George Frederick McKay · section 98 of 111

Electronic music

This is machine-produced music, with the tones played and created by electronic devices. Electronic music, as composed by Stockhausen and others, envisions a music which is no longer limited to the tonal systems of the various instruments. Such a

music explores a world of sounds and timbres no longer limited by human inabilities. Almost any rhythm, any pitch, or any timbre that can be scientifically calculated can be manufactured by combining various frequencies. Sound and motion will be completely freed from the human limitations of the orchestra player.

This revolutionary possibility will be deplored and combatted by those who treasure “humanism” in its old-fashioned sense, but it will be welcomed by those who see in it a new “humanism” in terms of the expressive possibilities of the controlled machine. Here, again, is a grand hope which may eventually be only partially realized. Perhaps electronic timbres will merely merge with already established sounds, to make a newly enriched total orchestral art. As mankind entered the age of science, it was natural that the artists and theorists should try to create new tonal types by scientific and mechanical means. For a time, around 1920 to 1930, there was much experimentation with such things as electrically produced tone, scratchings on the sound track, aluminum violins, glass clarinets, the Theremin, the Ondes Martenot, and the Hammond organ.

At this time there was great machine-age hopefulness that a whole new world of timbre would arise from new inventions such as these. Some of these temporarily exciting and unusual sounds were tentatively used for dramatic purposes, and serious composers began to be interested in them. These inventions and experimental sounds failed, however, to make a very lasting impression. Why was this? A comparison of basic timbres with the primary colors will help to explain this relative failure.

In visual experience, we are familiar with the seven colors contained in the rainbow (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red). Other colors, however marvelous and subtle they may be, are merely combinations of these. In the world of sound, there seem to be timbres which are similarly basic. These have been chosen as archtypes after centuries of musical evolution. The flute, the oboe, the horn, the trumpet, the harp, etc., are

basic types of timbre so positively selected by the ear from hundreds of early timbre types that any tonal effect or combination of tone, or newly invented device, will inevitably sound like a mixture of these prototypical timbres. The Theremin and other electrical instruments sound like odd, imperfect flutes, while the Hammond organ too often sounds like a generalized mixture of strings and oboe. The saxophone is an interesting case in point: it disappears into the ensemble sound because it is neither a brass nor a woodwind but a relatively bland mixture of the two.

It would be no surprise to find that all future inventions of timbre must inevitably refer back to the present ones for qualitative definition, just as all colors must refer back to the spectrum. Nevertheless, as more analytical experimentation takes place and as psychological knowledge about “attributes” of tone becomes firmer, there will be constant attempts to invent new sounds and tonal devices.

Successful use of electronic devices can be heard in Turangalila by Messiaen, Poème Electronique and Deserts by Varèse and Differences by Berio. The latter can be especially commended for opening up new frontiers in application of stereophonic listening and for a more musically gifted treatment of timbre and motion that are typically electronic.