Electronic Music Includes a great variety of forms – arguably very little is now unaffected by electronic as recording is every present. A broad spectrum from fully synthetisied sound to Music Concrete to electro-acoustic music to music that is predominated performed but to which some electronics have been added to alter the effect (e.g. delay, timbre changes, etc.)

Precursors Back to beginnings of recording age. Thadius Cahil’s Telharmonium. Early electronic instruments – Theremin, Ondes Martinet, etc. Recordings developments in year wars and development of tape in 1940s. Early Electronic music of Varese, Cage, and others – developing from art of noise of futurists.

Musique Concrete Developed in the 1950s first with a set of mainly French composers working in recording studios cutting and splicing tape to create compositions that involved no performers. Loud speakers are the prime medium of transmission. Created in Paris in 1948 by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. Composer working directly with sound material. Sources of sound material may be pre-existing recordings or recordings made specifically for the purpose. Sounds should be appreaciated for abstracft quality – little attempt at first at conventional musical organisation.

Electro-Acoustic Music Became the preferred term in the 60s to better accommodate in the medium the combination of live performance and prepared tape along with tape music. In 1970s synthesizers developed hugely to open the arena up to amateurs and pop musicians particularly. In late 80s `sonic art’ adopted as a term to situate electro-acoustic music in a wider framework. Openness to all types of sound.

Acousmatic Music Exists only in recorded form and is designed for loudspeaker listening, the listener perceives the music without seeing the sources of causes of the sounds. Changes notion of reception of music. Sound in space is important here – also the finer details of sound quality and utmost flexibility in combining any and all sounds – juxtaposing and superimposing sounds from any sources.

Live Electronics 1. Sound produced by performers us modified electronically at the time of production in a manner controlled by the instrumentalist or someone else. 2. With development of digital technology, sampling and synthesizing sound, in the 80s the computer musician working in real time as a performance artist has become a reality.

Combination of tape and live performance In 1980s the type of composition became popular among young composers – using a prepared and notated tape in combination with a live performer who performed from a fully notated score. The tape was often of live sounds, recorded and manipulated using computers and samplers.