1974 –Tangerine Dream / Phaedra
(Virgin Records catalog #87 761-270))
Was Tangerine
Dream’s Phaedra a
consequence of
Indeterminism ?
Over the ages, the crossover from the Avant-garde to Popular
has been a constant practice and Noise has not been inmune
to this behavior. Specifically in music, the appropriation of a
new style (especially in Popular music) by combining
elements
of different genres in order to appeal to a wider
audience, has
always been accompanied by technological advances.
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I. Avant-garde
music
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In
reference to the ‘Avant-garde’ movement around the
midst of XX
century, whereas what was defined as
Concrete music incorporated elements derived from sound
experiments
recorded in anticipation, obtainable from diverse
sources
such as noises and relying upon
sound materials
directly
stored in magnetic tapes; what was defined as
Abstract music employed sounds from instruments which
were
considered as frequency abstractions.
Almost
simultaneously with the evolution of
Concrete and
Abstract music, what was defined as Aleatory music, aka
Aleatoric or Chance music which is a term derived from
the Latin word alea meaning "dice", was also developed.
This is music in
which some element of the composition is
left to chance, and/or some primary element of a
composed
work's realization is left to the determination of its
performer(s).
On the
other side of the spectrum, composers whom supported
Electronic music considered that sounds were the result of
purely
theoretical combinations of sound parameters such as
(¹)
frecuency, (²) amplitud and (³) duration. These sound
parameters
came, generally speaking, from sounds generated
by
synthesizers or their predecessors.
There were
3 essential and consecutive steps in a Electronic
music composition: (a) generation, (b) transformation
, and
(c) recording
of sound material.
Initially
Electronic music, as well as Concrete music and
Abstract music, were very much
linked to serial technics.
The
main characteristic of Electronic music is that sound
by itself
is the generational structure of the composition,
being this
its main principle. Constituted a different musical
syntaxis
which gain birth from the necessity of reproducing
the sound
complexities associated with those of nature, which
later on
was embraced by Tangerine Dream in
their crossover
attempt (from the Avant-garde to Popular music) by
adopting
the sound
complexities associated with those of cosmos.
Concrete music (French: Musique concrète)
Radiodiffusion Nationale during the early 1940s he was
Experimental technique of musical composition using recorded
sounds as raw material. The fundamental principle lies in the
assemblage of various natural sounds recorded on tape (or,
originally, on disks) to produce a montage of sound. During
the preparation of such a composition, the sounds selected
and recorded may be modified in any way desired: played
backward, cut short or extended, subjected to echo-chamber
effects, varied in pitch and intensity, and so on. The
finished
composition thus represents the combination of varied auditory
experiences into an artistic unity.
The
Studio d'Essai was renamed Club d 'Essai de la
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française in 1946 and in the same
year Schaeffer discussed, in writing, the question surrounding
the transformation of time perceived through recording. The
essay evidenced knowledge of sound manipulation techniques
he would further exploit compositionally. In 1948 Schaeffer
and the results of his initial experimentation were premiered
at a concert given inParis
collectively as Cinq études de bruits - Five Studies of Noises)
chemins de fer (Study of the Railroads), were presented.
Seattle
Indeterminism
Aleatory music or Chance music composition is where
was devised by the French composer Pierre Boulez to describe
regard to the order and repetition of parts of a musical work.
The term was intended by Boulez to distinguish his work
from works composed through the application of chance
operations by John Cage.
for sounds generated by acoustic instruments such as
Sonata for guitar, harp, double-bass and percussion (1960)
(membranophones) by Argentine Mauricio Kagel.
Cologne
and Herbert Eimert as part of the West German Broadcasting
production of brave new electronic sounds.
Unfamiliar instruments available to musicians for the first
time at the studio included the Monochord and Melochord,
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) is probably its most
of avant-garde composers including Ernst Krenek (Austria
USA), György Ligeti (Hungary), Franco Evangelisti (Italy),
Cornelius Cardew (England ), Mauricio Kagel (Argentina
Nam June Paik (Korea
became the technical assistant at WDR and helped many
composers create their pieces. Its progressive example paved
the way for such pioneering Krautrock bands as Kraftwerk,
alarming sounds of Einsturzende Neubauten. Owing some
debt to the aural experiments carried out inCologne
influence can be traced even further to all modern dance,
house and trance music.
United States
included manufacturing record players, radio and electronic
equipment (military and domestic – including theUS
of the Theremin) as well as recording music and manufacturing
project whose aim was to “auto-generate pop hits” by
analysing thousands of music recordings.
The RCA electrical engineers Harry Olson and Hebart Belar
were appointed to develop an instrument capable of delivering
this complex task, and in doing so inadvertently (as is so
often the case in the history of electronic music) created one
of the first programmable synthesizers: The RCA Mark synthesizer
(the precursors being the Givelet Coupleux Organ of 1930 and
The RCA Mark I machine was a monstrous collection of
Columbia
University, Robert Arthur Moog collaborated with the
was to become the first modular Moog Synthesizer.
The international group of avant-garde composers which
worked together at the RCA Mark II facility included :
Milton Babbitt, Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Pril Smily
Delson,Alice
with the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for Synchronism Nº6 for piano
and tape (one of his highly influential Synchronism series of
recorded electronic sounds).
Milan
Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française in 1946 and in the same
year Schaeffer discussed, in writing, the question surrounding
the transformation of time perceived through recording. The
essay evidenced knowledge of sound manipulation techniques
he would further exploit compositionally. In 1948 Schaeffer
and the results of his initial experimentation were premiered
at a concert given in
collectively as Cinq études de bruits - Five Studies of Noises)
chemins de fer (Study of the Railroads), were presented.
Indeterminism
Aleatory music or Chance music composition is where
was devised by the French composer Pierre Boulez to describe
regard to the order and repetition of parts of a musical work.
The term was intended by Boulez to distinguish his work
from works composed through the application of chance
operations by John Cage.
for sounds generated by acoustic instruments such as
Sonata for guitar, harp, double-bass and percussion (1960)
(membranophones) by Argentine Mauricio Kagel.
The Studio for
Electronic Music opened in Cologne ,
Germany,
on 18-Oct-1951 was the
first modern music studio for
electronically-synthesised sound.
Founded by composers Werner Meyer-Eppler, Robert Beyerelectronically-synthesised sound.
and Herbert Eimert as part of the West German Broadcasting
production of brave new electronic sounds.
Unfamiliar instruments available to musicians for the first
time at the studio included the Monochord and Melochord,
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) is probably its most
of avant-garde composers including Ernst Krenek (
USA), György Ligeti (Hungary), Franco Evangelisti (Italy),
Cornelius Cardew (
became the technical assistant at WDR and helped many
composers create their pieces. Its progressive example paved
the way for such pioneering Krautrock bands as Kraftwerk,
alarming sounds of Einsturzende Neubauten. Owing some
debt to the aural experiments carried out in
influence can be traced even further to all modern dance,
house and trance music.
New York/New Jersey
1951 'Electronic Music
Center
In the 1950’s RCA was one of the largest entertainment
conglomerates in the included manufacturing record players, radio and electronic
equipment (military and domestic – including the
of the Theremin) as well as recording music and manufacturing
project whose aim was to “auto-generate pop hits” by
analysing thousands of music recordings.
The RCA electrical engineers Harry Olson and Hebart Belar
were appointed to develop an instrument capable of delivering
this complex task, and in doing so inadvertently (as is so
often the case in the history of electronic music) created one
of the first programmable synthesizers: The RCA Mark synthesizer
(the precursors being the Givelet Coupleux Organ of 1930 and
The RCA Mark I machine was a monstrous collection of
modular components that took up a
whole room at
Columbia University Computer Music
Center (then
known
as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic
Music Center
‘instrument’ was basically an
analogue computer; the only
input to the machine was a
typewriter-style keyboard where
the musician wrote a score in a type
of binary code. The sound
itself was generated by a series of
vacuum tube oscillators
(12 in the MkI and 24 in the MkII)
giving four voice polyphony
which could be divided down into different octaves.
The sound was manually routed to the various components –
a technique that was adopted in the modular synthesizers of
the 1960’s and 70’s:
In 1963, with a US$200 research grant from which could be divided down into different octaves.
The sound was manually routed to the various components –
a technique that was adopted in the modular synthesizers of
the 1960’s and 70’s:
University, Robert Arthur Moog collaborated with the
was to become the first modular Moog Synthesizer.
The international group of avant-garde composers which
worked together at the RCA Mark II facility included :
Milton Babbitt, Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Pril Smily
Delson,
with the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for Synchronism Nº6 for piano
and tape (one of his highly influential Synchronism series of
recorded electronic sounds).
Electronic music
TheMilan
Phonology’ was designed by Alfredo Lietti in 1955 with the
guidance of the musicians Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna,
archived at the Municipal Collections of the Castello Sforzesco.
The
Phonology’ was designed by Alfredo Lietti in 1955 with the
guidance of the musicians Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna,
archived at the Municipal Collections of the Castello Sforzesco.
The studio was primarily created to
produce experimental
electronic music but also to create
effects and soundtracks
for film and TV (and was the model
for the 2012 film
Berio drew
inspiration from the working methods of American
serialist
composers Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening
from
GRMC in Paris through his friendship with Pierre
Schaeffer
and the Club d’Essai. Maderna’s influence came
connection with Schoenberg in his piece Canonical Variations
based
on Schoenberg's tone-row from his ‘Ode to Napoleon’,
was not just symbolically important: he married Schoenberg's
daughter Nuria in 1955), Henri Pousseur, Karlheinz
Stockhausen and Meyer-Eppler.
Among the
compostions created in ‘RAI Studio of Musical
Phonology’
through 1983 with close collaboration of sound
John Cage’s
Fontana
work being
entirely electronic by Luigi Nono.
Musicians
and composers who also worked at the RAI studio
Castiglioni, Aldo Clementi, Franco Donatoni, Armando
Gentilucci, Giacomo Manzoni , Angelo Paccagnini,
Salvatore
Sciarrino,
Giuseppe Sinopoli, Camilo Togni and Henri Pousseur.
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II. Popular music
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Tangerine Dream was to synthesizing
in the 70’s what in
the 80’s The Art Of Noise was
to sampling, but both shared
a common denominator. Their creations exploited to
the
maximum the musical technology of their time, changing
underlying values and motivations which worked as a
spring
board for upcoming styles and genres.
Whereas The Art
Of Noise contributed to dance, techno,
hip-hop, industrial, crossover jazz, etc., Tangerine Dream
paved the way to new age, ambient, electronica, relaxation,
space music, etc.
According to Anne Dudley, The Art Of Noise was a studio
team working with Trevor Horn, producing records like
ABC’s Lexicon of Love and Malcolm McLaren’s Duck
Rock.
But they started playing together in their own time. Trevor
had got a new synthesiser from Australia
fascinated them. It made it relatively easy to put in
a sample
of, say, a dog barking, and then play it in different
pitches.
No one knew how to take them. They were described as
techno
boffins (a common colloquial term used in Britain
WW2 by tech experts) whereas they had a free-ranging
jazz
(ZTT) – came from a sound poem by the Italian futurist
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti; and apparently he went back
to the Thames and Hudson Guide to
Futurism for the band’s
aesthetics by Luigi Russolo, so they performed
an edit and
named the group the Art of Noise.
Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) anticipated - indeed he may have
precipitated
- a whole range of musical and aesthetic notions
that formed
the basis of much of the avant-garde thought of
the past
several decades. His ideas were absorbed, modified,
and
eventually transmitted to later generations by a number
of
movements and individuals-among them the Futurists, the
Dadaists, and a number of composers and writers of the
nineteen-twenties.
The Noise
instruments he invented
fascinated
and infuriated his contemporaries, and he was
among the
earliest musicians to put the often-discussed micro
tone to
regular practical use in Western music. Russolo's
views
looked forward to the time when composers would
exercise an
absolute choice and control of the sounds that their
music
employed. He was the precursor of electronic music
before
electronics had come of age.
The Moog
Modular Synthesiser produced in 1964 became
the first
widely used electronic music synthesizer and the first
instrument to
make the crossover from the Avant-garde to
Popular
music. The release in 1968 of Wendy Carlos’s
using Moog synthesizers
(and one of the highest-selling
classical
music recordings of its era), brought the Moog to
public
attention and changed conceptions about electronic
music and
synthesizers in general.
The Beatles bought one, as did Mick Jagger who bought a
The Beatles bought one, as did Mick Jagger who bought a
hugely
expensive modular Moog in 1969 (which was only
used once,
on Nicolas Roeg’s film ‘Performance’) and was
later sold
to the German experimentalist rock group Tangerine
Dream :
Edgar Froese commented "The Rolling Stones had purchased
a
massive modular system from Moog in 1969 (several members
of
the group had them in fact, as odd as that might sound).
Mick
Jagger tried for a long time to produce a few particular
sounds
with it but had no luck and eventually wanted to sell
the
machine. Of course, when we heard it was available we
were
very excited and took immediate steps to get it. The
system
was composed of several large units and we purchased
it
piece by piece over a period of time. We had the whole
machine
only shortly before we began recording Phaedra
and
went into the studio without having used it beforehand.
Luckily,
and here's something I've never admitted to anyone,
luckily
we managed to hook up the machine more or less
correctly
without knowing how to at all. We connected the
wires
between the various components, the sequencer, oscillator,
filter
and so forth, using pure guesswork:
So much of what you hear on Phaedra was accidental".
So much of what you hear on Phaedra was accidental".
Tracks
Side 1
A. Phaedra
Side 2
B1. Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares
Composed by – Froese*
B2. Movements Of A Visionary
B3. Sequent C
Composed by – Baumann*
Credits
Companies
Notes
Catalog No.
87 761-270 on cover backside,
87 761 XOT at the center labels
Recorded in December 1973 at The Manor/Shepton-on-Cherwell.
℗ 1974 Virgin Records Ltd.
Equipment: Farfisa, EmsLondon
87 761 XOT at the center labels
Recorded in December 1973 at The Manor/Shepton-on-Cherwell.
℗ 1974 Virgin Records Ltd.
Equipment: Farfisa, Ems
