You can preview one of the tracks below, Richard Allan Robinson’s Ambience:

The source material for Ambience was produced on an “instrument” consisting of three electric bass guitar strings strung lengthwise across a long board, with a bridge and a small magnetic guitar pickup at each end. Two modes of sound production were used. One, in which transversely placed metal pipes were rolled up and down the length of the strings, of multiple glissandi. A second, predominant texture was produced by causing a number lengths to “oscillate” or rock across the strings (rather than to roll lengthwise).

This basic recorded material was then extensively transformed electronically by filtering, heterodyning, ring modulation, speed changes, etc., an 6′ finally an overall structure was composed of variously complex superimpositions and juxtapositions of the two basic textural types. A light controlled channel-speaker distributing device used in the original qaudrasonic version further emphasizes this textural contrast in that gliding textures have a predominantly circling movement around the listening area, while the more active, rhythmic textures move disjunctly.

The intention of the piece, originally conceived for performance with the Atlanta Contemporary Dance Group, is to create an impression of actually being swept up in a familiar yet mysterious sound-atmosphere or ambience – perhaps somewhat like the experience of driving alone in a car at night – a sense of increasing absorption and identity with the surrounding sounds – the motor, rushing air, tires on pavement, vibrations, etc. –

From the liner notes:

For the last three years, Dartmouth College has held an annual competition for electronic music. The winners and finalists’ works from the first competition were released by Vox two years ago and we at Dartmouth felt gratified by the warm critical response to the recording. We were also pleased that the competition gave the public an opportunity to hear some of the best works by new and younger composers.

The judges for the second competition were Lars-Gunnar Bodin from Sweden, Charles Dodge and Pril Smiley from the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and Kenneth Gaburo from the University of California, San Diego. They chose the winning works anonymously after listening to nearly one hundred different entries. The winning composers were Peter Glushanok, an experienced film maker who has a small electronic music studio in his home, and Peter Klausmeer, a graduate student at the University of Michigan. The two finalists were Walter Kimmel,who is director of the electronic music studio at Moorhead State College,and Raymond Moore, who is a recording engineer for a large record company.

There were over two hundred entries in the 1970 competition which meant nearly a week of listening for judges Sal Martriano from the University of Illinois, Francois Bayle of France and James K. Randall of Princeton University. Again the prize was divided between one of Chile’s leading composers, Jose Vicente Asuar and Richard A. Robinson, the director of the Atlanta Electronic Music Center. The finalists were Jean-Claude Risset who works in Marseille, France, but who realized his work at the Bell Laboratories in New Jersey,and Jonathan Weiss, a Composer in his early twenties who is in residence at the R.A. Moog Co. in Trumansberg, New York.

The listener to this album will hear enormous diversity in the approach used by the different composers. The following comments about the works were written by the composers themselves.

Jon H. Appleton, Director
Dartmouth Electronic Music Studio

All presented music works should fit one of the following categories:

• Works for recorded media alone
• Works for recorded media and instrumental solo

Works should be produced using any conceivable analog device processing tools (pedals, no input mixers, analog synthesizers, custom built devices).

The use of computer or any digital device (except a DAW for the tracking/mixing) is not allowed. The use of working techniques and hardware should be documented with a detailed document in PDF format to be included within the work submission.

The deadline for submissions is the 31st October 2009.

Details:

A description of the composition poetics and aesthetic goals should be included for release purposes as well.

The produced work should be rendered as a stereo 44.1 kHz, 24 bit, WAV (or any Quicktime-compatible) sound file.

The use of instrumental soloist is limited to one of the following instruments:

Violin, Violoncello, Double bass, Flute, Clarinet in B, Bass Clarinet, Soprano and Alto Saxophone.

The score should be submitted together with the recording in one of the following formats: .sib or PDF.
If the soloist is not available at the moment of the recording session, a quick render via a virtual instrument is allowed and welcome.

In this case, please send us two different sound files, one including the simulated solo performance and a “clean” copy of the electroacoustic work.
Synesthesia Recordings will provide the required soloist for the final Recording, Mix, and Mastering sessions.

The production will take place at Millenium Audio Recording Studios in Rome, Italy.
Compositions should last around 15-20 minutes ca.

A personal BIO of around 100 words is requested as well.

The reading panel will be announced during the second half of May 2009. Winners will be announced in December 2009. The selected works will be published by Synesthesia Recordings during the first quarter of 2010.

via USO

Peter Tod Lewis, Director of the University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios from 1968-1980, created an audio introduction to the Moog synthesizer in 1979. 

The multi-part series provides a perspective from the past on the synthesizer and its role in classical electronic music studio. 

Here are links to each of the segments in the series:

• Intro to the Studios.mp3
• Intro to the Moog.mp3
• Oscillator Waveshapes.mp3
• Oscillator Pitch Control.mp3
• White Noise.mp3
• Keyboard Control.mp3
• Subaudio Oscillator Control.mp3
• Combination Tones.mp3
• Filters.mp3
• Filtered Noise.mp3
• Filtered Music.mp3
• Filter Control.mp3
• Amplitude Control.mp3
• Amplitude Envelopes.mp3
• Timbre Envelopes.mp3
• Amp/Timbre Envelopes.mp3
• Envelope Follower.mp3
• Sequencer.mp3
• Conclusion.mp3

Somewhat OT: This horribly dated “educational” video reveals the shocking fact that “female deviation in normal sexual behavior greatly exceeds the male!”

It also kicks off with some ultra-cheesy old-school electronic music. If you know anything about this series or the music, let me know in the comments!

Here’s a track listing:

• A Christmas Carol – Composed in 1963 as a message to President Kennedy about the Birmingham church bombings. The night after Bob Moog heard this piece in concert, he and Herb discussed getting together to create a new electronic instrument.
• The Abominatron – The historic tape recording wherein Bob Moog discusses and plays the first prototype synthesizer. It’s worth the price just to hear this excerpt. Bob’s personality shows thru in this fascinating piece.
• Jazz Images, A Worksong and Blues – The first piece of music composed on a Moog!
• Prologue To King Richard III – 1971 piece for Minimoog, trumpet and voice.
• A Little Night Music, The Ithaca Journal, Aug 6, 1965 – Headlines, Comics News Articles and Moog. From the historic 1965 Moog Music Workshop in Trumansburg, NY.
• Longing – For Piano and Theremin.
• Circling (But You Did Not Know) – For Piano and Theremin.
• Abyss – Featuring Soprano and Piccolo, from the CD “WOMAN IN DARKNESS”
• Sleight Of Hand (Mister Magic Man) – 1989, from the CD “WOMAN IN DARKNESS”.
• Fantasy on “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” – For saxophone and electronics. Moves from plaintive spiritual melody to jazz improvisation.

The CD is available at the Moog Music site.

There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programs that featured these sounds.

Diana Young, right, a Ph.D. candidate in the Hyperinstruments Group of the MIT Media Lab has developed the Hyperbow, a new electronic sensing system to measure minute changes in the position, acceleration and strain of a violin bow.

The system can be used to evaluate different bowing techniques and may expand the expressive possibilities of the violin by electronic means, according to Young, who built the gesture sensing system for the Hyperbow.

The Hyperbow is an enhanced bow, used in conjunction with a Hyperviolin. The latter, another product of the MIT Media Lab, is an instrument that makes no sound but creates an electronic output when played. The Hyperviolin can readily be played by anyone used to an acoustic violin.

“Electronic music is a way of combining my interests in music and engineering,” Young said.

Young, who has a B.A. in music from Johns Hopkins University and a certificate in violin performance from the Peabody Conservatory, built the gesture-sensing system for her master’s degree, which she received from MIT in 2001. Designed as a performance interface for professional violinists, the Hyperbow includes a set of accelerometers, gyroscopes and force sensors all installed on a carbon fiber bow.

Because the system is wireless, it interferes only minimally with the violinist’s bowing.

Both the Hyperbow and the Hyperviolin have been played in concert, by the renowned violinist Joshua Bell among others; several composers, including MIT’s Tod Machover, have created new compositions for them.

The Hyperbow premiered at the 2002 Conference on New Instruments for Musical Expression in Dublin. (You can hear samples of Hyperviolin music on the Toy Symphony web site, www.toysymphony.net, then follow links for Sound and Images/Dublin – National Symphony Orchestra/AUDIO Samples.)

The Hyperbow is just the latest in a series of Media Lab inventions on the vanguard of musical expression. Hypercello and Hyperinstruments were developed at the Media Lab by Joe Paradiso, Neil Gershenfeld and composer Tod Machover in the 1990s.

via MIT

According to Harrington, his music is “tonal and intensely contrapuntal, inspired by New Orleans and classical music traditions.”

He has several free downloadable albums of his electronic works. Lachrimae Crystallinum (MP3) is “a composition in the spacious ambient vein of Lamentation Sidérales, but more classical in its tonality. Using a scale derived from the harmonic series this composition builds upon a melodic motif inspired by the Beethoven Piano Sonata, Les Adieux, op. 81a. This piece is primarily a meditation on distance and the spaces between memories and attempts to evoke the musical emotions of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, etc… deep sadness…”

He also has a collection of microtonal pieces available, including a very interesting piece for MalletKat and quarterone synth, Croche Et Tient (MP3).

The concert will include the world premieres of Barry Schrader’s “Wu Xing: Cycle of Destruction” (solo electronic version) and Rodney Oakes’ “Variations on the Krakow Fanfare”. Also on the program are live/electro-acoustic and studio compositions by Roger Bourland, Tom Flaherty, Frederick Lesemann, and Samuel Magrill. Featured performers will include Cynthia Fogg on viola, Rodney Oakes on Trombone, William Powell on clarinet, and Susan Svrcek on piano.

SCREAM 2006 – 20th Anniversary Reunion Concert

• When: Saturday, November 4
• Where: Music Recital Hall
  Los Angeles Harbor College
  Wilmington, CA 90744
• Time: 8:00 P.M.
• Admission: $5

The site includes MP3s of every track, which can be downloaded or played online.

The First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival was held August 25, 1978. The next year, Creative Computing magazine released the LP record of highlights from the event. The album includes songs performed by an RCA Cosmac VIP, Solid State Music System, Ambilog 200, and other vintage computers. The last track (MP3) is a 1963 synthesized computer speech demonstration from Bell Laboratories.

The international program will include works by Kristine Burns (USA), Richard Carbonell (Spain), Elsa Justel (France), Dennis Miller (USA), Joran Rudi (Norway), Diana Simpson (Scotland), Mario Verandi (Germany), Hsiao-Lan Wang (USA), and Daniel Zajicek (USA). This program presents the state-of-the-art in video/eam work.

Sounding Images Encore Presentation

• When: Saturday, January 28
• Where: Roy O. Disney Hall
  California Institute of the Arts
  Valencia
• Time: 8:00 P.M.
• Admission: Free
• Driving directions

via Barry Schrader

The site features several free MP3 downloads of his classical electronic music, including Goose Bumps.

This album features four recent electro-acoustic music works: First Spring, Beyond, Duke’s Tune (the first and only musical work based on a melody composed by a pig), and all three movements of Death: Before Death, Into Death, and After Death.

Regarding the music on this CD, pioneering electro-acoustic music composer Bebe Barron proclaims “This music conjures up a whirlwind of emotion from some primeval source that permeates the listener with awe.”

Concerning the work Death, composer Judy Klein writes “ I am captured in the very first moment. And then, what subtle enhancement in the second section, and what a journey in the third! I hear the release of the spirit, its energy, its guides; darkness, hugeness, powerful monsters. Images foreign but not unfamiliar come to mind. There is such musical drive and such unity throughout the piece. I feel I’ve heard transformations of an element through gaseous and solid states, and that in the end, a spirit has become one with the voices which called to it in the beginning.”

Beyond has a street release date of September 27, at which time it will be available from online and retail stores. Beyond is available for purchase online directly from Innova.

Switched On: Early Electronic Oddities

The show features recordings of early electronic instruments from 1860 to 1975, including the Trautonium, the RCA synthesizer, the Italian futurists, the electro-theremin, and the Radiophonic Workshop. It also includes live studio discussion and recording contributions from synth pioneers Bob Moog & Jean-Jacques Perrey.

The show is now available for streaming or download at: http://www.switchedonradio.co.uk/

Schrader teaches at the School of Music at Calarts. He has several current CD releases, including Lost Atlantis and EAM.

In this interview with Synthtopia, Schrader talks about electroacoustic music, the role of classical electronic composers, collaborating with pigs, and more!

Background

Synthtopia: In the late 60s, when you first got into electronic music, electronic sounds were still avant garde. They were beginning to catch the public’s ear, but mainly for their novelty. What piqued your interest in electronic music?

Barry Schrader: My first experience with electronic music was in 1956 when, at the age of 11, I saw Forbidden Planet. I was fascinated by the music in that movie, so much so that I stayed in the theater and watched the film several times until my somewhat exasperated father came looking for me and dragged me home. Over the next 12 years I heard snippets of electronic music on the radio and on recordings, and I also had a tape recorder and experimented a little with the manipulation of recorded material. But it wasn’t until 1969 when I was a graduate student in musicology at the University of Pittsburgh that I actually became involved with working in a studio.

Synthtopia: What made you decide to make this the focus of your career?

Barry Schrader: The University of Pittsburgh installed a studio built around a Buchla 100 system, and I became the teaching assistant for the studio which forced me to learn things rather quickly. I became absorbed by the medium and,even though I finished my degree in musicology, I decided to devote myself to electro-acoustic music from this point on. The things that fascinated me about the medium then are the qualities that still interest me: electro-acoustic music offers the composer an intensely personal and controlled environment within which to create new musical universes.

The events will feature guest speakers, composers, and performers from the Eastman School of Music, Hamilton College, IRCAM, Princeton  U.C. Berkeley, and U.C .San Diego, including such luminaries as composer Paul Lansky, software pioneer Miller Puckette (MAX/Msp), and violist John Graham. This festival/conference is sponsored by the Department of Music, with support from the Cornell Cinema, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and the College of Arts and Sciences.

A full schedule is available at the Cornell Music site.

The majority of events takes place September 16-18 at various
locations. David Wessel will deliver the Composers’ Forum from 1:25 to
3:00 PM; following a break, an informal discussion on the future of
technology in music will ensue (both events in B20 Lincoln Hall).
Professor Wessel holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Chair in
Music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is director
of the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. His research
interests include musical applications of computer and related
technologies, music perception and cognition, composition and
improvisation, and interactive live performance.

“The State of the Art” resumes on Thursday, September 16th when
Benjamin Thigpen delivers his talk, “dividing by zero” (4:30-5:45 PM,
B21 Lincoln Hall). Thigpen was Musical Assistant at IRCAM (l’Institut
de Recherche et de Coordination Musique/Acoustique, founded by composer
and conductor Pierre Boulez) until the summer of 2004, when he returned
to the United States.

Events for Friday, September 17th include presentations by two
Princeton University faculty members and a concert. From 1:30-2:45 PM,
Perry R. Cook presents “New Controllers for Musical Expression,” and
Paul Lansky speaks about “The Death of Computer Music” (both take place
in B20 Lincoln Hall). Perry Cook was closely associated with Stanford’s
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), until
joining the computer science department at Princeton in 1996, where he
also holds an affiliated appointment in music.

A funny thing happened to Paul Lansky on the way to the computer.
Originally expecting to be caught up in the search for “new sounds” and
“unknown soundworlds,” he instead became much more interested in human
sounds and the noise of the world around us. Since the early 70s he has
been using the computer as a kind of aural microscope on this
world-noise. His Six Fantasies on a Poem by Thomas Campion, widely
regarded as a landmark work in computer music, takes us on a journey to
the inner world of poetry and speech. His music has been widely heard
and performed in the United States, Europe and Australia, and has been
used extensively by dance troupes, including the well-known Bill T.
Jones/Arnie Zane and Company. Lansky was born in New York City and
flirted with a career as a French horn player (Dorian Quintet 1966-67)
before turning to composition.

On Friday evening, September 17th, at 8:00 PM, “The State of the
Art” moves to the concert hall (Barnes Hall Auditorium) for a program
of four works, by Kevin Ernste of the Eastman School of Music faculty
(Birches), Benjamin Thigpen (incandescence), and Perry R. Cook (COWE
Improvisation III) in the first half, and closing with Jupiter by
Philippe Manoury.

Kevin Ernste’s Birches for viola and electronic sounds was written
as a response to the poem of the same title by the great American poet,
Robert Frost; it features violist John Graham, well known for his
performances and advocacy of new viola repertory, who joined the
Eastman School of Music faculty in 1989. A distinguished musician and
teacher who has performed as soloist and in chamber music ensembles in
the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and China, Graham was based in
New York City from 1962 to 1989 and was also active as a free-lance
musician in symphonic, chamber, opera, ballet and music theater
orchestras, in many contemporary music concert series, and in recording
for television and motion pictures. He was principal violist of the
American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and in chamber
orchestra with Pablo Casals.

Philippe Manoury’s Jupiter, for flute and real-time electronic
system, was commissioned by IRCAM and premiered there on April 25,
1987. Miller Puckette is responsible for the technical concept, and the
musical assistants were Marc Battier and Cort Lippe. For this
performance, the soloists include Miller Puckette on live electronics
and flute soloist Elizabeth McNutt, who has dedicated herself to new
and adventurous music, commissioning and premiering countless new
works, and becoming an expert interpreter of the masterpieces of the
20th century. Besides her ongoing collaborations with young and
upcoming composers, she has worked with such recognized figures as
Pierre Boulez, Philippe Manoury, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa, and Joan
Tower. Particularly drawn to the new sound worlds of electronic music,
she collaborates intensively with composers and technologists to create
groundbreaking works for flute and live interactive computer systems.
McNutt has given solo recitals, often incorporating electronics, in
Saint Louis, Birmingham, Chicago, San Diego, Providence, Frankfurt, and
other U.S. and European cities. She has performed music for flute and
electronics at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, the
Berkeley Symphony, the National Flute Association Convention, June in
Buffalo Festivals, International Computer Music Conferences, and SEAMUS
National Conferences.

On Saturday morning, September 18th, two lectures will be presented
in the Lecture Hall on the first floor of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum
of Art, with both speakers from the University of California, San
Diego. Philippe Manoury begins at 10:30 AM with “Incidences of
Real-Time Processing in Musical Composition,” followed by “Live
Electronic Music in the Recent Future,” delivered by Miller Puckette at
11:45 AM. Following a lunch break, “The State of the Art” concludes
with a showing of video works at the Willard Straight Theatre (home of
Cornell Cinema) at 2:30 PM. Films by Lauren Koss (music by Samuel
Pellman), Stephanie Maxwell (music by Allan Schindler), and Grady Klein
(music by Paul Lansky) will be presented.

Innova is geared towards work that is unlikely to find a home in the mainstream record industry. Innova has no profit motive. Artists take on the financial risk of releasing their work. Artist admin fees and our grant subsidies support an office of staff members dedicated to each project. This arrangement allows the company to be especially friendly to projects that take artistic risks.

The site features news and information on their releases. The site also features several interactive music applications, web radio of their artists, and information on working with Innova.

Innova is a “child” organization of the American Composers Forum.

The site gives vistors an overview of the subject, and demonstrates concepts like the relationship between the shapes of waves and their sound.

It is tough to navigate at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is an excellent way to learn about some of the fundementals of electronic music.

The website provides web radio streams of minimilism, ambient, electroacoustic and other modern music. The site provides hours of listening. In addition to the streaming radio, you can listen to all 13 programs in their entirety. Many classic works of modern music are available in their entirety as Real Audio streams.

The most important section, though, has to be the large collection of interviews with giants of the modern music world. These are source interviews for the series, so you can listen to extended discussions of these composers and performers talking about their music. The interviews include Milton Babbit, Harold Budd, Wendy Carlos, Aaron Copland, David del Tredici, Lou Harrison, Joan LaBarbera, Steve Reich, Peter Schickele, Morton Subotnick, La Monte Young.

His site provides a history of his composition, a discography, a calendar of perfomances, press notes, and program notes on many of his more recent works. The program notes provide insight on his approach to combining live performance and electronics.

Also check out the Synthtopia artist profile of Morton Subotnick.