Electronic Music - Notes & Vids

1. We'll listen to a bit more of the Varese piece Monday - but I wanted you to take a listen to some other stuff. Using Electronics to make music is fairly old by now - CLICK HERE to read about the 1897 Cahill Telharmoium (all 200 tons of it - it took 36 boxcars to transport). So the idea of using electronic gizmos to produce music is nothing new.
2. Ever heard of the "Hammond Organ"? You've definitely heard the sound - it's also electronic, and can be called the first commercially available sysnthesizer. (But they called it an organ because an organ would - but a "synthesizer" no one would buy.
3. Another electronic instrument - the Theremin - is the only instrument you don't touch. It's electronic, and has been used all over. Here's a BBC story about the Theremin:
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. ....and here's another performance of an artist playing a Debussy piece on the Theremin:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Watch this one, and look at how the experiments of the last century have produced something that you hear every day.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. ..and finally, an interview on "ScreenSavers" with Dr. Robert Moog, who took all the stuff the electronic musicians were doing and put it in a small, portable, easily usable (relatively speaking) case. He also demos a Theremin that the company makes.