REGARDING ELECTRONIC

MUSIC
by Aurelio de l a Vega
For a long time now-long when we consider the changing time--scale
of our days-electronic music has been with 11s. The public at large usuall\,
remains cold, confused o r merelv dazed when faced with any new aesthetii
experience. Critics, musicologists and the like still seem, as usual, to be unable
to predict what will happen to this peculiar, mysterious and often anathematized
wav of handling musical conlposition, while many traditionallv-minded composers
colisider it a degrading destruction of the art of music. 0 n ' t h e other hand, the
electronic medium seems to attract a long, niotley caravan of young, inexper-
ienced and often unprepared 'beatnik type' self-titled composers, who believe
that the world began vesterday and that you only have to push buttons and prepare
IBM cards to obtain magical results. Probably not since Schoenberg proclainled
the equal value of the twelve semitones of our sacred but by now obsolete
tempered scale has twentieth-century music been faced n i t h such a bewilder-
ment.
Electronic music at first seemed to offer the composer innumerable pos-
sibilities regarding conceptions of time, tempo, space, rhythm, density and form.
Soon it became evident that the medium presented limitations of timbre, as well
as difficulties regarding clarity of communication in respect to form. Hut no
matter how these limitations acted, the composer felt that he had at his disposal
a very flexible and ever changing medium of creativity. And, like atonality, twelve-
tone music, and the serialization of n~usicalelements, electronic music seems to
be with us for good. First. what is this electronic music in essence? Electronic
music, as Gordon Mun~nlaexplains in the Julv 1964 issue of the journal of the
Audio Enaineering Sociey, "generallv refers to lnusic which is con~poseddiiectlv
on magnetic tape by electronic n l e ~ n s " . W e kno\\., of course, that the interest df
conlposers in producing music with such means is as old as the invention of the
vacuum tube. Edgar Varkse alreadv envisaged such music in the rqjos, and he
himself-pioneer that he was-stopped composing for a while, waiting for the time
when the sounds he had in mind were feasible realities. In fact, his Pokme Elec-
tronique, composed for Le Corbusier's Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Exposition,
was one of the first major works in this medium froin an important, respected
composer. John Cage gave us, also in the I 9 10s and earl\, r 94os, distorted sounds
produced bv house radios that were shaped into musiLal units. These sounds
were often 'filtered, mixed with pure static radio signals, and recorded on disc
surfaces. But no nlatter how the uninitiated tries to trace the historical back-
ground of electronic music to the Ondes Martenot, the Theremin, the Mixtur-
trautoniunl o r even the Hammond electronic organ, true electronic music
was not practised as an organic art until magnetic tape facilities became available
after the second world war. The tlexibilitv of the magnetic tape to accept sim-
i~ltaneouslevels of recording and re-taping \\as the logical vehicle for this t y e
of music.
Historically speaking, electronic music has gone quickly through several
major technical and aesthetic changes. These are, chronologicallv:
0 1965 hy Aurcliu de la Vcg.1
 REGARDING ELECTRONIC MUSIC 3

( I ) pure musique concrhte (appearing in France from I 945 to I 952 in full force,
and in later years incorporated as partial elements of full scale works where
other sound producing means are used), which derives its sound materials
from purely acoustical sources, such as ~ o u n d e dsurfaces o r railway station
sounds. Classical examples of this type of music are the effective dramatic
cantata The Veil ofOrpheu~bv Pierre Henry o r the Tautologos I1 by Luc Ferrari.
(2) pure electronic music 'originating in the NWDR broadcasting studios
in Cologne, Germany, around 1950 (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Herbert Eimert,
G . M. Koenig, ~I-ns;Krenek, Mauricio Kagel), and rapidly dispersing, with
all sorts of modifications, throughout Italy (Milan's Studio di Fonologia Musicale
under the direction of Luciano Berio), France (Radiodiffusion-TCl6vision
Franqaise, where Boulez composed his electronic sequences and works),
Sweden (Radio Stockholm), the United States (Columbia-Princeton Electronic
Music Center, the University of Illinois laboratorv, Yale University Electronic
Music Laboratory, the University of Michigan new electronic music laboratory,
San Fernando Vallev State College Electronic Music Laboratory, Northridge,
California, San ~ r a n c i s c oTape Music Center, Washington ~ k v e r s i t ~Saint
,
Louis, Mo.) , Canada (Universitv of Toronto Electronic Music Center), Poland
(Warsaw Radio), Argentina ( ~ n i v e r s i t vof Buenos Aires), etc. Classical exam-
ples of this type of music are ~tockhabsen'sGesang der Jiinglinge o r Mauricio
Kagel's Tranr~cidnI. This tvpe of music is usually rigorouslv serialized with
techniques of additive waveform synthesis.
( 3 ) various combinations of these two previous approaches, where musique
concrhte elements and purely electronically produced sounds are mixed (Beverly
Grigsbyls The Awakening, Ernst Krenek's San Fernando Sequence, Horacio
Vaggione's Steel and Space), o r where the human voice (and/or speech) are
electronically transformed, filtered and modified (Berio's Hommage ii James
Joyce)
(4) a music that uses elaborate programming procedures and computer media
(Gerald Strang's Musicfor the IBM 7 0 9 0 ; Hiller's Computer Cantata).
(5) a music which is performed in concert with prepared sound sources on
tape by performance procedures on special playback equipment (Gordon
Mumma's and Robert Ashlev's works, Ann Arbor).
(6) use of electronic music elements and/or regular instruments o r voice
(Kagel's Translcldn 11, Berio's Dlflrences, Stockhausen's Kontakte.)
The purely electronic music has usually been composed in well-equipped
studios established bv academic institutions, state-supported radio stations, and
electronic equipment manufacturers-Philips, RCA (Svnthetizer) , etc. The
major advantage of these institutional studios is the ready availability of specialized
equipment, and technicians to maintain them. To-day, however, several inde-
pendent studios have already been established, mainly in the United States,
where a wide selection of high-fidelity components are available at reasonable
cost (a recent listing of equipment to build an independent electronic music
studio has been put out by Cybersonics, 62 7 Center Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan.)
A typical case is the Co-operative Studio for Electronic Music in Ann Arbor,
built by composers Robert Ashley and Gordon Mumma. Other important private
studios include the San Francisco Tape Music Center (put together by composers
Morton Subotnik and Ran~bnSender), the one built in Dallas by David Ahlstrom,
o r the one built in San Francisco by Henry Jacobs and film-maker Jordan Belson
for the 'Vortex' presentations a t the Morrison Planetarium.
 TEMPO

The scope of this article does not permit a detailed description of the
techniques that must be mastered when con~posingmusic with the computer,
nor does it pretend to explain the myriads of manipulations used when con~posing
purely electronic music. This being a non-technical discussion of the manv facets
of electronic music, I will concentrate on some very general aesthetic consider-
ations, adding a brief description of the basic conlponents of an electronic music
laboratory, a summary delineation of the San Fernando Valley State College
Electronic Music Laboratory, Northridge, California, where I work myself and,
finally, some explanations regarding a personal experience in the field of electronic
music composition.
Technical necessities in the craft of n~usical con~position forced many
composers of the post-Webern era to seek new paths. Human possibilities
regarding exact production of over-complicated rhvthmic patterns, serialization
of dynamics, new concepts of densities and time scales, undoubtedly reached an
extreme limit in works like Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre o r Le Soleil des Eaux, o r
in Stockhausen's Zeitmasse. Two avenues soon appeared in front of the composer:
( I ) he could continue exploring the intricacies of rhvthmic parameters (with
almost inexhaustible variables of the utmost atomization), and of controlled new
dynamic series and independent levels of multiple musical units (superin~posed
with high precision) by using the new mechanical devices at his disposal (tape
splicing, measurement of minuscule particles of time, mixing and adding all
kinds of sound-produced sophistications), o r , (2) he could reverse the trend of a
super-controlled music and employ free-fitted-or semi free-fitted-patterns
that would construct open units of time (and even of visual spacing) through
aleatoric means. The two extremes, reached from the same point of departure,
have many things in common. Although the final, over-all effect is accom-
plished through different means, the results, to non-discriminating ears,
often sound very similar.
Electronic music offers, in fact, tremendous possibilities for both types of
compositional procedure. Once more the creators have influenced and forced the
builders, and equipment that was created for the needs of radio and television
(some of it of a mere trial nature), became an integrated collection of units for
artistic music production. As Raymond Kendall said in the Los Angeles Times
Calendar (June 27, 1965) "some composers in any age have been content to lise
whatever performers and media were already at hand ; others sought
new sounds and fresh possibilities". Thus new instruments have always been
invented for the composer, and have in turn become part of ordinary music-
making. Technicallv and aesthetically speaking, the new electronic means, in
the hands of powerful creative minds, have become tools for music con~position.
Of course, how far composers have mastered the new sounds and the new
aesthetics is open to speculation. What has been accomplished in a few years is
undoubtedly impressive. As recently as 1960, at the Stratford (Canada) Con-
ference of Composers, many of the pieces that were played during a session
devoted to electronic music, were mere collections of tricks that are the ABC of
electronic music composition. With the exception of Luciano Berio's Hommage
d James J y c e the works were extremely primitive and monotonous, in many
cases totally shapeless, no matter how intensely the composers explained their
own 'masterpieces'. It was as if one were witnessing a happy, excited gathering of
traditional harmony students comparing their first exercises in modulation. Only
four vears later, at the Eighteenth Ojai (California) Festival, perfectly finished
 KkG AKDING ELECTKONIC MUSIC 5

works such as Samstirni, by Magnus Blondal Johannson, Ensemblesfor Synthetizer, Part

I, by Milton Babbitt, or Mikrostruktury, by Wlodzimierz Kotonski ,were heard to
the delight of a sophisticated audience that had already developed a keen critical
sense for this music. By now, having mastered to a great degree of effectiveness
these electronic sound producing machines, composers of stature (many of them
well known also in the field of 'traditional' instrumental composition) have
already established styles and ~roceduresthat, using sui generis elements of con-
struction and form, have produced very remarkable pieces. Anyone who knows
Mario Davidovsky's Electronic Study No.? can testify that this is a beautifully
executed piece of music-a piece that, without recourse to any previous patterns
of traditional music, creates its own shapes, set of rules and positive communic-
ation results.
Often the well intei~tionedmusic lover or the traditionally-minded profes-
sional composer asks two basic questions when faced with the electronic
music ~henomena:( I ) accepting the honesty of the electronic music composer,
his artistic ability, his technical skill and the validity of his creation as an organized
artistic experience, is this type of artistic creation music at all? and, (2) given that
the product is accepted as music of a new type or order, is not such music
' 6 inhuman"? Of the two objections, the first one is undoubtedly the more
subtle one, and it certainly requires a longer period of discussion than it can be
allotted in these pages. As Lejaren Hiller points out in his book Experimental
Music (co-author Leonard M. Isaacson), two questions which often arise when
music is discussed are: (a) the substance of musical communication and its
symbolic and semantic significance, if any, and (b) the particular processes, both
mental and technical, which are involved in creating and responding to musical
composition. The ever-present popular concept of music as a direct, open,
emotional expression and as a subjective form of communication from the com-
poser, is, of course still that of the nineteenth century, when composers them-
selves spoke of music in those terms: e.g. "from the heart to the heart"
(Beethoven), "tone as the direct expression of feeling" (Wagner), "emotional
sensitivity" (Berlioz), "the portrayal of soul states'' (Mahler) ,and "not needing
the frame of pedantic forms" (Busoni). But since the third decade of our
century many composers have preferred more objective definitions of music,
epitomized in Stravinsky's description of it as "a form of speculation in terms of
sound and time". An acceptance of this more characteristic twentieth-century
view of the art of musical composition will of course immediately bring the
layman closer to an understanding of, and sympathetic response to, electronic
music, even if the forms, sounds and approaches it uses will still be of a foreign
nature to him.
A communication problem however will still remain. The principal barrier
that electronic music presents at large, in relation to the communication process,
is that composers in this medium are employing a new language of forms, occas-
ional non-tempered scales,athematic units (often replaced by short motivic cells
that are constantly changing), kaleidoscopic atomization of rhythms, and non-
recurring patterns of sound, where terms like 'densities', 'indefinite pitch
relations', 'dynamic serialization', 'permutation', etc., are substitutes (or
remote equivalents) for the traditional concepts of harmony, melody, rhythm,
etc. Not only does it postulate the acceptance of the philosophic-aesthetic implic-
ations of the Schoenbergian revolution (where all levels of a music structure have
equal value, both horizontally and vertically), but newer concepts regarding the
6 TEMPO

reversibility of music (n~elodically, harmonicall?, structurally) have added to

the general picture other dimensions which require further new criteria. Music,
being a non-discursive form of communication, operates with a semantic
peculiarly dependent upon technical structure as such. When the new structural
procedures of electronic music are at last fully understood b\ the listener the
barriers between him and the work he faces will be remo\ed.
Interestingly enough, the subconscious awareness of structure, that is the
irrational perception of it b) the human mind even when the evident short-
comings of a new, still uncharted musical language are present, can be remarkabl)
acute. I remember a fascinating experience I personally conducted in 1962 on the
occasion of a concert of electronic music held at San Fernando Valley State
College. The public that attended this concert was as heterogeneous as possible :
students of all sorts, music lovers (young and old), music critics, professional
musicians, academic personnel, housewives, unclassified bearded non-conform-
ists, Friday afternoon Philharmonic concert goers, etc. Twelve electronic music
works, with a short intermission, were played. To those of us who kne\\ the
technical and aesthetic secrets of this type of musical expression, it was evident
that the works presented covered not only a great variety of styles and techniques
but that they ranged from first-rate con~positions to mere poor exercises in
sound assemblage. Every listener was given a piece of paper bvith the t ~ t l e sof the
works printed on it, and was asked to e ~ a l u a t rthese according to a scale from I
to I 2 . When collected and subsequently tabulated the results were revealing
and extraordinary: 8 0 per cent of the answers showed unerring discrimination.
The medium of electronic music has of course tempted many kinds ot
composers to try their hand at it, from the technicians and programmers at
various computer centres (who thought that the ultimate was to conlpose fugues
'alla Bach' and got excited over the idea of being able to reproduce the sound
of several recorders playing Three Bl~ndM~ce)to the commercially minded oppor-
tunists who sell their electronic sound tracks (filled ~ i t h poor, basic, nai\e,
primitive sounds resembling the popular science-fiction gimmicks of interplanet-
ary life and travels) to TV producers and film makers. But the serious-minded
composer approaches the \vorld of electronic music n i t h a more sophisticated
and profound concept of creation. Although he knows that he can reproduce and
employ melodic, rhythmic patterns and timbres of a traditional nature, he feels
that it is in the exploration of sul generis languages and f o r n ~ sthat the aesthetic
magic of the new medium lies. And, conscientiousl!, he plunges into this
search.
The second objection usually levelled against electronic music 1s much more
innocent in nature. When people speak-sometimes Lery vehement1~-of the
'inhuman' quality of this music they seem to forget that the composer is the one
who fires the machines, collects the sounds, manipulates them, pushes the buttons,
programs the computer, filters the sounds, establishes pitches and scales, splices
tape, thinks of forms, and rounds up the ocer-all structure of the piece, as well
as every detail of it. Another common misconception is that some people
honestly believe that this type of music is "easy to put together", either bj a
mere electronic technician o r by anyone who is willing to moce the dials. To
what extremes some 'musical' pseudo Zen-Buddhists go- o r would like to go-
is evidenced by the frequency with which I have found myself in the position of
rejecting dozens of prospective students, with backgrounds ranging from botany
majors to underground 'intuitive' shabby poets, \\rho would like to coille "to
 REGARDING ELECTRONIC MUSIC 7

play with the machines", and thus "compose" music. To the many who think,
both actively (as ~ o t e n t i a l'composers') and ~ a s s i v e l(as
~ 'bersed' music solons
who pass all sorts of Socratic criticism on this type of music) along such easy lines,
I would only recommend that they study the curriculum requirements of any
academic institution (Columbia University, the University of Toronto, etc.) where
disciplines are taught relating to these matters.
Now that these general aesthetic considerations have been superficially explored
let us briefly consider some of the more technical problems inherent in electronic
music. A good description of the main components of an electronic music
laboratory is given by Gordon Mumma in his previously mentioned article in
the Jul}, 1964 issue of the Journal of the Audio Englneerlng Soclety. The basic
configuration of any electronic music studio can be divided into four main areas :
( I ) general manipulation components (tape transports, recording and pla? back
amplifiers and mixers) ; ( 2 ) sound sources (electronic oscillators, stored material
of acoustical origin) ; ( 3 ) modification apparatus (filters, equalizers, transposition
devices, gating and envelope control, reverberation) ; (4) accessories of all sorts
(power supplies, monitoring and analysis equipment meters, loudspeakers, oscil-
loscope, splicers, bulk eraser, etc.).
The choice of equipment for a basic studio depends upon the manipulation
procedures that a composer is likely to apply in relation to his music. For
instance, oscillators might not be required if the composer plans to work
e x c l i ~ s i v e lM~ith sounds of acoustical origin (munque concrkte procedures). Elec-
tronic echo chambers can be dispensed with by the crude substitution of natural
echo effects, obtained through acoustical means. And some subtle uses of the
oscilloscope may not be called for.
The first element to be dealt with is the tape transport (or tape recorder).
Since most tape transports are powered by synchronous a.c. motors they can be
operated as continuously-variable-speed devices, with the power being supplied
by a variable-frequency oscillator having suitable amplification and impedance
machine. Impedance matching to the capstan-driven motor can be accomplished
with a variable autotransformer. Different head configurations-or possibilities
for modification of these-are to be taken into consideration.
Secondly, separate pre-amplification and equalization equipment must be
a basic component element of a studio. Both the record bias and the erase current
should be separately controllable from the audio-signal component of the record
current.
Thirdly, since mixing is the electronic process basic to most types of elec-
tronic music composition, the requirements for a mixer are usually met by any
device which has wide, flat audio response, low distortion and a high signal-to-
noise ratio. Reverberation, when needed, is usually introduced at the mixing
stage, both using electronically controlled echo chambers o r more cumbersome
natural echo procedures (using several recording machines in a suitable room).
In the fourth place we have the bank of oscillators and generators. Many
oscillators of the stable bridge type are available. Low-frequency extensions for
1110st comnlercial oscillators are not difficult to construct. Usually, banks of
oscillators, for purposes of flexibility, are built in series that are powered from
a single, regulated power supply unit. The basic harmonic waveforms (sawtooth,
pulse, square and half-sinewaves) are obtainable either with passive diode shapers
o r with simple active-shaping circuits. Thyratron gas tubes o r reverse-biased
diode devices, are often employed as noise generators.
 TEMPO

Fifthly, the problems of modulation are to be considered. The use of

amplitude modulation includes gating and envelope control. Volume compression
and expansion, frequency spectrum transposition, inversion, and complex spec-
trum production are required manipulations. Usual frequency modulation
applications include swept frequency spectra and diverse vibrato products.
Passive semi-conductor modulators are useful for complex spectrum generation
and limited only by the quality and balance of their few simple components.
Active modulators range from the simple twin-triode cathode modulator (or
transistor modulator) to very elaborate devices such as the balanced push-pull
output type modulator with continuously variable control that enables the conl-
poser to achieve continuous sound event sequences without splicing.
Sixthly, different types of filter are necessary. From rather simple a c t i ~ e
K-C comb filters to quite expensive bandpass ones, the number of these devices
varies with the necessities of the composer. Many timbre-shaping procedures
(including most 'colouring' of white noise) do not require sharp cutoff filter
characteristics, although frequency selectike amplifiers \I ith ~ a r i a b l ebandwidth
may be often required.
Finally, among the many accessories, several regulated separate p o n e r
supply units are of prime importance. An oscilloscope (preferably with d.c.
amplifiers) is of great assistance, mainly for lnonitoring various composition
processes and for supplying pulse and sawtooth waveforms over a wide range.
Automatic, elaborate splicers are obtainable nowadays, as well as handy ones
mounted on top of the recording heads of transports. The amount of accessories
is only limited by budget limitations.
At the San Fernando Valley State College Electronic Music Laborator),
where my own activity has been, the normal basic equipment required in any
medium sized laboratory is augmented by some special configurations that merit
a brief comment and description. Given the nature of the academic programme
at this institution, parts of the Electronic Music Laboratory set up are used for
daily aural instruction in other areas, o r for general recording purposes. The
Laboratory is thus divided into three main operational groups, to allow roo111
for this multi-purpose idea, with diverse equipment in each one.
The basic sound producing complex, located in a sound-proof room, in-
cludes two audio oscillators Hewlett-Packard 200-AB (sine, square wake),
one General Radio I 2 I o-C oscillator (sawtooth \\a\ e), one Krohnhite 360-A
band-pass filter, one Hewlett-Packard push button n~odulator, one General
Radio I 390-B noise generator, one oscilloscope, one McIntosh MC-40 monitor
amplifier, one AR-I1 monitor speaker, one A n ~ p e x351-2 tape recorder, and
assorted quantities of other accessories.
The second stage of the Laboratory, \I here some of the first tape doubling,
mixing and editing of segments takes place, has two Ampex tape recorders (one
half-track, one full-track), one four channel Ampex MX-35 mixer, one AR-I1
monitor speaker, a bank of filters (from high to very low band-pass ones) and
another group of accessories (tape storage, splicers, fittings, adapters, cables, etc) .
The final stage of the Laboratory is located in the master control room of
the Music Building. Besides a Telefunken mixer-reverberator, another Ampex
MX-35 mixer, four big monitor speakers, three McIntosh MC-40 monitor am-
plifiers, six turntables in series, and lots of accessories, here is the highlight of
the Laboratory: five Ampex half-track tape recorders (two channel), one Ampex
three channel tape recorder, and one Ampex 3 00- 2 C ( I 5- 3o ips) tape recorder.
 REGARDING ELECTRONIC MUSIC 9

This very efficient bank of tape recorders (or tape transports) permits very
handy mixing at various levels. As may be seen, several silent loops of tape with
stored material can be readily manipulated from a monitoring station, superimpos-
ing many layers of audio material, perfectly equalized, in one single operation.
In this last room, the final stages of assembling the material at hand are
carried out to the needed shapes, and conclusion of sequences, or final editing of
the work at hand is accomplished.
Of course, anyone who has worked in the realm of electronic music knows
that first-rate basic equipment is very important for obtaining good results
possessing the necessary minimum of fidelity. One often hears very imaginative
compositions that show a good mind at work, produced on home-made equip-
ment of low fidelity response, and therefore partially unacceptable because of this
very poor sound quality. But the composer of this type of music also knows well
that, no matter how excellent his own imagination is, or the equipment at his
disposal, several important limitations are still inherent in electronic music. One
is the basically single-source, lnonotonous timbre-quality of this music; another,
the apparent single (medium) speed of the musical flow in any given composition.
Facet1 with these problems, which serious composers have tried to overcome
(from the multi-speaker, directional set-ups of Berio or Boulez,for example, to
the recent common use of mixing electronic music elements with the human
voice and/or regular instrumental groups), the creator of electronic music must
also bear in mind the need for a totally original form of expression, not based on
past rhythmic, melodic and harmonic patterns. These are problems not easy to
sol\ e.
Personally, I tried for years to experiment with electronically produced
sounds and materials before finally composing a complete twelve-minute work in
I 96 3, which I called Coordinates. This work tried, with varying degrees of success
and failure, to solve-at least partially-some of these problen~s. The piece was
first written as a two-channel stereo conception, and later assembled into a
monaural unit. It needs to be played over three loudspeakers (located in a tri-
angle form in the auditorium) to achieve intended effects.
Coordinates is divided into three movements which are related to one an-
other by sequences of events, cell-like motivic ideas, instrumental colouring
(the piano, which is the only traditional instrument employed in the piece,
serves as another structural link, although it is used in a different way in each
movement) and three basic speeds. The germ idea of the work is located, in
its most primitive form, in the middle slow movement ('Acoustical Measure-
ments', 3 ' 4 2 " ) . From here, this idea (consisting both of a given set of notes
which are heard horizontally and vertically at various points, and of a set of
pulsations) is expanded, transformed, reshaped and combined with other events
in the two outer movements. The piano is used in three ways: ( I ) 'prepared',
in the first movement, with fragmentary interventions at first, and gradually
taking over the bulk of the musical discourse; ( 2 ) as vehicle for low notes, bell-
like sounds and static chordal patterns in the middle movement; and (3) more
or less virtuosically employed (and for the first time used as an opposing colour
to the electronically produced sounds) in various variable interjections which
take place in the last movement.
The over-all effect regarding simulated speeds is achieved by the way in
which the sound materials are handled. Three 'speed-moods' are present: a
kind of Allegretto for the first movement ('Polynomial', 3' I 8"), an Adagio
 TEMPO

quality in the second ('Acoustical Measurements'), and an Allegro-like third

('Vectors', 5' 2"). Elements of musique concrkte are employed in every movement:
glissandos (filtered and modified through various processes) on the piano strings,
using metal rods; knocks on the wood and on metal surfaces; low piano notes
which are recorded at one speed and then lowered by taping procedures, etc.
All these technical considerations could be explained in greater detail,
with graphic symbols, formulas, cryptic words, nicely rounded esoteric phrases
and other usual paraphernalia to bewilder the reader. However, I personally
feel all this to be unnecessarv. Whether it is a good o r a bad piece of music,
whether o r not it is successfd in solving some of the given problems, whether o r
not it 'communicates', only time and repeated auditions will determine.
Coordinates is, like anv other electronic music work, like any other human
creation, filled with eipectations to be o r not to be fulfilled in due time. Is not
the experience of these sounds in itself an experience of a r t ? But as in Voltaire's
Candide, "let us work without much disputing; it is the onlv way to render life
tolerable".

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY
of
Babbitt, Milton-' An Introduction to the R.C. A . Synthetizer' (journal Mus~cal
Theory, Winter I 964)
Baker, Robert A.-'Musicomp' (Technical Report No.9) (University of Illinois
School of Music, Experimental Music Studio, Champagne-Urbana, I 96 3)
Berio, Luciano-'Studio di Fonologia Musicale' (The Score, 1955)
Borco, H. (Editor)-Computer Appllcat~oncIn the Behav~oral Sc~ences (Prentice
Hall, New Jersey, I 962)
Cohen, M-'Space Theatre' (Arts and Arch~tecture,August 1962)
Die Rehe, Vol. I-'Electronic Music' (Theodore Presser Co., Bryn Mawr,
Pa., 1958)
Divilbiss, J. L.-'The Real-Time Generation of Music with a Digital Computer'
(journalof MUSICTheory, Spring I 964)
Forte, Allan-'Composing with Electrons at Cologne' (H~ghF~del~ty, October
1 9 56)
Hiller, Lejaren A.-'Report on Contemporary Experimental Music, I 96 I '
(University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, I 96 2).
Hiller, Lejaren A.-'Electronic Music at the University of Illinois' (journal
of /I.lus~cTheory, Spring 1963).
Hiller, L. A., and Baker, R.-'Computer Cantata: A Study in Composition
using the Universitv of Illinois IBM 7090 and CSX-I Electronic Digital
of
Computers' (Perspectives New Music, Winter 1963)
Hiller, L.A., and Isaacson, Leonard M. - Exper~mentalMUSIC(McGraw-Hill,
1959)
Hiller, L. A.,and Isaacson, L.M.-'Musical Composition with a Digital Computer'
(Programme and Abstracts, I I th National Meeting of the Association
for Computing Machinen, University of California, Los Angeles,
1 9 56)
Hitchcock, H. W.-'Current Chronicle' (Muncal Quarterly, Vol. XLVIII No. 2 ,
April 1962)
Judd, F. C.-Electronic Music and Mus~que Concrkte (Neville Spearman, London,
1961)
 REGARDING ELECTRONIC MUSIC I I

Judd, F. C. -'Manipulation of Signals for Musique Concrkte' (Tape Recording

Magazine, London, January 27, I 960)
Judd, F. C.-'Producing Echoes with a Tape Recorder' (Amateur Tape Recording
Magazine, London, July I 960)
Krenek, Ernst-'New Developments in Electronic Music' (Musical America,
September I 955)
Le Caine, Hugh-'A Tape Recorder for Use in Electronic Music Studios' (Journal
of Music Theory, Spring I 963)
Le Caine, Hugh-'Electronic Music' (Proc. I. R.E., Vol.44 NO.^., April 1956)
Luening, Otto-'Some Random Remarks about Electronic Music' (Journal cf
Music Theory, Spring 1 964)
Maren, R.-'Electronic Music: Untouched by Human Hands' (The Reporter,
April I 8, 1957)
Mathews, M.V.-'An Acoustic Compiler for Music and Psychological Stimuli'
(Bell $stem Technical Journal, May I 961)
h?athews, M. V., and Miller, Joan E.-Music IV Programmer's Manual (Bell
Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, I 964)
Meyers, Robert G.-'Technical Bases of Electronic Music, Parts I and 11'
(Journal of Music Theory, Spring I 964 and Winter I 964)
Mumma, Gordon- 'An Electronic Music Studio for the Independent Composer'
(Journal of' the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. I 2 No. 3 , July I 964)
Olson, Harry; Belan, Herbert, and Timmens, J. - 'Electronic Music Synthesis:
the Mark I1 R.C.A. Synthetizerl (Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, Vol. 3 2 No. 3, March 1960)
Oram, Daphne-'Making Musique Concrkte' (Hi Fi News, London, April 1958)
Pierce, J. R.-Electrons, Waves and Messages (Hanover House, Garden City,
N.Y., 1956)
Pierce, J . R.-'A Portrait of the Machine as a Young Artist' (Playboy, June 1965)
Prieberg, F. K.-Musica ex Machina (Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1960)
Re'pe'rtoire International des Musiques E.~pe'rimentales(Service de la Radiodiffusion-
TClCvision Frangaise, I 96 2)
Salzman, Eric-'Music from the Electronic Universe' (High Fidelity, August
1964)
Schaeffer, Myron-'The Electronic Music of the University of Toronto' (Journal
of Music Theory, Spring 1963)
Schaffer, Pierre-A la Recherche d'une Musique Concrkte (Editions du Seuil, Paris,
1952)
Searle, Humphrey-'Concrete Music' (Grove's Dictionary $Music and Musicians,
5th edition, Vol. IX, app. 11, Macmillan, London, 1954)
Tall, Joseph-'Music without Musicians' (Saturday Review, Vol.40, Jan. 26, 1957)
Tenney, James-'Sound Generation by means of a Digital Computer' (Journal of
Music Theory, Spring 1963)
The Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair (Reprints from the Philips
Technical Review, Vol. 20, Nos. I , 2 and 3)
Ussachevsky, Vladimir-'La "Tape Music" aux Etats-Unis' (La Revue Musicale,
NumCro Speciale 236, I 957)
Vers une Musique Expe'rimentale-sous la Direction de Pierre Schaefer (La Revue
Musicale, Numkro Speciale 2 36, I 957)
Yates, Peter-'Music' (Arts and Architecture, June 1963)
 t r i c h Auerbuch
Aal-on Copland at rehearsal in London recently

Second-stage room of the Electronic Music Laboratory, San Fernando Valley State College, U.S.A.