Electronic and Experimental Music: From Concrete Sounds to Digital Synthesis
Experimental and Electronic Music
"Tema 1"
Musique Concrète and Musical Electronics
Musique concrète emerged in France in the 1940s. Its composers recorded sounds from the everyday world and the natural environment, then manipulated them to transform them into acoustic sound material. This practice was also known as musique concrète in Germany and represented an early form of electroacoustic music. Unlike traditional composition, the sound itself was the raw material, and the composer worked directly with recordings rather than notation.
Musique concrète is an existing form of production in which the sounds of the world are used to create music from any object.
Musical electronics is music produced electronically through the use of synthesizers.
Electroacoustic music is a type of music that mixes musique concrète and electronic music.
Synthesis and the Changing Role of the Composer
Synthesis has challenged the traditional concept of the composer. Synthesizers and other new instruments offer possibilities that radically change the relationship between the performer and the instrument, and they no longer serve purely traditional functions.
Analog Synthesis
Analog synthesis is based on the continuous variation of electrical voltage. Sound is reproduced through oscillations that mirror the variations of air pressure, producing a continuous signal.
Digital Synthesis
Digital synthesis represents the sound through a numerical series, in which the amplitude of the wave is measured at successive instants. This process relies on an analog-to-digital converter.
MIDI
MIDI is a communication protocol that allows effects units, synthesizers, controllers and sequencers to exchange information. It represents a radical change in the evolution of musical instruments.
New Technologies and Musical Genres
1) Techno: Techno music was produced mainly in Detroit in the 1980s and became fashionable in the 1990s. Several groups and artists gained wide recognition, and it is still popular today, with well-known figures such as Carl Cox and Richie Hawtin.
2) Rap: Rap is a form of music whose meaning often carries a protest or accusation, a way to question and challenge. It consists of spoken or chanted lyrics delivered over complex rhythmic beats, where melodic and harmonic elements are secondary. It is often used to protest and to transmit the realities of marginalized communities, addressing violence, injustice and drugs. It emerged in the 1970s and gained prominence in the 1980s with artists such as Eminem and Snoop Dogg.
3) New Age: New Age is a countermovement to the previous styles, its music inspired by classical, romantic and impressionist music, as well as jazz. It emerged in the 1980s, and its representatives included Vangelis, Wim Hermann, Enya and Adrian Andersen, among others. With the help of synthesizers, it created music that was pleasant and accessible to the public.
4) Cyberpunk: Cyberpunk is a type of music related to the first mixes of musique concrète and electronic experimentation. Its representatives include Tangerine Dream, Human League, Ultravox and Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Music in Film
"Tema 2"
Definition: Film music is conceived and created to serve as background audio in a sequence of scenes.
Functions:
- Deepens the image and sets its pace
- Affects the continuity of the narrative
- Helps complete the evolution of an era or a period of a place
- Builds suspense in a scene
- Prepares the audience for a change that will occur
- Emphasizes emotions
- Describes a character and reveals their mood
- Highlights the different levels of the image