Unit 26: Music Technology in Performance - Electronic Instruments though the Ages

Electronic music recording, performance and technology that is fundamental to it has been developing since the 1920's all leading to and playing an important part in what we know as electronic music in all it's various forms and genres today. Electronic music and the instruments synonymous with it have many purposes across music and entertainment, from supplementing studio recordings, to movie soundtracks, and even being the key component of entire genres of their own, particularly modern house and electronic music. Every development to have happened since the early 20th century has lead to interesting and key developments of all sorts in electronic music and other areas, so this is a timeline investigating notable key events, their importance at the time and today, their legacy and influence on other developments and indeed the people behind them.

The history of electronics in music really begins at the turn of the 20th century, with instruments being created as byproducts of experimentation and invention in other fields. These early developments of instruments are the clear starting point, as the music wouldn't have been created without the instruments coming first.

1896-1907 - The Telharmonium:
This instrument is regarded as the first synthetic instrument ever made, and was invented and developed by Thaddeus Cahill from 1896 onwards. The Telharmonium is a giant electric organ, which produces sound by passing electrical current through tone wheels, of which there are multiple for each key of two separate keyboards, and these different tone wheels allowed for single note harmonics, and polyphonic playing. The instrument was revolutionary in it's method of sound generation, as it generated the electrical signals with the tone wheels acting as electromagnetic generators, and these signals were converted to sounds with telephone receivers, before being amplified by paper cones acting as a loudspeaker. So the Telharmonium exhibited early examples of speaker amplification and sound generation that would later be developed for amplification technology and influence those who developed synthesizer's from electrical components to generate sound. The drawbacks of the Telharmonium that lead to its downfall were it's immense size and weight which meant it was unportable and could only be used for a few public performances, and it's equally immense power consumption due to each tone wheel component (of which there were hundreds) requiring power. As this was before the invention of the vacuum valve,  which meant harnessing an sending electrical current to the tone wheels took far more power than after valves were invented.This instrument had very little impact on musical development or imerging styles as although it was impressive for performance, it didn't stick in public's conciouns but it definately would have proven to people that instruments generating sound electronically had a place and should be worked on.


1918-28 - The Theremin:
A decade after the invention of the Telharmonium, Russian inventor Leon Theremin devised the instrument from research work into proximity sensors, which are devices that measure distances from images by sending electromagnetic signals to bounce of things. This research helped him develop the concept, as with one hand the player moves their hand around an antenna and in doing so intercepts these fields, which equates to a change in frequency for music pitch with one antenna and volume or amplitude for the other. The link between the workings of this and the research from the sensors is clear. The device contains two internal oscillators, which generate the tones, which are shaped by the movements made by the hands, and then this signal passes to a loudspeaker to be heard. The device is the first electronic instrument to be mass produced, and this is down to not having the problems the telharmonium had with size and power consumption, and as a result had a far bigger impact on music and more uses. This was partly because of advancements in music recording techniques that happened during the time between these inventions, and indeed after 1928 as it was used decades after when recording had advanced further. Firstly, the theremin was put to use in film music, and was popular for creating scary textures in horror films or thrillers with suspense. It was used in soundtracks like Spellbound, written by Bernard Hermann for Alfred Hitchcock, as well as multiple other films. The instrument was used in Percy Grainger's "free music" experimentation of th e 1930's, which shows how the instruments sound was interpreted as being useful in an avante garde sense, but appreciated as important by a composer of a classical background. This short experimental project preceded many more famous projects of completely electronic sound generation, which again shows how the theremin must have inspired composers to come up with music in this way. Here's a link to a short composition from this period below.

Free Music No. 1 (For Four Theremins) 1936 

The most well known use of the instrument in popular music is it's use in the chorus of The Beach Boys single Good Vibrations, which was the bands first no. 1 in 1967, almost 40 years after the patenting of the theremin, proving the longevity of the instruments sound, and that it wasn't seen as a fad by music composers. It's influence on music of all sorts was obvious from these examples, and would've provided further inspiration to those who eventually went onto develop electronic instruments, as it would have shown that electronic instruments were important to classical and popular music, for film or albums, and that instruments could go into mass production as they were desirable enough and profitable enough to do so. This instrument lends itself to eerie film music best of all in my opinion, and the use of it in soundtracks to create suspense is it's best use. It may be seen as a novelty instrument today, but it's made an important contribution to electronic music history for the new ground it broke at the time. The most notable influence of the theremin was on Robert Moog, who would go onto develop the moog synthesizer, having developed his love for electronic instruments, building his first theremin aged 15.

1935 - The Hammond Organ

The Original Hammond Organ design  from 1935 uses similar sound generation techniques to the Telharmonium, with the spinning tone wheels and an electromagnetic pickup, but again the success of this instrument was down to it's size and cost advantages, and it's almost by accident become a famous sound from 50's, 60's and 70's music, most commonly played through a Leslie speaker providing a signature vibrato to the Hammond's tone. Hammond organs were initially intended as replacements for expensive pipe organs in churches, which were expensive to maintain, but it was picked up by Jazz musicians, who put to use it's varied sounds which were controlled by drawbars. The drawbars control the volume output of each tone wheel, of which there are many which combine their sound to make the overall tones and notes, and so moving drawbars back and forward makes some tones louder, and some quieter creating new sounds. There are 9 drawbars in total, and they are labelled according to their harmonic relation from the tone wheels when just they are playing, and a classic sound example is having the first three drawbars at full volume (8) and the other 6 at no volume (0) making an 888000000 formation of volumes.

The Hammond is a now legendary instrument because of it's use in popular rhythm and blues, rock and soul recordings. The key to it's success must be down to it's diversity of sounds and cheap price. However I think the key to its success which is the reason why the Theremin never saw commercial success is it's warm tones and the harmonics it generates. The Theremin is quite a cold singular tone, which sounds eerie when the pitch is changed to play a melody as you are getting the sounds between pure notes as you move your hand, and this isn't always a nice pleasant sound that can be used in music we like to hear. However the Hammond Organ creates harmonics and warm tones, which was what first would have meant it was used in commercial recordings, and now having been used so often we love the tones it produces and therefore still desire to use it. 

One of my favourite uses of the Hammond is in this Brother & Sister's Gospel rendition of The Times They Are a Changin' by Bob Dylan, as it shows the instrument used for it's first intention as a church organ for accompaniment to hymns, and also in it's adopted sense as a key component of 1960's soul music. The quick vibrato sound of the organ in this track is down to the Leslie speaker it's amplified through, which is a giant fan in a large box, the speed of the blades defining the speed of the vibrato. The organ and speaker have become crucial to each other and are rarely not mentioned in the same sentence, and that's because the Leslie sound complements the organ very well.

Hammond Organ in Brothers & Sisters Track

As an extension of the Hammond Organ, the Hammond Novachord release in '38, could be sighted as an early example of analog synthesis, due to it's similarities in circuitry to some later models, when they were becoming more advanced. It generated sounds using subtractive synthesis, and had stages of oscillators, beginning with 12 for all chromatic notes and then expanding further down with more for more detailed sounds, which is called divide down, and is like the first Moog and Arp poly-synths in the 1960's, so in a sense is way ahead of it's time. It wasn't an organ emulation like the Hammond Organ of 1935, so wouldn't have been used in similar settings.

1956 - Forbidden Planet OST

I believe the reason I've noted three early electronic instruments already, but not really any uses in popular music is because the sounds of the instruments didn't necessarily fit with any trends or popular genres at the time, so didn't gain much notoriety, apart from their use in avant-garde film and composition which likewise never saw great popularity. As electronic circuitry in it's infancy created strange sounds, it's best use was for soundtracking films with themes of space, alien invasion or general horror or thriller themes. This is what was done with the 1956 soundtrack to The Forbidden Planet, which was the first completely electronic film score ever made, using bespoke analog synthesisers made by the film scorers Louis & Bebe Barron. They made their own electronic instruments with basic circuits called ring modulators to generate bizarre tones, and then warped the sounds further by adding effects to the tape recordings of them, by adding delay's, reverbs and sometimes reversing the sounds in an experiment to see what sounds could be made, and which suited the films action. The film was set hundreds of years in the future, aboard space ships, so needed a experimental sounds and foley for the gadgets and action that would be on screen.









This soundtrack was revolutionary as it showed a very clear purpose for electronically generated sounds and music in the sic-fi film genre, and it was also the first film with stereo sound available across the U.S., in cinemas with a sound system capable of stereo reproduction. Though the soundtrack was only released as an album for the film 20 year anniversary  in 1976, and was never considered for any awards, it is regarded as a milestone in electronic music composition. The film has influenced many science fiction programmes and films that came after it like Star Trek, and the soundtrack itself is sighted as a constant inspiration by Ben Burtt who composed sound effects for the Star Wars films.

This is the LP sleeve from the 1976 release, showing the sci-fi visuals of the film that the music accompanied. It was never given any formal awards as it wasn't eligable for film music awards at the time, but is groundbreaking for being the first fully electronic score, and probably the first made completely using bespoke instruments too.

 
1964 - Moog Synthesiser
The Moog synthesizer was a modular synth developed in the sixtees, which now has a legendary status due to it's use in recording and performance, and shaping of experimental German music, and development of rock music through the late 60's and early 70's. The moog was developed upon the principals Moog had learned from the workings of theremins, with the two oscillators generating sounds. The first moog invention had two oscillators with a feedback loop being created between the two of them, which made complex waves, which were then subtractively changed into waves like sawtooth, square etc. The development of the instrument with his electronic musician friend Herb Deutsch who told Moog what developments needed to be made, and what could be improved lead to the invention of the envelope which was a power control that allowed you to change the attack/delay/sustain/release of the sound, which meant the onset and intensity of the sound over the duration of a note could be altered. Moog's weren't cheap, and this paired with their sound meant they weren't instantly acclaimed, but as famous and forward thinking musicians and composers like Frank Zappa, Sun Ra and Stevie Wonder began to use the first commercially available moog model, the machine gained popularity. The inclusion of a conventional keyboard interface the control the sound was the most important decision made, as it was suggested by Wendy Carlos so she could compose switched on Bach upon it, which was the real boost to the moog's popularity.

The moog synthesizer had the success the hammond organ gained froma snowballing reputation obtained from use in records that became classic recordings. Moog models continued to be made, with more complex designs, greater functions and capabilities in even smaller sizes for use on the road and in studio's. Moog's are still legendary synthesizers, 50 years on from the release of the first being made, and still have their place in recordings of music today, showing the legacy of the instrument, and the importance it holds to producers and artists.

1968 - Switched on Bach recorded and released
This album recorded in 1968 used the earliest Moog synthesiser model to recreate some of the classical composer Bach's best pieces of music, and ended up being one of the selling classical records of the decade. The cover art shows the size of an early moog unit, displaying one the early hurdles the instrument faced, which meant the early developments were in creating the integrated units, for taking up less space in studios, as well as for touring a live performance. This re-imagining of classical music kept the genre in the minds of the younger generation of musicians and music fans, that were at the time in the throws of psychedelic rock, and the beginnings of kraut and more experimental rock using synthesizers, so the timing of this release worked in it's favour. It's the first album to quite audaciously recreate classical music, which had never been portraid in this way before, which upset some purists and but captivated others, and introduced many people to classical music, making it accessible, and allowing it to influence future music. The sales and grammy awards distilled the albums importance to the inclusion of synthesizers in music recording and performance too. The album was constructed with overdubbed parts, and recorded arduously in small sections of each composition to 8 track stereo which had recently become the new standard for studio recording after 4 track and mono became to restrictive to musical progression in the studio, so this recording utilised the new technological developments, but the recording was still difficult, as is the nature of recording to tape rather than digitally, plus without the option of MIDI to trigger parts either. 

This recording blazed a trail for many copy cat recordings, including switched on Gershwin, Snowflakes are Dancing and Chopin a la Moog, all borrowing the formula of this release, birthing an electronic-classical sub genre, and showing the importance of switched on Bach to opening the minds of those who composed classically to utilizing the benefits of synthesizers distinctive sounds in recording. Below is the cover of the switched on Bach album, showing the moog used in recording, surrounded by furniture of Bach's era, and a Bach impersonator sat at it, as if he were composing the original music upon the synth.


* Yamaha Dream Machine Polysynth - Stevie Wonder "Pastlife Paradise" strings *



1970-1979 - Electronic Music Progression & Fusion (Krautrock)
During the late 1960's off the back of switched on Bach, and all the progression in electronic instruments, recording techniques and musical progression, it became clear to many that innovation in music would see electronics become a key component. In the early 1970's bands like Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Faust were all using synthesisers in fusion with rock music creating innovative music dubbed as Krautrock, which took rock to a more avant garde place, and harnessed influences of ambient and experimental classical as well as typical rock influences in New Age compositions. Krautrock generally refers to German rock, as Germany is where the majority of this experimental fusion was coming from, and it's popularity in Britain was helped by John Peel and similar music broadcasters.

Characteristics of krautrock are a "motorik" beat, which was a description for a constant 4/4 beat used in krautrock. In terms of instruments the common synthesisers being used alongside the bass, drums and guitar were the Minimoog, and the EMS VCS3. The VCS3 wasn't massively reliable for creating or re-creating common sounds but found it's place in krautrock for the odd sounds it could produce, and as for the monophonic minimoog, this was the first self contained moog, advancing upon it's predecessors, and the fact it was monophonic meant it was perfect in the crafting a motorik groove, as it could lock onto the key of the drone and oscillate rhythmically with the groove of the music, crafting that typical sound.

The use of synths and advancement of Rock music with synthesisers has influenced many artists even up to artists in the 21st century, and at the time drew many artists to Berlin to reinvent their sound. A perfect example is David Bowie, coming to Berlin with Toni Visconti and Brian Eno and making new music with synthesisers and rock, in the process making one of Bowie's finest records "Low" in 1977. As for artists today, people like James Murphy of DFA and LCD Soundsystem sight Can and other Kraut bands as big influences on them, and show how a band that fuses synthesisers with drums, guitar and bass today to create alternative dance music, aren't a million miles from Kraut of the 70's, if not less moody and more danceable than the seventies genre.

Synthesizers themselves in the 1970's began to develop, from the temperamental beginnings with the awkward and difficult to play synths used krautrock and early electronic music, brands like Korg, Roland and Yamaha from Japan began to get into the synthesiser game, which sped up the progression of the instruments due to the competition, and as these companies ironed out the creases with the design flaws of models, the synthesiser began to become more playable, easily programmable and more appealing therefore to the every day musician, studio engineer and producer, meaning that eventually synths of all kinds were essential in the studio setup, and the 1970's was the decade where this really began to happen.


1980-83 - MIDI Development
In 1980, music using synthesisers had become commonplace, and having once been on the fringes had infiltrated the mainstream from Artists firstly like David Bowie and then later acts like Gary Numan who got great public interest. Whenever they had recorded synths or played them live, a player would have played all the sounds either with a keyboard interface, or by using the pots to control parameters to alter the sounds. With the invention of MIDI, this was no longer the only option, as MIDI was a binary language that could be used to trigger synthesisers to play without the use of a human to produce the sounds. This meant anything could be played, and could play a pattern or sequence of sounds that an advanced performer may struggle to play, meaning all songs and performances could now become more complex. 

The invention of MIDI went hand in hand with the invention of other devices that allowed MIDI technology to show it's full potential. Devices like digitally controllable synths, that could be chained together with devices made by the manufacturers for their instruments (like Roland's digital communication bus) meant instruments could be connected, and information could pass between multiple ones, with an interface to control them all, then all that was needed to complete a digitally controllable synth was the language that was MIDI to remotely use these instruments with their new technological advantages.

The first synthesiser with MIDI compatibility in late 1982 was the Sequencial Circuit Prophet-600. Early MIDI control manuals had limited instruction controls to perform very basic tasks, and control simple volume parameters, but as demand grew for more complex control, the language become more complex and new messages were created to do more things.

MIDI became a standard language for digital control, and only developed along with technology that planned to use it, so when computers were becoming a music making and performance tool, MIDI was integrated to their design and function, and it this way stayed relevant and important. When USB and firewire and other connections were invented to send data, MIDI was still able to travel via these cables, as it was used to be sent from the computer, out via USB to an interface and then to a synth to control it, and wasn't needed to change as it worked for new ideas and functions, so is still used today as a result.

In electronic music performances today, like Jon Hopkins mentioned in the first task, MIDI controls inputs and outputs and levels of sound, is used to control synthesisers and is sent from a laptop to an instrument to trigger it, and is controlled by a MIDI interface with faders or pots. This is a very typical example of MIDI in modern performance, and will be as genres and styles progress further, until it becomes obsolete for whatever reason, though this doesn't seem likely.

1983 - Yamaha DX7
In the early days of synthesisers the focus was on subtractive synthesis, due to limited technology, and the size of the instruments. With the invention of digital instruments and MIDI data, when the Yamaha DX7 was brought out in 1983 it was little more than the size of the keyboard itself, but it was a new kind of synthesis altogether called FM (frequency modulation) which came about from research in transmitting radio waves, where they found attaching a signal to a strong carrier wave would send it a further distance, where the carrier wave could be removed at it's destination. In FM synthesis two waves are combined and create dissonant clashing tones, rather than pleasant harmonic multiples.

This synth was played to death on records in the 1980's, famous examples being songs by The Cure, Depeche Mode, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross etc. The popularity of any new style of synth showed how with every progression the synthesiser would remain popular, and artists couldn't wait to incorporate a new sound into their recording. This synth remains desirable today, because of it's use on influential records, and ability to generate sounds that sound current in today's music, despite it's age and prolific use in the 80's.

1988 - Akai MPC-60
With synthesisers being used in many genres of popular music, it's necessary to mention some equipment being used in a genre rising in popularity from sub-culture status, which was Hip Hop. The genre was around way before the release of this sampler in 1988, and indeed other samplers were being used in the genre to form the instrumentals to be rapped over, but this sampler in particular encompassed everything necessary to make and sequence beats, which as well as containing percussion contained bits of instruments too, chopped into sections and then laid over a track of electronic drums to reinforce the power of the beat, and all of this could be performed in the Akai MPC-60, meaning the complete Hip Hop instrumental could be assembled with just this kit, and the turntable and records to sample from. 

This sampler is famed for being easy and creative to use, as it's functions made beat making on it much better than more primitive models. As samplers were taken from vinyl records, getting the rhythm of the instrumental from that record (which may not be played to a BPM on the original recording) and getting it first to loop over 8 or 16 bars, to then punctuate it with the extra percussion would be very difficult, but was becoming easier than ever with the MPC-60. It had 16 velocity sensitive pads, which could have for example one bar of the sampled audio mapped to it, meaning different sections could be mapped to different pads, and played back in a different sequence to the original creating a different chord structure and vibe, and when that was recorded into a sequencer, then the extra percussion would tie it together and make it sound fluent, and give it a signature hip hop sound. It had a better frequency range for sampling than most samplers at the time, as it sampled at 12bit rather than 8, and had more  capacity to store more samples, so was just all in all a better sampler than any around at the time. It's built in electronic kits aimed to replicate genres which hip hop were influenced by, like funk kits for example, giving it further appeal to the hip hop producer. It was used by artists like DJ Shadow, which shows it was good enough for the job.

1991 - Pro Tools First Edition/Early Editions
Pro tools is a digital audio workstation, like logic but comparable with both mac and pc, which is regarded as the best for recording bands and working with audio in a studio environment. It's first incarnation released in 1991 was only capable of handling 4 tracks of audio, and had no MIDI capabilities, meaning it wasn't much use for any technology based music, aside from recording synths as audio, but once the MIDI sequencer was incorporated to the DAW, and eventually in 1997 the conversion rate was upped from red book standard to 24bit and 48000Hz, with a maximum of 48 tracks, it became the premium option of digital audio workstation for the time, and becoming the best choice for forward thinking producers. Producers like Rick Rubin were using pro tools in the late 90s, and he used it to record the Johnny Cash American Recordings, showing how technology was being utilised for the recording of music which wasn't a cutting edge electronic genre, but of a more country/folk background.

2012 - Korg Volca Range (Return to Analog)
With many progressions of the 1990s and 2000s begin digitally focussed, the return to using vintage equipment and analogue synthesisers may seems counter to this, but it's argued that sound generated with analogue synths and their electrical generators isn't replicable with software emulations, no matter how expensive or well regarded, so this prompted main brands like korg to re-think their older synth designs and launch analogue units suitable for the 21st century electronic musician, at a price which would undercut the minimoog's and similar synths of the 1970's, which go for massive amounts. The volca series cover melody, rhythm and bass in three different synth units, so altogether can provide all parts for an electronic track, and they do this with a combination of analog sound creation processes and some digital sound samples in the percussion, which can be processed and manipulated with the analog filters and effects. 

These units filled a gap in the market for an affordable, portable and diverse analog synth, which is being reclaimed in dance, electronic and ambient techno genres, meaning many other companies are re-launcing synths from the past also. This is good for music broadly, as many people may not have believed they could ever afford analog equipment, and are inspired to create music from this. It also helps to bridge the gap between professional studios and domestic setups, meaning home recordings on low budgets can have real analog synthesised sounds just like real studio recordings, and all this amounts to more good quality inspired music, which is good for music fans and musicians everywhere.