Anyway, Reflecting #3
Personal Understanding of Concrete Music, Electroacoustic Music, Electronic Music, and Electronic Musical Instruments.
In this third edition of “Anyway, Reflecting”, I will discuss my personal understanding of concrete music, electroacoustic music, electronic music, and electronic musical instruments, which I consider important to re-examine. This article continues the conclusions from the first two editions of the “Anyway, Reflecting” series.
Concrete Music (Musique Concrète)
Concrete music first appeared in France in 1948, and the term was coined by Pierre Schaeffer. The process of creating concrete music involves recording acoustic sounds on magnetic tape taken from various concrete sources (the sound of a train, the chirping of birds, the cacophony of chickens on a farm, lightning during rain, etc.). These various sound recordings are then manipulated and arranged to produce musical events within the composition.
The process of creating this concrete musical composition is indeed quite experimental. Initially, the manipulation of the sound material used resembled a “sound collage”; however, over time, many other, quite diverse, developments emerged.
Concrete music is also closely linked to the electroacoustic process, which is a process of manipulating acoustic sound waves using electronic/electrical devices.
Let’s listen to the series of works entitled “Études de bruits“ [1948] by Pierre Schaeffer, then the work of Bernard Parmegiani entitled “Violostries” [1965] written for violin and magnetic tape machine played by Devy Erlih, then “Petite symphonie intuitive pour un paysage de printemps“ [1973-74] by Luc Ferrari, and “Bohor“ by Iannis Xenakis through several YouTube channels from “dŠ”, “TheBillser“, “Silesius“, and “Anal Device“:
Pierre Schaeffer - “Etudes de bruits” [1948]
Bernard Parmegiani - “Violostries” [1965]
Luc Ferrari - “Petite symphonie intuitive pour un paysage de printemps” [1973-74]
Iannis Xenakis - “Bohor” [1962]
Electroacoustic Music
Continuing the explanation above, electroacoustic music is music that involves the process of manipulating acoustic sound waves, including timbre (tone color), pitch (high or low tone), volume (loud or soft sound), panning/spatialization (things related to position/space), and the length or shortness of the duration of the sound using electronic/electrical devices.
In the case of early concrete music, the electronic device used to manipulate acoustic sound recordings was a magnetic tape machine, making the process of creating music quite time-consuming. With the advent of various DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software, this process has become digital and much more efficient. Additionally, the term audio sample, referring to sound recordings, is now widely recognized. It is undeniable today that sound sources for concrete music can originate from either acoustic sounds or electronically created sounds, such as a sine wave.
Then, in some other cases, there is also the term live signal processing (direct signal processing), where the manipulation of acoustic sound is carried out directly using electronic/electrical devices. Apart from music, many examples of this process can be found in everyday life, one of which is a gymnastics instructor who uses a headset microphone to give commands for ongoing gymnastics movements. The microphone is used to capture acoustic sound signals, which are then converted into electrical signals along with the given manipulation (increased volume, reverb effects, delay, filtering using an equalizer, etc.) and then converted back into acoustic sound waves through a loudspeaker (speaker). Another example of this process is how an electric guitar instrument works when played with effects devices to manipulate its sound.
Let’s listen to the work entitled “SUWUNG” [2006] by Indonesian composer Slamet Abdul Sjukur and an improvisation music session by Oren Ambarchi in 2018 through the following two YouTube channels: “October Meeting” and “Roger On”:
Slamet Abdul Sjukur - “SUWUNG” [2006]
Improvisation music session by Oren Ambarchi [2018]
Electronic Music (Elektronische Musik)
The emergence of electronic music can be traced back to the beginning of WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk), an electronic music studio in Cologne, Germany. WDR opened in 1953, based on the idea of Werner Meyer-Eppler and Herbert Eimert. The main idea behind the initial vision of electronic music started from a thesis by Meyer-Eppler. His thesis, titled “Elektronische Klangerzeugung: Elektronische Musik und Synthetische Sprache” (roughly, “Electronic Sound Generation: Electronic Music and Synthetic Language”), discussed creating music with a synthesis process using electronically produced signals.
At that time, many electronic music works emerged that focused on experimentation with sound synthesis and manipulation, considered novel. The use of pure sound from sine wave vibrations generated electronically through audio oscillators and speakers served as one of the primary sound materials in the music-making process. The combination and manipulation of acoustic sounds and electronic sound synthesis were also part of this focus.
The “strange” or “abstract” impression that emerged in the early electronic music works created in the WDR studio can be seen as a consequence of this experimentation.
Over time, other studios began to emerge in various locations, both inside and outside Germany, focusing on the development of electronic music and its technology. The synthesis process in electronic music expanded widely, producing its own diverse and complex forms.
Today, we can see the results of this development, with electronic music becoming incredibly diverse, both in its characteristics and its production processes. Along with this, many genres and subgenres have emerged, along with their classifications, within the electronic music category. Both the “comfortable” and the “weird” have become commonplace, yet still somewhat obscure.
Let’s listen to some works titled “Prozession” [1967] by Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Rydeen“ [1979-80] by Yellow Magic Orchestra, and “data.matrix“ [2005] by Ryoji Ikeda, and “Order From Chaos” [2016] by Max Cooper through the YouTube channels of “四条河原修二“, “ALFA MUSIC YouTube Channel“, “Edgewear”, and “Max Cooper“ below:
Karlheinz Stockhausen - “Prozession” [1967]
Yellow Magic Orchestra - “Rydeen“ [1979-80]
Ryoji Ikeda - “data.matrix“ [2005]
Max Cooper - Order From Chaos [2016]
Musical Electronic Instruments
Between the 1800s and 1940s, many new musical instruments emerged that used electricity as their primary power source. These instruments derived their sound from electrical acoustic amplification, the use of magnetic fields, photo-electrical sound synthesis, and many more.
Although initially these instruments were made as part of the experimental process by their makers, in their further development, these instruments were used as additional instrumentation in orchestras, research into music that could be played without players, and efforts to solve various musical problems.
Over time, the purposes for which these instruments were created have expanded, along with their functions. In fact, many contemporary classical musical works have emerged specifically for these electronic instruments. Today, the use of electronic instruments in music has become commonplace, and we may even encounter them in our daily lives.
Personally, I consider an electronic musical instrument to be simply an instrument whose performance uses electricity as the primary power source. I also believe that music may not necessarily be considered electronic music, depending on the characteristics and musical construction of the instrument. Although the material used is derived from electronic sound synthesis, the composer’s choice of musical style/genre can also be a clear determinant in its classification.
Do the sounds used try to involve aspects of novelty and difference that cannot be represented by acoustic instruments, or do they use them to follow musical patterns that are already commonplace for the general public?
Besides that, I also think there is no harm in classifying it simply, that if there is an electronic sound synthesis process involved in the music or even the presence of musical electronic instruments in the music being listened to, then these things are enough to be characteristics for classifying it as electronic music.
Some examples of these musical electronic instruments include the Theremin, Ondes Martenot, Variophone, Synthesizer, Electronic Keyboard, and also Computers/Laptops with special software for music/sound synthesis.
Friends can read more about the historical sequence of the collection of writings on the following site: 120years.net
Let’s listen to the work entitled “Deep Night” [1929] for 1929 RCA Theremin & Piano written by Charles Henderson and Rudy Vallée, then “Feuillet inédit no 4” [1930s] for Ondes Martenot & Piano by Olivier Messiaen, the work “THE DRAWN SOUND OF SIREN” [1934-35] for Variophone by Arseny Avraamov, the work “Composition for Synthesizer” [1961] for RCA Mark II Synthesizer instrument by Milton Babbitt, then a performance of electronic keyboard music by Arindy Putry Konawe in 2021, and finally a live coding music session by Kindohm (Mike Hodnick) in 2016 through the YouTube channels “Charlie Draper”, “Christine Ott”, “straypixel”, “Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center - Topic”, “Arindy Putry Konawe“, and “Mike Hodnick“ as follows:
Charles Henderson dan Rudy Vallée - “Deep Night“ [1929]
Olivier Messiaen - “Feuillet inédit no 4” [1930an]
Arseny Avraamov - “THE DRAWN SOUND OF SIREN” [1934-35]
Milton Babbitt - “Composition for Synthesizer“ [1961]
Electronic keyboard music performance by Arindy Putry Konawe [2021]
Live coding music & visual performance session by Kindohm (Mike Hodnick) [2016]
Seems like a conclusion?
From the entire explanation above, I realize that the development of concrete music, electroacoustic music, and electronic music, along with electronic musical instruments, is not merely an event that suddenly happened, but there are many sequences of factors involved, and it is full of the spirit of innovation, competition, sporadic emergence, politics, and intellectuality.
Concrete music with concrete acoustic sound experimentation efforts, electroacoustic music with the characteristics of the process of manipulating acoustic sound waves using electronic/electric devices, electronic music that focuses on the further expansion of the development of electronic sound synthesis processes, and musical electronic instruments that also enliven the spirit of innovation and novelty in many musical events. All are intertwined with each other, with their own characteristics.
That’s all from me. We’ll continue in the next edition of “Anyway, Reflecting”.
Stay healthy.
Rangga Purnama Aji, 2024.
(Revised and translated into English in 2026)