15 Pioneers Of Electronic Music
Electronic music has been around for over 80 years. Although it is hard to pinpoint who invented the first ever electronic instrument, many have added to the evolution and development of synthesizers, sequencers and samplers. The following are 15 pioneers of electronic music who were among the first to utilise electronic instruments in their compositions. Many of them were instrumental in changing how we listen to music today.
One thing is certain: without these pioneers pushing the boundaries of what was possible, music would sound very different today.
We are living in a society where we are surrounded by electronic music. We have various options to listen to electronic music and even more to choose from. It is not just the music that has changed, but also the way we receive our music.
Many people who are into electronic music might wonder who were the inventors of this type of music and how did it evolve through the years. In this article, we will be talking about 15 pioneers of electronic music and their contributions that helped shape the genre as a whole.
The history of electronic music goes back to the late 19th century when it was first realized that sounds could be recorded and reproduced with the use of technology. In 1878 Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, which could record sound waves on a cylinder covered in tin foil. This was considered a technological marvel at the time, but it wasn’t until 1887 when Emile Berliner developed a disc format for recording sound that phonograph sales began to soar.
In 1906 Lee de Forest invented the Audion tube which would eventually be used in radios and televisions, thus allowing people to hear sound over long distances without wires. The first step towards what we now consider as electronic music however occurred as early as 1917 with Russian composer Alexander Mosolov’s ”
In the past few years, electronic music has been making a major comeback. The genre has gained so much popularity that most musicians are now incorporating it into their own music. However, if you’re interested in listening to some of the original pioneers of electronic music, here is a list of 15 you need to hear:
Pioneers Of Electronic Music:
1. Karlheinz Stockhausen
2. Jean-Jacques Perrey
3. Isao Tomita
4. Raymond Scott
5. Kraftwerk
6. Wendy Carlos
7. Brian Eno
8. Giorgio Moroder
9. Vangelis
10. Daft Punk
The pioneers of electronic music in the late 1950s and 1960s created early devices for producing sound electronically. This style of music and instrumentation has evolved throughout the years, but it first emerged as a genre in the mid-1950s.
Early Electronic Music: 15 Pioneers of Electronic Music
These are some of the pioneers who helped to shape this genre:
Paul Lansky – a composer at Princeton University, he was one of the first to experiment with digital audio on computers. His work also includes Idle Chatterwhich features spoken word and music played by synthesizer. This work was composed in 1985 and influenced many other electronic musicians such as DJ Spooky who used it as inspiration for his own album in 1998.
Karlheinz Stockhausen – a German experimental composer who created works such as Gesang der Junglinge (1956) which features a boy’s voice modulated by filters; Kontakte (1959) where four channels of sound are mixed together using tape recorders; Mikrophonie I (1964) where microphones pick up sounds produced by instruments or human voice which is then processed electronically through filters at different frequencies; Hymnen (1966-1967), an orchestral piece with recorded radio broadcasts from around the
[Early electronic music] was a time when people were experimenting, pushing the boundaries of what was possible. It’s not like now where you have computers, mobile phones and iPads. I remember going to my first electronic concert in 1970 and we all sat on the floor and there were two or three guys on stage with their wires and knobs.
The sound itself is quite different to today’s dance music and some people would say it’s not that exciting, but it was all based around experimentation. The pioneers used any kind of sound they could find, they used synthesizers, electric organs and magnetic tapes, which they would cut up and re-arrange to make new sounds.
It was also a very collaborative process. Musicians were working with artists and architects at the time; they were interested in how sound could be used as an art form in its own right, as well as for films or for other things. It was about using sound to create atmospheres rather than melodies or harmonies.
Anyone who has had the opportunity to hear early electronic music recordings from the first half of the 20th century will have experienced a sense of wonder and discovery that is rare in today’s world. Much like the pioneers, who heard their first sounds coming from primitive electronics, we too are searching for meaning in these strange otherworldly sounds.
As a child growing up in London in the 1970s, I was fascinated by electronic music. I remember visiting friends who had recently acquired a synthesizer and listening to them play for hours on end. It seemed so futuristic, so exotic and somehow so important, even though I didn’t understand why.
Later as my own interest in music developed, I felt a strong desire to find out more about this mysterious genre of music from a time before my birth. It took many years of research, but eventually I began to uncover the names behind the music – musicians and scientists whose discoveries had shaped our world today.
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means (electroacoustic music), and that produced using electronics only. Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet. Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms. Devices such as the theremin, synthesizer, and computer can produce electronic sounds.
The first electronic devices for performing music were developed at the end of the 19th century, and shortly afterward Italian futurists explored sounds that had not been considered musical. During the 1920s and 1930s, electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions for electronic instruments were made. By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sounds and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction, leading to the development of electroacoustic