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Abrupt Start: And this is a revolution of the effect of really the pace of music, its anatomy, its entire anatomy, not really the sonic surface of music but I'm sure there are many of you here today, who will insist the fact is where the revolution lies. But deeply within it's very structured. Now I know it would be much easier for me to convince you that there has been a revolution in music if I concentrated entirely on this aspect of production i.e. electronic production of sound this smacks them how of real revolution, of a technological revolution who with substitution machine for man, I didn't want to say that but (inaudible 0:00:42) saying that. But this is of course not at all what concerns me but only very slightly but (inaudible 0:00:48) I am not primarily interested in proving to you is something very important what just happened with regard to the way we present music (inaudible 0:00:56). While the electronic medium has not in any sense of the word been an instigator of revolution it's been rather a result certainly not a cause. It has entered the revolution at a very late stage and only then as a necessary answer for certain kinds of problem but is far more central, far more strategic so if you forgive me, let me before I say a word about electronic music indicate a little bit of why electronic music? Why we are talking about a revolution? Now, I don't like this, what I hesitated to use this word when I submit it as a subject and I don't like using unless I revaluate the word for myself and realize that I do mean it. Now, Dynasound was supposed to be what it is called Dynagroove was supposed to be a revolution in musical sound and the executives at RCA changed revolution to evolution. Even in commercial advertising revolution is regarded as too weak a word. While I mean it as a very, very strong word, now this is a very serious and very different problem. I don't mean to be glib about it and they appear to be and certainly do not mean to be. What has happened in music in the last 40 years is not at least this afternoon (inaudible 0:02:07) to the subject of any apologies or any criticism of any kind whatsoever for me, not only is the role of apologist or critic or propagandist somehow unfamiliar to me and inappropriate one for the occasion. But this is not the point at the moment. We are not talking about qualitative matters, perhaps you think I should be but at the moment I regard my role of an expositor. I am not concerned with presenting music which I approve or which I think you should approve, I'm much more concerned with presenting to you a certain side of situation. Now this is I believe, I say the revolution and composition in that role is primary for most of us. A revolution in exam and the examination of music and that followed the revolution in composition and probably look at music how we talk about music particularly music at the time and finally the production of music (inaudible 0:02:07) of composition. Now I can be very old fashioned about this and what I say will be very old fashioned to some of you that (inaudible 0:03:04). What I said in retrospect now at this particular moment of chronological removal not ideological removal just chronological removal, when you look back as if you wish the immediate figure of this revolution. Now I've said before and of course I shall repeat myself because one has to repeat yourself when you think you're right. But Schoenberg was indeed a revolutionary thing you'll have a regard for that but you'll certainly say is that the fact and the effect of Schoenberg's contribution let's call it that modestly for the moment that's had the effect of the genuine (inaudible 0:03:40). So what I may speak in general for a few minutes and tell you why I assert this; Schoenberg did present to the world like it or not something called (inaudible 0:03:53). It was not a prescription as how one should or must write music. It was the presentation of certain kinds of systematic constraints. Certain kinds of principles, which all work that are to called (inaudible 0:04:05),which we believe when in doubt music with certain kinds of basic structural coherence within which the composer would work as individually, in fact more individual perhaps that he could with previous the constrains. Now this all sounds very cold blooded, it all sounds not out of the pack at least very true. It was not, it was the result of an extremely difficult internal battle for Schoenberg himself and for Schoenberg and that would be (inaudible 0:04:35). But what he did was to simply find a solution for himself as a composer; as a composer whose capacity is in the so called traditional idioms with traditional structural principles is of course undoubted. Why he did it is not the subject today. The subject is (inaudible 0:04:52). And he presented compositionally as well as verbally in fact more important than verbally compositionally a means in certain compositions generalized means which he thought and I happen to agree with him would reendow music with certain basic organizational principles which would make a work on the one hand perhaps more self contained, more contextual than it had been in the past but still not create principle which would be shared by great number of those who will instigate if you will a common language. Now, many of you may feel this isn't the way to reintroduce a common line but that of course is no longer the point because this has become a common language for a great many composers who had no relations personally to Schoenberg or Schoenberg (inaudible 0:05:31). Now I'm not going to discuss the 12-tone (inaudible 0:05:34), the effect of it if you will is all that need concern me at the moment. The fact that suddenly composers were made aware of this phenomenon, the phenomenon does not get (inaudible 0:05:47) but the possibility of creating music on different structural principles. This is all very general but the fact is that at this moment again a chronological removal, I have to appeal to that a quarter of a century or so later, we can say that empirically this has been bit to change. Composers of all kinds of idioms, tastes, and styles and musical predisposition have embraced the principles of the 12-tone system. You may say that they are all wrong (inaudible 0:06:16) but at the moment this is the empirical fact. And what is more it has given rise to a whole chain of other events. Once you realize that there is an alternative to a system, which was once regarded as admitting no alternatives and of course immediately composers asks himself, why not my own personal alternative. I can remember indeed 25 years ago perhaps when people were saying well look I can construct a system like the 12-tone system any day of the week. Now that may have been true but the answer is there is no other such influence in the history of music and at this moment we can say that however what other alternatives might have suggested themselves they've simply had no effect on the history of music but what I would like to talk about today is just the fact of an alternative. The fact that a composer could now say look here is music which is constructed according to well definable, discussable principles as indeed were the principles of tonal music and we will write music and we are writing music and composers will feel within this the possibility of that kind and let's use the word of personal expression like composers themselves like the tonal music system. Now for the moment let's turn our attention to the other aspect of this revolution, discussion of music. Its characteristic of almost any revolutionary age that when you've come to realize that what is packed was not the only possible alternative, you begin to reevaluate these alternatives. It would be easy to draw parallels herewith mathematics for example, people always do. You think of the relation to (inaudible 0:07:44) geometry and the fact that this was regarded as once an inevitable series of axioms which represented the real world and suddenly there were alternative geometry. It's not a bad analogy but like of course like any other analogy doesn't prove anything but it may help to illuminate something. But what we are discussing now is the question of how composers talked about the tonal system, once they realized that there was possibly an alternative and composers began to assume responsibility for what they were talking about. They began to reexamine the past in a completely different way; for example it's by no means (inaudible 0:08:15) but you couldn't prove it wasn't tonal (inaudible 0:08:15) but just at the moment when Schoenberg was developing a new musical system in Vienna, the first attempt was made and still the most elaborate attempt to characterize the tonal system by another man who had taken Vienna as his home Heinrich Schenker and the Schenkerian characterization of tonal music is still the most elaborate and was used at that moment, though this is quite irrelevant to its real character as an apology, please understand I use apology as an apology for the tonal system. In other words to defend the tonal system against this onslaught it was his own contribution of course and a tremendously significant one. Now these I assure you are revolutions, the 12-tone revolution and the fact that the 12-tone revolution has in turn given rise to all kinds of revolutions some of which may posses an archaic excesses which were associated with any revolution, which had generated things which go far beyond itself justifiably and unjustifiably, and the concentration that this particular revolution has had with regard to an examination of the music of the past. Well these are hard things of the fact, they take us into the whole change of the composer's position with regard to his art with regard to society because it has changed. When the nature of music changed the nature of the composer's relation to all that embraces music has changed, and here we are today in universities and composers were never in any universities before. And this is all very significant and finally of course what this led to by way of medium. So of course I'm going to have to concentrate on this new medium, this electronic medium but may I emphasis again, only because it is most easily dealt with and because it induces questions with regards to perhaps more sensible issues it is still not the central issue but when one understands not so much how but why electronically produced sound and therefore electronically produce music came into being then perhaps more would understood of the motivations. So let's begin at the beginning. I could stand here and begin all over again and say after all today we have available to us a technology, we have available to us possibilities that were not even foreseen before the second World War. Therefore isn't it all surprising that this has had its effects in the field of music as it has its effect anywhere else. But the truth of the matter is that the possibilities of electronic music were foreseen, were understood and even presented 66-67 years ago. The very first purely electronic generator of the musical sound was and is as a matter of fact still in existence was invented was built was put into use before the turn of the century and is housed now at least partially in a Smithsonian institute. In other words as soon as it was understood that music could be recorded it was understood perfectly well actually to produce sound without the instruments that normally produce sound. Once it was understood that all the information possessed by a phonograph record was contained in the grooves of that record was perfectly well understood that if you could just mechanically make these grooves unless you believed in ghost in the machine, you could reproduce all the sounds that took place in that groove in the first place by recording. That was the reasoning that went behind all of the original electronic experiment. There were some cases (inaudible 0:11:28) they were quite surprised. So therefore I think the first question you ask yourself is not what has technology made possible, of course certain aspect of technology have made it easier one can say look we have electronic music today because of certain advancements in the science and art of electronics but I would rather insist if you have electronic music today necessarily because of certain advances in the art and science of musical compositions. What we do is simply contrast the present situation, the situation in which there is undeniable interest and contention with regard to this whole question of electronically produced music and compared with the comparable situation of let us say 30 years ago. Now to be sure as I have said the electronic instruments of that time offered very little except possibly sonic novelty, new sounds. They were mainly performing instruments and of course we are not going to be talking about performing instruments today but there was one medium a medium which I shall mention, and I shall play an example of it later. The so called handwritten soundtrack, which possessed potentially at least all of the possibilities of any current electronic medium, it was the complete medium, it was developed to a very, very high degree by the end of the 1920s. If there were technical problems to be sure but the absence of any widespread concentrated attack upon these technical problems was simply a reflection of the fact that most composers were unaware of this medium and when made aware of the medium were really uninterested. And yet there seem to be no correspondence between the needs of musical composition and the particular resources of this new medium. In other words people felt why waste very valuable time and energy on the nearly possible. Now within the past 10 years certain impossible's have become for many composers necessities. It again would be very easy for me to stand here and say look isn't it obvious that contemporary music should make demands upon instruments, upon performers, that could not met and cannot be met by instruments designed in 16th, 17th, and 18th century for music to be performed in 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. And above all music that reflected 16th, 17th, and 18th century compositional techniques, but that of course is true and it is reasonable but there is much more to it then that, there is much more that are specific with regard to it than that. It has to do with another attitude and that too reflected much more profoundly into the 12-tone system and that is with regard to musical time, to time in music. Now it maybe that many of you have been led to believe that the reason composers have turned to the electronic medium, the purely electronic medium is for new sounds, this I assure you is simply not true. I know very few composers who are dissatisfied with the sound availability, to sound resources of normal media, not at all and furthermore what becomes older more quickly than a new sound. The sound in itself, this is really not a very profound concern of most composers but what is much more couple of consideration for composers is the question of the control of time. Now the 12-tone system was formulation of means of organizing music in which the norm, the referential norm of any musical composition would involve order. The order in which notes were presented, pitches were presented to you the listener and that immediately meant time, order in time. Now this was only a quantitative conception of order to be sure but it led immediately to concerns with qualitative time, how do we hear, how do we perceive, how indeed this time effect every aspect of the musical event? That wasn't a very easy question to answer and still isn't because whereas any conventional instrument not this one but there were a piano present obviously it provides automatic or semi-automatic means of frequency control, a pitch control. But no comparable means of time control. It's simply not provided, it's not built into the instrument its not even I fear built into the performer's training. But still it is not available in exactly in the same terms of anything like the same terms. In other words, what we are saying is this, that the 12-tone system for the first time was a system in which time was explicable stated at the part of the compositional assumption. But this whole matter of time was something which could not be specified in the same terms for the performer or performer's instrument. So immediately, one turns to that medium where time can be specified, can be controlled to an extent that was never possible or seen before, and this was the electronic medium. No matter what medium we are talking about, in the electronic domain time is controllable, specifiable, regulable to an extent that is impossible with normal instruments. So let's define what we are talking about. Let's define what we mean by the electronic medium. Now first of all I want to make is clear that I'm talking about the purely electronic medium that is the medium where the sound is produced, regulated, generated entirely by an electrical or electromechanical means. In other words we are not talking about instruments that are to be performed on, we are not talking about electronic organs or electronic guitars because the whole point of this medium is again that it is separated from a real time performance by definition. I am not talking either about something called music one correct or tape music only because it is (inaudible 0:16:39) by the technique that I'll talking about is not qualitative (inaudible 0:16:42), I beg your pardon. So let us now consider what we are defining. We are defining a medium in which the following aspect of the musical event can be specified electronically, so let's just categorize it for a moment and see how this is done. If we were to produce one single musical sound, we have to be able to generate and specify the following facets if you wish are components of a musical sound. First of all frequency, which in some sense you perceive as pitch, directional which we perceive in some sense as duration, tone color this is very, very complicated; it is more than one thing, it involves the spectrum of the sound that is the harmonic distributions within the sound, the roles of amplitude, we aren't going to these techniques, you know what is meant by tone color however, it is the difference between a certain pitch at a certain intensity level played by lets say a flute as opposed to the same pitch, same intensity level played on a (inaudible 0:17:36). And then of course intensity, loudness if you wish. When we have specified these things, we have specified the ingredients, the perceptual, the notational ingredients of a musical tone and then there is one more thing, how this tone progresses to the next to its specified musical tone and that is a very critical part of the whole perceptual apparatus, the tone color perception and musical perception. Now what I'd like to do very briefly today is this, indicate to you how this has been done, how it's been done. Separate for the moment the musical from the medium, because one very reprehensible term I shall say is certainly misleading is the term electronic music, it implies immediately a kind of music, a style, an idiom certain technical procedures perhaps certain systematic previous disposition. Now none of this is true. The electronic medium is just that a medium, it imposes absolutely nothing by way of style or idiom whatever these terms may mean upon the composer. Less than any other medium since it after all is the most vast and flexible of medium, doesn't make any such impositions on the composer. The point I'm trying to make is we are not talking about a kind of music, we are talking about a medium, a medium in which the composer makes the decision and the choices but more of this later to produce any kind of music that he desires. So therefore, when I suddenly now discuss the technical means of doing so simply in the hope I think to write certain misunderstanding if not to relay certain misgivings I'll be able to talk about this without any reference to music, to quality of music and kind of music but really how sound is produced by electronic means. Now I said before something about the handwritten soundtrack. Now in order to get us off to an informal start what I'd like to do is play for you a museum piece and that is one of the first examples of purely electronic music ever produced. I said before that in the late 20s there was a handwritten soundtrack was produced in Germany and two studios in Germany, while when Hitler came into power both studios were disbanded one of the inventors of the handwritten soundtrack went to Russia and the other interestingly enough went to Hollywood. The one who went to Hollywood never had anything to do with this kind of undertaking, again this is just the bitterness because all of his work had been destroyed, he became a professional animator and I won't tell you his name, some of you may know him. The other man went, as things were in those days went to Russia where a studio was set up for him and where Russia became for a long time, this is very surprising and to many people, the forefront of a certain kind of experimentation in the handwritten soundtrack. They produced, maybe some of you are old enough to remember, I am, a very famous Russian cartoon called Gulliver, you'd be interested to know that that cartoon was not only hand animated but every sound was hand drawn on the soundtrack, every speech, every word was hand drawn on the soundtrack. And they made a complete (inaudible 0:20:32) that it was hand drawn. This became their particular medium and they are still using essentially these processes today in Russia. (inaudible 0:20:39) you can say that you've heard it, I have a very, very unusual very short tape from a Jules Verne picture that was made about 1936 in Russia in which the whole music track was handwritten, that means that somebody sat down and wrote with variable area soundtrack method the exact results of what has been obtained to have an instrument for example or a collection of instrument played into a microphone and this has been recorded except of course that he could do whatever he wished and he was not in any sense the word limited by the possibilities of such an instrument. He began by simply hand drawing it. Now with kind of a preliminary I wish to warn you that this is a very old tape and very badly misused, were playing on a very small tape machine, expect no wonder but I think we should hear a real museum piece of electronically produced music. Now I said that my role today is that of a expositor may I just for a moment step aside from this and express the (inaudible 0:21:31) that after you've heard this you will not say when you leave this is the only music you heard today, now again bear with me lets see how it goes. (Music) That's all that there is, if no one can accuse me of playing only (inaudible 0:22:13) music. Now, I simply wanted you to hear something as purely (inaudible 0:22:18) electronic music does not necessarily reflect the most profound revolution of music of our time. But it must be said that the real beginning of electronically produced music was dependent upon the development of the (inaudible 0:22:33) during World War II. As soon as World War II had reached an end, it became obvious to great many people that this new discovery which was not again chronologically new but which had been brought to a very high state of perfection during the war was capable of all kinds of wonderful things. I say this some two points with you least. The first is that obviously the tape storage of the music is very, very different from any other kind of storage particularly disk storage. In that on this flexible medium which can be cut, it can be reversed, it can be run at different speeds, all kinds of miraculous things can be performed on what you have recorded on tape. Of course it was not surprising that immediately it was susceptible to all kinds of use and misuse. And I'm sure you've all heard the results of use and misuse. Its not particularly different from what happened in the early days of films when people were so intrigued by the possibility of having someone dive out of the pool back to the diving board or having cars simply run backwards faster than (inaudible 0:23:29) in those days any car to run forward, that just justified the whole medium, now obviously there has been that and there will be that with regard to the tape manipulation of sound but still there is a serious aspect for all of this, forgetting for a moment even the compositional aspect. The possibilities of the tape medium in confronting one with the nature of music and sound or in norms. Now I don't happen to work in tape medium myself beyond of what is necessary you know, in association with other kinds of electronic undertaking but I must emphasize that this is what you should be aware of, the possibilities of tape machine and the production of music by at least secondary use of the tape machine, because tape machines are very easy to learn to work even under certain conditions that is why that is I mean is much easier for some people to learn to work than (inaudible 0:24:16) learn to work. In addition to which they are extremely cheap, now let me indicate why I emphasis this I am associated with a certain producer of sound production method of sound called the RCA Sound Synthesizer now this is the most sophisticated, the most flexible and indeed the most gigantic and unlimited producer of sound imaginable. The only difficulty is it costs at least a quarter of million to build, tape machines costs nothing like that and universities which are now concerned with brining their students composition students as well as students of general research into contact with the very medium of sound, of course they are doing this by use of the tape machine and certain associated apparatus, so therefore I'd like to talk a little bit about this today so that you'll know what is taking place, there are new studios which are concerned with this means of both producing sound, analyzing sounds, manipulating, mutating sounds and for example some of our most respectable institutions five or six have been built only within this year. Now what this means is simply this, it is perfectly possible to impress on a magnetic tape track, again anything that can be recorded on a tape track without the intervention of the actual recording. Now this is not to say that one can do things also by recording and then again performing certain modifications on this by virtue again of the unique means of storage provided by a tape. It also means you can simply produce sound (inaudible 0:25:38) that if you think of what goes on in recording of music you realize that the reproduction of music involves a number of stages of transformation. You have the stylus this needle for example which vibrates on the grooves and the vibrations at a certain moment, those oscillations contain all of the information of the recorded music and then these mechanical oscillations are transformed into electrical oscillations, those electrical oscillations are then amplified retransformed into mechanical operations oscillations rather in the diaphragm of the loudspeaker and converted into if you wish atmospheric pressure that reaches your ear. The reason I go through this particular set of block diagrams is because it is at that stage where the stylus, the mechanical oscillations of the stylus are transformed into electrical oscillation is at that moment that one can start. Take these electrical oscillations and simply create them from the very beginning and then obviously anything that can be recorded musically can be produced musically without again a source being instrumental. So that essentially is what we are talking about, how is this done, well lets go back to these particular aspects we thought would be required in order to produce musical sound, lets begin at the beginning. How do we produce the frequency? Descriptively, it's just that you turn on something called an oscillator, very, very easily built, you can buy (inaudible 0:26:14) oscillator for $25, produce something which is called a sinusoid which is a single frequency if you are lucky and its good enough. And there you have your frequency with a certain particular tone color that particular tone color the sinusoidal tone color is something I'm going to play for you in just a moment. And when you've done that and you've modified it perhaps or made it a more complex tone color, forget that for the moment, I'll show how that's done, you have an event, there you have only a single musical event you've a certain loudness that you can control and above all you can control its duration, and that is the significance. You can control its duration because temporal duration will be reflected by length along the tape, you measure this; again there is the temporal control to a degree of specificity that (inaudible 0:27:47) before by anyone. But now you have only one event, how do you get to the next event by mechanically splicing; you take that event you create another event you splice them together with splicing tape and you have a succession from one event to the next, it is laborious, it does teach us there is no doubt that; it even has inherent limitations because this is a rather simple and economical method but it already provides the kind of compositional control of at least certain aspects of music that no composer ever possessed before. So what I'd like you do is just in the simple possible term point out what that sounds like, nothing more than that again I'm not going to present you with any particularly impressive sounding music today, the point is not to use music the point here rather there are certain preliminaries if you wish to the music itself. Electronic music requires extremely complicated equipment or to be presented with anything like justice, we don't have it today nor should be, that is not the point. Listen to the following set of sounds. (Music) That is sinusoidal tone and we are going to hear a succession of them. (Music) Now I present those in succession, those can be produced by the simplest apparatus in the world. Those are pretty close to being pure tones, in other words there is one and only one frequency associated with a particular event. Now we don't have such a tone by the way producible by any know musical instrument. It can be produced only in the laboratory, not particularly pure here because there are all kinds of interventions but nevertheless it's going to approximation. Now that I'd like to show you very simply is what happens when you combine those four components, this is the way a sound is created, and the way the sound is changed by doing only one thing, changing the relative intensities of these four components, nothing else now remember four is a very, very small number, I'm doing it only to over simplify in the hope that will make understanding this particular point. (Music) It may seem things are dropping out and being added they are not. (Music) These are threshold effects. Now there is not anything very exiting about this, I will even allow myself to talk over it. There is an indication this is the way we are getting the effect of change of tone color with four simple sinusoidal component. (Music) The wow is in the machinery. This can go on and on and on, this is no two of these are alike and I think you'll admit it up to a certain point. Alright, enough of it; now what I'd like to do is just play for you a very, very short excerpt from a work which involves these material and nothing else. In other words this work was created entirely by simply turning on sinusoidal oscillator, taking a single tone, splicing a piece of tape equal to the desired duration and then making a succession of these, I'll tell you who wrote it after you've heard a little of it. Let me go ahead and find the (Music) I can't get fast forward, I'm sorry, I'm afraid you have to listen to it a little more, ah I made it. Anybody knows how to work (inaudible 0:31:34). You are going to have to listen to the rest of this, I'm sorry, its done, here you are here is the next example. (Music) Sorry I can't play this much louder without getting a lot of distortion. (Music) Well, again I am not concerned with instances of music, I wanted you to hear a little of what would be to some of you at least characteristically electronic music. Now this does happen be a kind of music in only one sense of the word. That many composers who have been attracted to this particular medium have been interested in this kind of control of sound and this kind of sound, now this is not a word of mine in case you thought I was being coy, it simply happens to be a work by a Canadian composer named (inaudible 0:32:51) at McGill University and happens to be a great virtuoso work of this particular kind. I mean virtuoso with regard to these particular materials. If you wonder how certain of these effects were made, well that's a technical question. But again I want to play to you something (inaudible 0:33:03) so that I can contrast with something very, very different if I can possibly get this thing to go forward fast. I've got it, now if I can only stop it. I'm sorry I simply can't see my markings because of the way this machine happens to tread. I'm in certain amount of difficulty here. As soon as I see the next marking I shall stop and we shall see where we are (inaudible 0:33:33). (Music) You wonder why the tempo is so slow, it was made in Holland. Now I shall apologize either for this example or for talking over it, this was a commercial record, purely electronic made by Philips, it was the best selling record in western Germany about three years ago and I'm trying to make the point about a kind of music, made exactly the same way as the little excerpts that I just played. Just a little more of this. (Music) You get the point. Now of course I apologize only to the extent of course (inaudible 0:34:42) example of electronic music that this is exactly my point, it is an example of electronic. This is purely electronic as anything created in the (Milano 0:34:51) Studios of Cologne City and it again indicates that we are not talking about a kind of music but that (inaudible 0:34:57). Now let me say before I turn from this tape medium which I think is immediately comprehensible do you think that I've something to do with your contact with tape machines at least. Before I talk about the next medium which is the one regarding which I know much more that is the so called synthesizer. And we are talking here about principle and before I talk about this next instrument which is literally unlimited and we are talking about new kinds of limits therefore that goes upon music. I have just juxtaposed unlimited and new kinds of music and that I trust you realize this is deliberate. Because when we suddenly change the limits of music by virtue of this new medium, a medium in which we create sounds, regulate sounds, produce sound by entirely electronic medium. We are having to deal with new kinds (inaudible 0:35:43). Now manifestly the normal musical instrument has inherent mechanical limits and obviously the human performer has inherent biological physiological limits and those limits do not correspond to the limits of our perceptual or conceptual apparatus, they don't and that is remarkable. What has suddenly happened is that the limits of music have been changed. From these physiological limits, from these mechanical limits of music of the past and the (inaudible 0:36:06) of the past, not to these new limits, not to the limits imposed by electronic instruments, not at all but to much more complicated, much less well known, much more intricate limits, the limits of the human conceptual apparatus. I don't want to say perceptual entirely because there is a whole conceptual question to the (inaudible 0:36:25) question and this poses a whole new kind of musical world and a whole new set of musical issue and problems and we get back to where I start. The composer who responsibly turns now to the purely electronic production of music suddenly finds himself confronted which can be called a basic research activity. He can specify anything, he can produce anything on tape, the question now is what will be heard of what of what he produced and this is not irrelevant to any composer. The question now is a new kind of set of disciplines and new kind of sets of specifications. Let me indicate what I mean, the composer in the past very often said to himself, I have written this particular thing for a particular instrument, I'm not sure it is possible for him to play. I'm not sure whether it doesn't' transcend the ultimate possibilities of this particular instrument or the performer for this instrument, very often he pushed the instrument to do new possibilities and very often by the way he was right it couldn't be done or couldn't be done at that particular moment. Now however the electronic composer asked a very, very different question. He says what I've created all that and what I can create transcend the limitations of the appropriately trained receptor for after all electronic speeds are far faster than the ear. The human instrument is not in any sense of the word are the human instrument plus, the instrument he happened to be from the mechanical instrument these are another never faster than he hear the electronic (inaudible 0:37:49). And the electronic instrument is capable of specifications of discriminations that far surpass the ears, this can be the capacity. So now we must find out what human beings can hear and do hear, and now we have to ask questions that were never asked before because it couldn't have been asked before (inaudible 0:38:09). Suddenly we can have answers to these questions and when we have these answers we will understand a great deal more about the perception of all music, non-electronic as well as electronic. Let me indicate for you how a composer creates music on the synthesizer, which is the instrument which I've worked over here. The RCA electronic, well maybe I should explain the title of these instrument. When this instrument was created at RCA they dubbed it the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer and we in order to avoid a relevant aesthetic controversy have rechristened it the RCA Electronic Sound Synthesizer. But in any case it is a very, very large instrument. It is not to be compared at the moment with tape recorders or oscillator or even mixing panels. It's about the size of a middle sized computer which stretched across this whole stage easily. But it is not and this is what I'm emphasizing it's not a computer and above all now I've come to a very delicate issue. It is not a composing machine. These instruments do not compose for the composer, they on the contrary makes the composer compose with a degree of accuracy and specificity that was never necessary and never possible before. In other words the composer now sits in front of this hopefully the composer, sometimes (inaudible 0:39:23). The composer sits before this instrument, in front of a keyboard, not a keyboard in the piano sense, a keyboard in the typewriter sense and he instructs this machine, he instructs this for every single time point with exactly the frequency he desires, the tone color characteristics which he by the way constructs from scratch, nothing is pre fed all the characteristic of intensity of means of succession from this event to the next event and he does this at any time point that he wishes. In other words he can change the specifications for one component every 30 seconds of the second or any other section, I think a fairly reasonable but already rather extreme composition in time. Now the composer must know exactly what he wants. When he punches in these instructions the machine knows absolutely nothing, like any other such machine it can do only when it is instructed and completely constructed. The composer must know not only acoustically what he wants he must know the electronic analogs of those acoustical specification. When a composer knows this he punches out this information and then he tests this, he can hear it immediately before he can commits it even to recording (inaudible 0:40:29) erase tape, as he rerecords it. For the first time it must be understood that a composer is having composed these pieces I'd say this is no composing instrument, having composed it, he is rehearsing it, he is hearing it, he is copying the part, he is checking the part, he is getting his performance all in one grand step. And this is what must be understood. The composer is now master of every aspect of the composition and what was once called the performance process. These two processes are now utterly and completely indivisible. And he can now specify anything that he wishes and he must know whether or not there is going to be the correlation that he hopes for between his input specification and what he hears through the speaker, remember electronic music must (inaudible 0:41:11) nature emanate always from the speaker. And then when he has done that and he has recorded his own tape and recorded many other such things that will occur simultaneously to be part of a given time point in his piece he has his composition. Now I've for a few minutes at least emphasis how this is done. I don't think it is (inaudible 0:41:32) why this is done. Quite obviously any kind of music can be produced this way but you might ask who would take the trouble to learn to produce music this way or wish to do it and I think that's a reasonable question. Obviously, only a composer who (inaudible 0:41:43) it. And the composers who have needed it have been in general whose non-electronic musical needs have been (inaudible 0:41:50) that they've known exactly what they wanted to do, couldn't do these things with non-electronic medium and found the electronic medium the only way to (inaudible 0:41:59). Now I suppose what you're waiting for is to hear a result, a compositional result from the synthesizer, you're not going to get because (inaudible 0:42:08) play. I don't want to confuse the issue here with my music or anyone else's music. I do want you see however in the simplest possible terms what can be done with this instrument. So if you'll forgive I'll sort of talk over a few very, very quick examples I'm not sure how we will be able to reproduce it anyhow, so lets do this. (Music) Oh no, not that, for give me. And please prepare to ask me questions. Now what I'd like to do if I can find this with any reasonableness can show you a result rather than the means of putting music together or the means of creating music electronically, I'd like to find an example which I simply go back and catch of something that will be a little more familiar perhaps in your term, may I try this please. (Music) Yes, these are simply test, these are simply examples of kinds of research well with regard how we hear sound and how for example sound has been heard. Remember we can go to this machine now and say, has a certain hypothesis about how we hear instrumental sound really reasonable. But we can test it, we can test it under controlled conditions. These are some of the things that are on the tape which happen to be (inaudible 0:43:24) depending upon what kind questions are likely to be asked but let me go ahead and find many. Here we are, now I would like you to listen to the following, which is completely electronic its not going to anything sensational and its not even going to be unfamiliar music. It is not also supposed to present a remarkable tone color on the contrary it's a neutral kind of sound. It is to show you rather the glimpse of the new possibilities of time control in music, go back just a little bit. (Music) Well that's my (inaudible 0:43:57). These are few more tests I'm sorry. (Music) These are all electronically produced (inaudible 0:44:05) these are all things which cannot be done by any musical instrument, believe me or not. Speed, flexibility of succession again control of time, control of loudness, time rate of change of loudness. This is quarter tone (inaudible 0:44:24), kept the time relationships with different tone colors. The example of misperception that can be sound like a gong sound or annoying sound because of the time relationship. (Music) Now that of course as I'm sure many of you realize is the beginning of the two chord F major invention of (inaudible 0:44:55). Played in a reasonably fast but not inhumanly fast tempo. Now that was created on a synthesizer in a matter of a few minutes of course without any attempt to do anything sensational what so ever, except by taking a familiar piece of music, so there would be no questions now of what kind of music, what idioms to show you certain things with possibilities that are built in to this particular instrument. Now you've heard this now you're going to hear the same invention played at twice the speed not merely to show you how speed can be increased without affecting any other characteristic but to show you that you can hear at this inhuman speed. (Music) I'll just remind you those of you particularly performers that quarter note equals 480. Now obviously you were hearing that, you were hearing it (inaudible 0:45:45) pitches. (inaudible 0:45:47) indicate again that one is not doing these things merely an order to do that which has never been done before but to show this is not only a legitimate resource but a useable and immediately useful results. Now just again to show you the psychological aspect of this kind of change of temporal relation to music, let me just play the preceding two examples simultaneously, so of course that means at end you'll be hearing the original (inaudible 0:46:11) performance as you did first of the sound I think rather slow to you. (Music) Well right now another aspect of an aspect of music which at least in the past was evident that (inaudible 0:46:40) remarkable and still not (inaudible 0:46:42) position. Now you're going to hear the same punched out indication to the synthesizer of the right hand of Bach F-major two part invention but when the second voice enters it will transverse. But now of course it is possible to (inaudible 0:46:59) available to have a transpose by any degree and with any kind of oscillation upon the (inaudible 0:47:05) with regard to (inaudible 0:47:08) will again show you how quickly and automatically and simple with these resources now made available to (inaudible 0:47:12). By the way I hope there is no misunderstanding this was a demonstration, this is not in any sense of word to be taken as music except for the fact to the extent of the original Bach presumably were. (Music) Now lets do that with a number of voices. (Music) This again is simply to demonstrate ensemble control, not (inaudible 0:47:54) what happened to the original Bach. (Music) This is example of how the ear behaves when confronted with something extremely different. This is of course facts again as the second time you heard, there is something else have been added. Now (inaudible 0:48:10) there are many of you who we have stopped to discussed but kept the general idea of what was taking place but what is happening there is that a different dynamic is associated with every single pitch, that is a different loudness level, extreme loudness levels, so extreme indeed that it would be inconceivable in any instrument, the fact of the matter is of course you don't perceive it in other terms whatsoever even when it passive speed you can't quite perceive it in those terms. Because I've to do simple limitations imposed by the air itself. (Music) Now the best example is little difficult to explain but I'd like you hear it. We know of course how completed and as they say not to linger (inaudible 0:48:58). We know for example that a change in frequency by no means assure a change in sensation of pitch and we know also that a change in another element entirely, while frequency is maintained may affect the sense of pitch. Now the best example of that is how you can change the sense of tone color by simply changing dynamics. The next version is the same version again, nothing has been changed with regard to what we would normally called tone color, but the dynamics have been changed, so that you have large (inaudible 0:49:29) over the whole course of excerpt. You may not believe this it may sound to you like a tape almost being run backwards, but here is it what sounds like. (Music) That's at least convincing if not very satisfactory otherwise. Now another aspect of time, one that is most relevant and contemporary, even when this is perhaps more striking as an example of what can be done now with regard to time control of music. In this case you're going to hear the Bach again believe me or not from the beginning but when the second voice enters an imitation it will move 5/4 as fast as the preceding voice they have been moving of course in a one to one (inaudible 0:50:16). This is a five to four ratio, not a very complicated but listen to it, it's still something that you will never have heard before (inaudible 0:50:24) or anywhere else. (Music) Now we will do it with a really much more complex relationship. (Music) Now we've put four such relationships together. (Music) Well one can go on and on, now this is a resource for example which is of immediate relevance for example such composers Elliott Carter has been trying to do such things and his non-electronic music. I point this out merely again to indicate at least (inaudible 0:51:20) some of the motivation. Now I know I'm (inaudible 0:51:22) but there are a few things I'd like to say. The first thing I'd like to say is I've not discussed one means of producing sound (inaudible 0:51:28) and that is the computer means of producing sound. And I bring it up only again because of verbal confusion. The use of computer to make certain decisions with regard to the composition of music is one thing and has nothing to do with what I'm discussing today, but one tends computers to actually to produce the sound, but the composer in exactly as complete control as the composer is at the centre of the synthesizer that has been developed to a very large extent to build laboratories and I simply wanted to mention the fact that there has see more matters of general interest which I should mention before I lay myself open to questions and that has to do with of course (inaudible 0:52:00). There are so many misunderstandings that I accept but I would like to make a few things clear, of course the first thing you say, I am bound to encounter certain questions as to relation between this activity and (inaudible 0:52:13). I hope this it is perfectly obvious that the intention, not only the intention but the (inaudible 0:52:17) of electronic music is certainly not understated with a notion of replacing performers (inaudible 0:52:24) this is a supplementation of the resources we use and its effect. There are certain things which simply do not require electronic realization, with electronic realization and I should be very cold blooded about it since (inaudible 0:52:38) with nothing else. This is not (inaudible 0:52:39) will never really be easy. It is to do that which can be initially done by electronic media, not that this could be done by others means as well or other means (inaudible 0:52:49) but I think of another issue here and that is electronic music is not a performer's music. It is not a music that can easily produce under the same conditions, hats off to those who (inaudible0:52:59) as well as heard, electronic music is certainly not going to satisfy. And there is something else especially with (inaudible 0:53:06) now that is bound to enter any discussion. I do it head on and then probably be applied to (inaudible 0:53:12) later. What is this? (inaudible0:53:15) about this machine. Now obviously if you are going to present and insist that somehow an instrument which is made up of wood, of copper wire, a vibrator somehow inherently more human than an instrument made up of copper wire and metal and (inaudible 0:53:29). Now I simply can't take that very seriously if on the other hand this looks like still a misunderstanding (inaudible 0:53:35). This is a machine which is controlled completely by the composer. If you wish to take this stand and (inaudible 0:53:43) as many people did as soon as the voice was (inaudible 0:53:46) by instrument I see (inaudible0:53:47). But once you do not (inaudible 0:53:50) I totally understand what the excitement is about, why understand this fear about computers which this is not but even if it were but this is not even the point, we are simply using a medium under the complete control of a human composer to realize his desire, his choices, his decision as he has never been able to realize it before. Now I know a composer might come along and say look I welcome the collaboration of a performer. I don't mind he is making certain decisions about (inaudible 0:54:16), about dynamics, about rhythmic aspect within certain limitation. Now you ask that same composer whether he would be willing to allow the performer to make certain decisions and choices about changes of pitch and unless he be a so called chance composer he would demur violently of course. Now one simply has to see that there are composers who correctly or incorrectly have just the specific decisions to be made about the rhythmic aspect, the dynamic aspect of their music as about the picture aspect. Of course beyond that it's a matter of the composer's disposition. I don't quite understand why there is this (inaudible 0:54:47) concern about the human element unless there is a misunderstanding and if there is I will of course attempt to answer all the question that can possibly be as this regard to, other than this I must regard it as some kind (inaudible 0:54:59) fear of superstition. Now I do want to say something else as I stop, I mean manifestly, chronologically we are just (inaudible 0:55:06) and just as obviously and hopefully we have a very, very long way to go and at the moment I don't think anyone can presume to foresee as to what our eventual goal will be but I think one thing we can be sure there is no matter what this eventual goal is at least as important as that goal will be each stage on the journey towards that goal because I think significant stage of this journey I think you must admit that we can expect to see the very face of music changes, music has never being able to change before. Thank you very much. Question: (inaudible 0:55:36) Respondent: well this is a very good (inaudible 0:55:43). This involves so many issues (inaudible 0:55:47) update me if you can. Obviously no one will contest the fact that once you go into the fact that this is worth investigating (inaudible 0:55:55) the composer is going to need a kind of education that is required to deal with it. I can remember when I was (inaudible 0:56:02) very sympathetic people unless you learn to work the electronic apparatus, the composer has to know no more about electronic apparatus (inaudible 0:56:08). That's reasonable but unfortunately that doesn't appear to be true. Unless you join the (inaudible 0:56:14) even more strategic decisions and (inaudible 0:56:18) to the most unsympathetic of performer, and (inaudible 0:56:20) hope no one is going to say that I am unsympathetic (inaudible 0:56:25) that he is going to simply have to learn how to use this instrument in an active way of the performers and learn to use their (inaudible 0:56:32). This unfortunately turns out to be true. Now it is obvious that the composer today is confronted by a vast (inaudible 0:56:39), a profound (inaudible 0:56:41) medium. It has to be (inaudible 0:56:43) use this medium as well as to be educated in the implications of the (inaudible 0:56:46). Now that happens to be quite easy for the (inaudible 0:56:50) where most composers in fact the (inaudible 0:56:54) composers are universally saying and are universally teaching. After all the amount of scientific training that is required to comprehend and to use as (inaudible 0:57:02) is far, far less than it is required (inaudible 0:57:05) time is left and require to learn to play a few major scale evenly and reasonably on a piano. Now it is a very serious question. It means that something is going to continue to happen as we have all see it happen. People have been going into music and the composition above all in the past few years would probably would never have got into composition (inaudible 0:57:24). We are developing a new breed of composers but I don't think that people are failing to go into music who would have gone in the past but that's someplace you (inaudible 0:57:34). But we are attracting a new kind of breed of people that (inaudible 0:57:39) very, very much. But does it happen to (inaudible 0:57:43) associated with (inaudible 0:57:42). Thus we are attracting for the first time a person capable of (inaudible 0:57:49) which has never being brought into music before, I think it's remarkable and perpetually difficult for him to handle unless you handle (inaudible 0:57:55). It is a fantastically hard question (inaudible 0:57:59). However some realistic term. What you preserve in the fact, what's in the past, what did you do officially make it (inaudible 0:58:05). This is normal (inaudible 0:58:10) musical materials as well as the materials of media. I think the only possible answers of course you have to think about musical education from the very beginning, forgive me if I sound illogical but I�ve to do (inaudible 0:58:19) my life too. After we have taken control (inaudible 0:58:23) people have to do in foreign language course and we are pretending that after they have gone through undergraduate course to graduate course that we have to (inaudible 0:58:29) composers. Now when people begin to (inaudible 0:58:33) in the freshman year at college, they think they'll French but no one pretends to (inaudible 0:58:37) style by the end (inaudible 0:58:41). But the major problem has to do with the whole educational process and have to do with (inaudible 0:58:45) that has to do with the whole question of science in the deepest sense as methodology as if you wish responsible language as well the technology itself. I wish I could say much more as there is so much more to say. (Informal Talk) Question: (inaudible 0:59:06) Respondent: (inaudible 0:59:09) is that you, I found the voice (inaudible 0:59:11). I certainly don't see well. This is of course the a very, very tough subject. This is one in which I can be very (inaudible 0:59:23). I mean (inaudible 0:59:24) these days about the obligation of the composer to his (inaudible 0:59:26). I'm very much concerned about this. Now again when I'm talking about a kind of music (inaudible 0:59:34). When we are talking about composers who in general are still (inaudible 0:59:40). Although it is responsibly advanced composers who have (inaudible 0:59:44) who know their problem as well as anyone (inaudible 0:59:49), where is their audience, I feel we have failed in one respect, we cannot expect to seek or find or enjoy a popular audience who don't want it at this particular stage, I think its inappropriate (inaudible 0:59:59) who will give (inaudible 1:00:00) on snobbish because that in many other (inaudible 1:00:03). I do feel that where we have failed is in presenting what we are doing to intellectuals and other fields. I am not ashamed to use the word intellectual, I am quite proud to use it. I know for example that I teach in the university that the young lady asked the question knows very well and we are trained extremely well in this university to tackle one of the problem that is our colleagues haven't the slightest interest in what we are doing or the slightest knowledge of what we are really doing. There is always a feeling around the university that (inaudible 1:00:30) probably more appropriate to (inaudible 1:00:30). And I'm sure that a lot of people feel that what we are teaching in our music courses are simply lectures that lets say less successful version of the (inaudible 1:00:39) considered words of a Harvard man. And so it goes I don't think I feel this very strongly (inaudible 1:00:47) I don't like to say such a (inaudible 1:00:50) things. And I hope that will be wiped from the tape but (inaudible 1:00:54) real problem. We are not firstly (inaudible 1:00:57) academic community and I say this not a complaint but to simply reveal an ambiguous situation. We have very little by way of a world of a public world, and most of us don't it, we feel again that's not only inappropriate but I think disastrous in this particular point. I feel many of you will disagree but I'll be delighted to discuss this. On the other hand within the academic we are not offered what other academician are offered. And I use the word academician happily (inaudible 1:00:57) one of the (inaudible 1:01:20) anti intellectualism in this particular field is that they talk about academic music as if to connote something unoriginal, something totally without any inheritor, individual virtue. They never talk about academic mathematics or academic physics, it is understood that the frontiers of those fields will be dealt with in the universities and almost all of the universities. When something happens in music, that this is not understood I have a feeling there should be. I have not once (inaudible 1:01:44) people are obviously who would be informed as to what you're doing and be exited about it, well I as an (inaudible 1:01:49) scientific field cannot actively use those materials but can comprehend it. Music is kindergarten stuff compared to most things that people are interested in. I can walk into a (inaudible 1:02:00) book shop and find (inaudible 1:02:00) in paperback, but I don't find absolute any comparable interest and comparable awareness of what's going on in music (inaudible 1:02:07). I can only, I don't know what the solution is, I think there must be a great deal more to it (inaudible 1:02:16) music. Through education (inaudible 1:02:18) again there is educated language, it's a terrific (inaudible 1:02:19). Now I know you are doing something about it. The problem is you all feel very strongly for example in the magazines, some of you maybe aware of (inaudible 1:02:31) !!!Abrupt end of dictation !!! |
