INART 55
History of Electroacoustic Music

Schedule
Spring 2009

Tuesday Thursday
January 13
Introduction
 January 15
Tips on how to listen to music
Fundamentals of Acoustics
Dimensions of Sound presentation (basic vocabulary)
ANGEL Lessons page:
 o  Music Basics presentation
 o  Harmony and Tonality presentation

LISTENING SELECTIONS PLAYED:
January 20
Fundamentals of Electricity
Music Before 1900
Tips on how to listen to music

LISTENING SELECTIONS PLAYED:

  • Prokofief's Peter and the Wolf MCD04-331
    also in Penn State Electronic Holdings
  • J.S. Bach - Mass in B Minor - Crucifixus (from Credo section) - MCD03-128 (among other call nos.)
 January 22
Fundamentals of Electricity
Early Sound Recording
Matter as Particles
Tips on how to listen to music
Turn of the Century Innovations

LISTENING SELECTIONS PLAYED:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 5 in c minor, mvmt. 1
    Library electronic resources
  • Franz Liszt: Après une lecture de Dante, Fantasia quasi Sonata - MCD02-922
  • Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune - Library electronic resources
  • Claude Debussy: La Mer no. 2 - Jeux de vagues - Library electronic resources
  • Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concerts - What Makes Music Symphonic?" MLR ML3930.A2 B48 1993 v. 2
January 27

Transatlantic Wireless
Amplitude Modulation
The First Broadcast
The Fleming Valve
The Audion
Sound Recording
Regeneration

LISTENING SELECTIONS PLAYED:

  • "Twentieth Century Love" - George M. Cohan
  • Howard Goodall's Big Bangs - MediaTech 1.52462,DV
  • NPR on the History of Recorded Sound, part 2
  • "I Can Hear You" - They Might Be Giants
Listening Journal #1 due

 January 29

Quantum Theory
Relativity
Psychoanalysis
Expressionism
Found Objects
The Telharmonium
Atonality
Klangfarbenmelodie

LISTENING SELECTIONS PLAYED:

  • Demonstration of harmonics, timbre, and additive synthesis
  • Magic Music from the Telharmonium - MMC ML1092.W42 1998
  • Richard Wagner - Prelude to Tristan and Isolde - PSU library electronic resources
  • Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 8, opening and closing movements - MMC MCD02-204
  • Arnold Schoenberg - Three Piano Pieces, opus 11 - Disc M83-711
  • Arnold Schoenberg - Five Pieces for Orchestra opus 16, mvmt 3, Farben: Massige Viertel - online Classical Music Library
  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - MMC PN1995.75.C32 1996 DVD

Crossword Puzzle #1 due

 
February 3
Busoni
Modernism
Futurism
Dadaism
Twelve Tone Music

LISTENING SELECTIONS PLAYED:

Listening Journal #2 due

 

 February 5
Uncertainty
Digital Theory
Superhet
Edgard Varèse
Theremin
Ondes Martenot
Trautonium

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Edgard Varèse - Integrales, Ionisation - MMC MCD04-1099
  • Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey - MMC ML1380.T54 1996 DVD
  • Olivier Messiaen - Oraison - MCD02-185
  • Demonstration of formants and subtractive synthesis
  • Paul Hindemith - Langsames Stuck und Rondo fur Trautonium - MCD02-49

Crossword Puzzle #2 due

 
February 10

TEST 1:
to 1935

 February 12
Stereo Recording
Optical Sound
Electric Guitar
Hammond Organ
Frequency Modulation
John Cage
Claude Shannon
Alan Turing
Vocoder
The End of the 1930s
Musique Concrète
 
LISTENING SELECTIONS:
  • Sound of theremin from The Green Hornet
  • John Cage - In a Landscape - Classical Music Library (online)
  • Demonstration of formants and vocal synthesis
  • Examples of the voder and vocoder
  • Examples of the Sonovox (or Talkbox)
    • Radio commercials for Lifebuoy Soap and BromoSeltzer
    • Sparky's Magic Piano and Sparky and the Talking Train
    • Walt Disney's Dumbo - PN1997.D83 1990
    • Peter Frampton Do You Feel Like I Do? - MMC MCD01-310
  • Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry - MCD02-83
    • Etude aux Chemins de Fer
    • Etude Pathetique
    • Etude Noire
    • Etude Violette
    • Etude aux Tourniquets
    • Symphonie pour un Homme Seul
February 17
Inventions During WWII
The Tape Recorder
Louis and Bebe Barron
Serialism
elektronische Musik
Gesang der Jünglinge The Theremin in Hollywood
Forbidden Planet

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey - ML1380.T54 1996
  • Forbidden Planet
    • - PN1995.9.S26F67 1999
  • Olivier Messiaen - Modes de Valeurs et Intensités (Modes of Values and Intensities) - MCD95-275
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen - Studie I, Studie II - MCD02-82
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge - MCD98-1207
Listening Journal #3 due

 

February 19
BBC Radiophonic Workshop

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

Crossword Puzzle #3 due
February 24
Columbia
Indeterminacy
Hugh LeCaine
Stereo in Film
Milan
Tokyo

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Vladimir Ussachevsky - Sonic Contours - MCD92-2
  • Otto Luening - Low Speed - MCD92-2
  • Otto Luening - Fantasy in Space - MCD92-2
  • John Cage - Williams Mix - MCD02-435
  • Hugh Le Caine (MCD02-84)
    • Dripsody
    • Rhapsody in Blue
    • Sugar Blues
    • Sackbut String Quartet
    • The Sackbut Blues
  • Luciano Berio - Thema - Omaggio a Joyce - MCD03-170

Listening Journal #4 due

 

February 26
Déserts
Information Theory
Lejaren Hiller
Iannis Xenakis

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Henri Pousseur - Scambi - MCD02-675
  • Edgard Varese - Déserts - MCD02-1181
  • Erik Satie - Sonneries de la Rose + Croix I - MCD02-768
  • Bela Bartok - Music for String Instruments, Percussion and Celesta - MCD02-563
  • Iannis Xenakis - Metastaseis, Pithoprakta - MCD02-188

Graphic Timeline Project due

Paper Part 1 due

March 3
The Philips Pavilion

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Iannis Xenakis - Concrète PH - MCD02-76
  • Edgard Varèse - Poème Electronique - MCD02-435

Crossword Puzzle #4 due

 

 March 5
TEST 2:
1935-1957
March 10
SPRING BREAK		 March 12
SPRING BREAK
March 17
Columbia-Princeton
Milton Babbitt
Transistors
Bell Labs

LISTENING SELECTIONS:
Special guest presentation by Bob Klotz

 March 19
Modular Component Systems
Conceptualism
Minimalism
David Tudor

LISTENING SELECTIONS:
Special guest presentation by Bob Klotz
 
March 24
Columbia-Princeton in the 1960s
Xenakis in the 1960s
Bell Labs in the 1960s

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Raymond Scott - early sound clips
  • Raymond Scott - MCD02-68:
    • Sprite "Melonball Bounce"
    • Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.
    • Hostess: Twinkies
    • Auto-Lite: "Ford Family"
    • Lightworks
    • Limbo: The Organized Mind
    • The Pygmy Taxi Corporation
  • Raymond Scott - M1473.S55 1997:
    • Soothing Sounds for Baby
  • Charles Wuorinen - Time's Encomium - MCD99-554
  • Charles Wuorinen New York Times interview
  • Milton Babbitt - Ensembles for Synthesizer - Disc M89-137
  • Sequencer demo
  • Morton Subotnick (MCD02-88):
    • Silver Apples of the Moon
    • The Wild Bull
Listening Journal #5 due

 March 26
Cologne in the 1960s
Milan in the 1960s

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Amplitude and Ring Modulation demos
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen:
    • Kontakte - MCD02-82
    • Telemusik - MCD02-81
    • Hymnen - MCD02-165
  • John Cage performs "Water Walk" on television
  • Luigi Nono:
    • Liebeslied - MCD91-138
    • Omaggio a Vedova - MCD02-86
    • La Barrica Illuminata - MCD02-85
    • Ricorda cosa ti hanno fatto in Auschwitz - MCD02-85
    • Per Bastiana - MCD02-86
    • La fabbrica illuminata - MCD02-85
  • Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms No. 6 - MCD96-154
Crossword Puzzle #5 due
March 31
Lev Termen rediscovered
Voltage Controlled Modular Synthesizers

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • The Music of CSIRAC - ML74.4.C757D66 2005
  • Lejaren Hiller - The Illiac Suite - MCD91-200
  • Selections from The historical CD of digital sound synthesis - MCD02-80:
    • Newman Guttman - In a Silver Scale
    • Newman Guttman - Pitch Variations
    • Max Mathews - Numerology
    • Max Mathews, arr. - Bicycle Built for Two
    • Jean-Claude Risset, synthesis examples
  • Iannis Xenakis - Eonta - MCD02-188
  • James Tenney - M1473.T35S3 1992
    • Analog #1 (Noise Study)
    • For Anne, Rising
    • Dialog
    • Phases
    • Ergodos II
Listening Journal #6 due

 April 2
Voltage Controlled Modular Synthesizers
Raymond Scott

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Jean Claude Risset - Sud, Mutations, Inharmonique - MCD05-41
  • Jean-Claude Risset - Fall from Little Boy - MCD02-54
  • FM synthesis demonstrations
  • John Chowning - MCD02-53:
    • Sabelithe
    • Turenas
    • Stria
  • Chick Corea Electrik Band:
    • No Zone
    • King Cockroach
  • Michael Jackson - Liberian Girl
Crossword Puzzle #6 due
 

April 7
The End of the 1960s
Quadraphony
Jean-Claude Risset
Stanford/CCRMA

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Gustav Mahler - Second Symphony, movement 3
    • - MCD04-996
  • Luciano Berio - Sinfonia, movement 3
    • - MCD86-13
  • Talking Heads/Brian Eno - MCD04-255:
    • Found A Job
    MCD04-208:
    • Seen and Not Seen
    • Once in a Lifetime
  • Online clips of The Ghosts of Versailles:
  • Stevie Wonder on The Cosby Show
  • John Zorn - MCD98-460:
    • Hemachatus Haemachatus
    • Hydrophiidae
    • Ngu Sam Liem
    • Laticauda Laticauda
Listening Journal #7 due

 April 9
GROOVE
Granular Synthesis
IRCAM
The 4X Computer
CEMAMu
New Forms of Pop Music
Digital Synthesizers

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Max Mathews - Keynote address to International Computer Music Conference 2006, Tulane University, New Orleans
Crossword Puzzle #7 due
 

Paper Parts 1 and 2 due

 
April 14
Interactivity
Vocal Synthesis
From Microprocessors to MIDI
Audio for Personal Computers

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • John Chowning - Stria - MCD02-53
  • Charles Ives - Three Quarter-Tone Pieces
  • Wendy Carlos - Just Imaginings - MCD02-27
  • Wendy Carlos - The Well-Tempered Clavier: Prelude No. 7 in E-flat Major
  • Gary Lee Nelson - Fractal Mountains - MCD02-55
  • John Chowning
    • Vocal synthesis demonstration
    • Phone - MCD02-53
  • Charles Dodge - Any Resemblance Is Purely Coincidental - MCD98-1281
  • Paul Lansky - Idle Chatter - MCD02-182
  • Barry Truax - Riverrun - MCD02-184

Listening Journal #8 due

 

 April 16
Postmodernism
Microtonality
Alternate Controllers and Performance Systems

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

  • Jonathan Harvey - Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco - MCD02-343

Crossword Puzzle #8 due
 
April 21
TEST 3:
1958-1990 		April 23
Physical Modeling
Lev Termen Returns to the West
Digital Stereo
Acousmatics

LISTENING SELECTIONS:
April 28
No class session 		April 30
Electronica
Plunderphonics
Remix culture

LISTENING SELECTIONS:

Final exam:
Tuesday, May 5
8:00 - 9:50 AM
117 Borland

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