Episode 161

Chapter 22, Electronic Music in Canada. Works Recommended from my book, Electronic and Experimental Music 

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.

There is a complete playlist for this episode on the website for the podcast.

Let’s get started with the listening guide to Chapter 22, Electronic Music in Canada from my book Electronic and Experimental music.

Playlist: ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN CANADA

Time

Track Time

Start

Introduction –Thom Holmes

01:34

00:00

1.     Hugh LeCaine, “Dripsody: An Etude For Variable Speed Recorder” (1955). One of the earliest pieces of tape music by the inventor and composer Hugh Le Caine. Also, one of the most available works from the early years when it was used to demonstrate simple techniques of tape composition. It is probably the most-played work of electronic music other than “Poeme Electronique” by Varese. Every sound in this work is based on a recording of a single drop of water falling into a bucket, which then underwent various speed adjustments and edits to create this composition.

2:12

01:38

2.     Hugh LeCaine, “Ninety-Nine Generators” (1956). The title refers to the 99 tones of the touch sensitive organ. Each note had a separate generator and they could all sounds at the same time.

1:42

03:40

3.     Hugh LeCaine, “This Thing Called Key” (1956). Le Caine composed on his Special Purpose Tape Recorder using individual tape playback heads for six tapes, activated by keys.

1:53

05:22

4.     Anhalt, “Electronic Composition No. 2” (1959).

8:47

07:16

5.     Norma Beecroft, “From Dreams of Brass” (1964). Norma Beecroft is a Canadian composer, producer, broadcaster, and arts administrator. Among the pioneering academic electronic music composers, she worked independently in the Electronic Music Studio of the University of Toronto.

15:59

16:04

6.     Paul Pedersen, “For Margaret, Motherhood And Mendelssohn” (1971). Composed at McGill University where Pedersen was director of the electronic music studio. The electroacoustic work uses fragments of speeches such as prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s and the electronic sounds were composed using Le Caine’s Polyphonic Synthesizer.

4:21

32:02

7.     Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, “Zones” (1972). Musique électroacoustique réalisée au Sonic Research Studio, Université Simon Fraser, Vancouver. An exploration of different instrumental timbres using electroacoustic music.

9:02

36:22

8.     Alcides Lanza, “Eidesis IV For Wind Ensemble And Electronic Sounds” (1977). Lanza studied music in Buena Aires, moved to Canada in 1971, and became Director of the Electronic Music Studio of McGill University in 1976.

11:20

45:24

9.     John Mills-Cockell, “Collision” from Gateway (1977). Produced, engineered, organ and synthesizer by independent Canadian musician John Mills Cockell.

03:32

56:54

10.   Dennis Patrick, “Phantasy III (Excerpt)” (1977-78). Completed in the Electronic Music Studio of the University of Toronto, where he was Director of the studio beginning around 1976.

04:53

01:00:26

11.   Hildegard Westerkamp, “Cricket Voice” (1987). This work is a “musical exploration of the cricket,” with a cricket sound recorded in Mexico. If you know crickets, you will note that this one is not Canadian. But the composer is and this work was produced at the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver where Westerkamp was teaching at the time.

11:09

01:05:20

12.   Ann Southam, “Fluke Sound” (1989). Southam is another female Canadian composer of note. She is from the Toronto area. This work is from a period when she was immersed in electroacoustic music.

10:22

01:16:16

13.   Norma Beecroft, “Evocations: Images Of Canada (1992). In contrast to the earlier tape works of Beecroft, this is a purely digital composition. She used an Apple Macintosh, the program/sequencer Performer and a Roland D-70 synthesizer.

16:01

01:26:30

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.