DISCOGRAPHY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC - EARLY AGE

Discography of Electronic Music

Babbitt, Milton

Composition for Synthesizer
Highly structured work concerned with the flexibility of pitch succession. Created entirely on the giant RCA Synthesizer.

Badings, Henk

Evolution
Ballet suite of short electronic pieces: overture, air, ragtime, intermezzo, waltz, and finale. Clearly outlined melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, and structural shapes.

Violin Concerto
One of the earliest experiments (1952) combining a traditional instrument with electronic sounds (produced exclusively with twelve oscillators).

Berio, Luciano

Visage
Dramatic interplay of electronic textures with aspects of one human voice (laughing, crying, whispering, screaming).

Cage, John
Pioneer tape work based on chance and indeterminacy. Adaptable elements of
sound source, modification, use of loops, special splicing techniques, etc.

Variations /V
Innovative collage—counterpointing the work of painter Robert Rauschenbergmixing traffic sounds, an art gallery opening, a French lesson, and fragments of Beethoven, Chopin, etc.

Carlos, Walter

Sonic Seasonings
Evocative sonic "vision" of the four seasons, mixing natural, instrumental, and electronic sounds.

Switched-On Bach
Probably the most popular electronic music recording yet produced. Well-chosen, short pieces by J. S. Bach, re-shaped and recolored through synthesizer modification.

Davidovsky, Mario

Three Synchronisms
Short pieces combining traditional instrumental sounds and electronic sounds, preserving the typical characteristics of each medium.

Dockstader, Tod

Quatermass
Conversion of simple sounds (balloon, cymbal, gongs, adhesive tape) and limited electronic sources (oscillator, white noise) into a fascinating display of sound structuring and spatial movement.

El-Dabh, Halim

Leiyla and the Poet
Dramatic scene reaiized through limited electronic sounds, speed change, reverberation, electronically altered voice.

Gaburo, Kenneth

Antiphony
Pre-taped electronic sounds integrated with live choral performance.

Kirchner, Leon
Quartet No. 3 for Strings and Electronic Tape

Winner of the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Beautifully realized interplay of traditional string quartet and electronic sound.

Le Caine, Hugh

Dripsody
Ingenious work—organized around various speed changes—based on the sound of a single drop of falling water.

Luening/Ussachevsky

Tape Music—An Historic Concert
Pioneer works exploring a wide array of sound sources and modifications. Includes "Sonic Contours," "Fantasy in Space," and "Moonflight."

Mimaroglu, Ilhan K.

Bowery Bum
One rubber band is the only sound source. Based on painter Jean Dubuffet's ink drawing called "Visual Study No. 3."

Music from Mathematics

Computer interpretations of familiar pieces: "Joy to the World," "A Bicycle Built for Two," etc.

Powell, Mel

Second Electronic Setting

Engaging, non-stop divertimento for multiple electronic lines, using simple electronic components and varied tape techniques.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz

Gesang der Junglinge (Song of the Youths)

Sound direction and spatial movement used as aspects of musical-dramatic form. Impressively combines and modifies the voice of a boy soprano with electronically produced sounds.

Hymnen
Subtitled "Anthems for Electronic and Concrete Sounds." Combines and modifies fragments of national anthems, speech, crowd noises, short-wave radio sounds, etc.

Subotnick, Morton

Silver Apples of the Moon
Accessible electronic work highlighting explosive rhythms and striking ostinatos.

The Wild Bull
Strongly rhythmic work based on motive of the great, primitive horns of the Death God. (Title drawn from an ancient Sumerian poem.)

Ussachevsky, Vladimir

Of Wood and Brass
Uses extensive tape techniques to explore the timbres of trombone, trumpet, xylophone, and Korean gong.

Piece for Tape Recorder
Early experimentation with the recorder as a creative medium.

Varèse, Edgard

lntégrales (1925) Ionization (1931) Density 21.5 (1936) Poème Electronique 1958

Four works of great historical importance in the exploration, development, and organization of unconventional sounds:

lntégrales first proposed the idea of "spatial music." Ionization, a massive sonic landscape, uses thirty-seven percussive instruments, including two sirens. Density 21.5 explores timbres of the solo flute: registers, dynamics, new sounds (including percussive key-clicks). Poème Electronique, to innovative demonstration of "organized sound," blends pure electronic tones, instrumental and vocal sounds, and noise.

Wuorinen, Charlies

Time's Encomium
First purely electronic work to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (1968). While totally controlled, it aims to bring a sense of human involvement and freedom to the electronic medium.