THE CONCORDIA COLLECTION WITHIN ELECTROACOUSTIC HISTORY

1950-52
USA
First electronic music experiments in the Experimental Music Studios at Columbia University in New York by two American “tape music” pioneers, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, who founded the Computer Music Center.

Tape Music is the third “parent” of the larger field of electroacoustic activity. From an æsthetic point of view, it could be said that it differentiates itself from the others by the fact that it uses the tools and methods common to all three streams in a less discriminating manner. It is an approach which neither takes the “object” as its basis (as with musique concrète) nor makes use of only synthetic sounds (like Elektronische Musik) but rather establishes a sort of “middle ground” between the two poles. It makes use of the same sound reproduction equipment (tape recorders) to create new sounds but does not exclude the use of traditional means or tools for musical creation. Rather than being considered a stolid witness to the results of the user’s research, the tape is seen as an active component — an instrument — in musical creation. Tape music is characterized by the absence of the implicit and rigid protocol that can be found in musique concrète or electronic music practices. In a way, it is a hybrid of the two which explores the advantages and discoveries of both practices but dispenses with dogmatic regimen. Tape music opened up the path, so to speak, to a particular form of practice by artists such as İlhan Mimaroğlu, Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, etc., and can even be considered to be a forerunner of DJing. It gave rise to a plurality of practices and would be characterized more and more by hybrid practices over time, even influencing, in part, the two other streams.

Electronic music or instruments would be used occasionally in films, notably in Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock 1945, USA), The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder 1945, USA), The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise 1951, USA), The Birds (Hitchcock 1963, USA), Solaris, (Andrei Tarkovsky 1972, Soviet Union), etc.

1942
France
Opening of the “Studio d’essai” at the Radiodiffusion Française (RDF, later renamed ORTF).

1949
Germany
Herbert Eimert’s first experiments in electronic music at the NWDR (later the WDR, Westdeutscher Rundfunk) in Cologne. This would lead to the birth of Elektronische Musik.

1949-1950
France
Symphonie pour un homme seul, composed by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, is the first “official” musique concrète work.

1950
USA
Birth of the computer. Initially conceived as gigantic calculators, telephone companies would make use of them in parallel to attempt to synthesize speech, intended to be used for answering machines. Indirectly, this led to the first computer-generated sounds.

Invention of the Vocoder (known today as the Harmonizer).

France
Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry found the Groupe de musique concrète.

1951
USA
The 33-1/3 rpm disc arrives on the market.

France
First diffusion of works on a “loudspeaker orchestra”: Pierre Henry’s Orphée 51 and Symphonie pour un homme seul, by Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer.

1951-52
USA
First electronic music experiments in the Experimental Music Studios at Columbia University in New York by two American “tape music” pioneers, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, who founded the Computer Music Center.

1952
USA
First outdoor diffusion of musique concrète (Henry / Schaeffer).

Germany
Birth of electronic music in Cologne.

1953
Italy
Opening of the Studio di Fonologia (RAI).

1954
France
The première of Varèse’s Déserts is broadcast on the radio in stereo.

1955
USA
The RCA synthesizer, with equal-tempered sounds, at Columbia-Princeton.

Japan
Appearance of the pocket transistor radio.

1955-60
Japan
Founding of the studio at the national Nippon Hoso Kyoku (NHK) Radio (1955).

Poland
Founding of the Polish Radio studio (1958).

Germany
Founding of the Siemens-Studio für elektronische Musik (1960).

Soviet Union
Founding of the Experimental Music Studio at Radio Moscow.

1958
France
Official founding of the GRM (Groupe de recherches musicales), with associates Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari and François-Bernard Mâche.

USA
Founding of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. This studio would become an important centre for electroacoustic and electronic music in the USA. A few years later, such important composers as Milton Babbitt and lhan Mimarolu would work there.