Episode 143

Chapter 05, The Physics of Musical Sound. Works Recommended from my book, Electronic and Experimental Music 

Welcome to the Archive of Electronic Music. This is Thom Holmes.

This podcast is produced as a companion to my book, Electronic and Experimental Music, published by Routledge. Each of these episodes corresponds to a chapter in the text and an associated list of recommended works, also called Listen in the text. They provide listening examples of vintage electronic works featured in the text.

The works themselves can be enjoyed without the book and I hope that they stand as a chronological survey of important works in the history of electronic music. Be sure to tune-in to other episodes of the podcast where we explore a wide range of electronic music in many styles and genres, all drawn from my archive of vintage recordings.

Playlist

Time

Track Time*

Start

Introduction –Thom Holmes

01:28

00:00

John Cage, “Cartridge Music” (1960). Uses phono cartridges to amplify small sounds.

19:57

01:30

Robert Ashley, “The Wolfman” (1964). Uses a mike inside of the vocal cavity as a feedback and distortion chamber for audio that is highly amplified.

15:27

21:26

Beaver and Krause, “Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music” (1968). Two complete albums of examples from this landmark album. Includes examples of synthesis and principles using the Moog Modular synthesizer. The first track is a composition called “Peace Three” that is repeated as the final track of the album; in this case I only play it once at the end of the album. See the image below for a scan of the album’s title sequence.

45:16

37:00

Steve Reich, “Pendulum Music” (1968). Manipulates the feedback properties of a microphone swinging over a loudspeaker.

05:54

01:22:16

David Tudor, “Toneburst” (1975). Incorporates an internal feedback loop where Tudor fed the output of his handbuilt instruments into other. Partly analog, partly digital.

29:19

01:28:06

Jason Kahn, Toshimaru Nakamura, “Track 1” from Repeat (1999). No-input feedback, which is basically a feedback loop produced without external (acoustic) input. All digital.

08:02

01:57:26

Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.

My Books/eBooks: Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, Routledge 2020. Also, Sound Art: Concepts and Practices, first edition, Routledge 2022.

See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.

For a transcript, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.

Original music by Thom Holmes can be found on iTunes and Bandcamp.