Electronic Music - Part 3 of 3 - Live and Recorded

The last two weeks of Recordings, E.T.C. explored two distinct phases of electronic music up to the 1960s: the manipulation of recorded sounds derived from the environment and sounds generated entirely electronically with little or no connection to recognizable shapes or symbols. In the final episode, Canby observes a new trend in electronic music making that incorporates aspects of the aforementioned phases but with the added element of live accompaniment.

Although earlier experiments in this genre exist from at least the 1950s, notably Edgard Varese's Deserts and Otto Luening's Fantasy in Space, the 1960s saw an uptick in live, immersive 'happenings' that used live performance and experimental lighting alongside pre-recorded sound, be it tape collages, raw field recordings, or pure electronic abstraction. One example, played here, is a 1965 composition titled Underworld, written and performed by graduate students at the the University of Illinois' School of Music. Canby also cites The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by as illustration of the growing trend of blending together live instrumentation and impressionistic, electronic trickery.

WNYC archives id: 58737