and performers whom have helped synthetic music blossom.  Over the years, inventions such as magnetic tape and the transistor have been helpful tools to those composing and performing electronic and modern music. Composers such as John Cage, Valadimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Herbert Eimert, Robert Beyer and Edgard Varese, have been influenced by these new inventions in electronic music.  Now a look into the music itself:



The Invention of Magnetic Tape:
        In the 1940's during WWII, the BASF developed plastic based magnetic recording tape.   Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky were the ground breakers in the creation of music for orchestra and tape.  Their piece entitled, Concerted Piece for Tape Recorder and Orchestra (1960) illustrates their talents and unique ideas.  In this piece the two composers contributed separate sections. Luening's part (the first half) uses concrete sounds and alternates orchestra with tape, while Ussachevsky's half uses synchronized integration with electronic as well as natural sounds. Their influence  is seen in Varèse's piece, Déserts for chamber ensemble and two-track track tape. Varese's piece utilizes electronic and acoustic instruments and was the first widely acclaimed use of electronic music.

 Synthesizers and other instruments:                                                                 
                        John Cage was a very influential composer and has changed the way society views music.  He composed a piece entitled "Imaginary Landscape # 4", which is for 12 radios and 24 performers.  This piece composed in 1951, brought electronic music to the stage for live performance.   In the composition, "Poem Electronic" by Edgard Varese, he featured 425 speakers, moving colored lights and projected images.  These pieces written in the 1950's as well as later on, integrated music and visual arts.  This type of music mixed with never thought of instruments became ground breaking and a new experience for society.  Robert Moog developed the first commercially available and successful synthesizer in 1963 and this is when electronic music was taking to its heights.   Everyone from Rock musicians to modern classical musicians, were now using synthesizers.  Through the 70's and especially the 80's the synthesizers became more complex and the horizons became endless.   The first MIDI (Musical Instrument Data Interface) keyboard was introduced in 1982.
    Today, MIDI outputs are available on every synthesizer and MIDI music is seen all over the Internet.  An electronic version of an instrument, seemed to be primitive, however technology is increasing the quality everyday.  Kurzweil keyboards has introduced an amazing and realistic ROM drive that any musician can place onto a keyboard.  The sounds are very realistic and bring issues into where music is headed.  
                   


                LISTEN to Compositions produced from the Kurzweil Digital Keyboard