THE CONCORDIA COLLECTION WITHIN ELECTROACOUSTIC HISTORY

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

“The synthesizer is an instrument capable of electronically generating and manipulating sounds using wavetables or electronic oscillators to produce waveforms that can be altered (modulated) using such techniques as additive or subtractive synthesis, FM synthesis, physical modelling or phase modulation.

“The sounds can be created using analogue electrical circuits, or digital circuits which digitally model analogue waveforms, or using a combination of the two.” [Translation] (Wikipédia, “Synthétiseur” entry)

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.