ivey_an electronic music bookshelf (contemporary literature review)

7/27/2019 Ivey_An Electronic Music Bookshelf (Contemporary Literature Review)

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An Electronic Music Bookshelf

Author(s): Jean Eichelberger IveySource: College Music Symposium, Vol. 9 (Fall, 1969), pp. 127-129Published by: College Music SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40373809 .

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AN ELECTRONIC MUSIC BOOKSHELFWithin the last fewyears, iterature bout electronicmusichas pro-liferated. ome of this iterature s highly echnical, nd is usefulchieflyto experienced ractitionersf theart; it will find tsplace most ogicallyon a special bookshelfwithin the electronicmusic studio,available forready eference. greatdeal of t,on theotherhand,belongs n thecollegeoruniversity usic ibrary,where twillbe accessible oreaders fvaryingdegrees fbackground nd interest n thesubject.This article s intendedas a helpfulguide to some of the recentpublications.Two importanteference orks ecentlyssuedcomplement ach otherwell.The International lectronicMusic Catalog,editedby Hugh Davies

(Cambridge,Mass.: M.I.T. Press,1968), imstodocument ll theelectronicmusic vercomposed.Thoughsuchan ambitious im mustfail,thecatalogdoescontain wealth f nformation- listing ompositions,omposers,ndstudios all over theworld, n additionto givinga verycomplete ist ofrecordings hrough 967.Documenting notherphase,A Bibliography fElectronicMusic,compiledbyLowell Cross Toronto:U. ofTorontoPress,1967), istsbooksand articles bout the subject.Entries, lphabetizedbyauthor, re not annotated, ut an index by subject s helpful n locatingarticlespertinent o special topics.An earlierbook,ElectronicMusic andMusique ConcretebyFrederickC. Judd (London: Spearman,1961),is still a helpful ntroduction o thesubject.Morerecently,haptersn electronicmusic ppeared n three ooksissued in 1967,each of whichplaces thissubjectwithina differentndbroader ontext.Music,Physics,ndEngineeringNew York: Dover,1967)isa presentationor he ayman ya noted couticalengineerwhose chieve-ments ncludethedevelopment f theRCA Synthesizer,arryF. Olson;it is a revision f his earlierbook,Musical Engineering. sychoacoustics,a focusof experimentn manyelectronicmusic centers, s the generalsubjectofFritzWinckel'sMusic,Sound,and Sensation New York: Dover,1967);whileRobertEmmettDolan's Music in ModernMedia (New York:G. Schirmer,967) includeselectronicmusicalongwith nformation n avariety f recording echniques nd the productionof scores for motionpictures nd television.A handbook pecificallyntendedfor tudio use is Ronald Pellegrino'sAn Electronic tudioManual (Columbus: Ohio StateUniversity ublica-tions, 968),whichhasan accompanyingape. t dealsin particularwiththeelectronic tudioequipmentmanufactured y the R.A. Moog Company.Moog equipment s found n manystudiosand is now knownto a largepublic through heSwitched-onach recording.127

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128 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUMCertainotherbooks,while not about electronicmusicper se, coverclosely elatedtopics.The electronicmediumhas focussed ew interest n

acoustics nd made new forms f acousticalexperiment vailable.An ex-cellentrecentbook on acousticswhich takes notice of someof thesenewdevelopmentss C.A. Taylor's The Physicsof Musical Sounds (London:EnglishUniversities ress,1965). A finebook of practicaladvice whichmany lectronic omposers ave founduseful s JoelTail's TechniquesofMagneticRecording New York:Macmillan,1958).Here thetechniqueoftaperecordings closely llied to theproduction f electronicmusic.Book treatments f such a contemporaryopic as electronicmusic,however, re not nearlyso extensive s the periodical iterature.An ex-tremelyargenumberof articles n electronicmusichave been publishedin both cholarlyndpopular ournals nd even n newspapers withtreat-mentrangingfrom he superficial o thehighlytechnical.To findone'swayabout in this iterature, work ike theCrossBibliography,mentionedabove, is a mostwelcomeguide. Some of the mostimportant eriodicalliteratures described elow.The Music EducatorsJournal, November,1968) was a special issuedevotedto electronicmusic (still available fromNEA PublicationSales,1201 16thSt. N.W., Washington, .C. 20036,at $1 per copy). It containsarticles n manyphasesof thesubjectbya variety f experts, lus lists ofrecords, eadings, cores, erms, nd equipment;and a disc recording.Al-together,t forms erhaps hemost uitable ntroduction o theentirefieldfor thenon-specialisthat has yetbeen published, n additionto havingmaterial f nterestospecialistss well.The ElectronicMusicReview, quarterly hichbegan nJanuary 967,unfortunatelyeasedpublication ftertsseventhssue;back issues re stillavailable,however, rom hepublisher, he IndependentElectronicMusicCenter,Trumansburg,N.Y. 14886. (The InternationalElectronicMusicCatalog,mentioned bove,was a specialdouble issue of this ournal,andis available, s notedabove,from heM.I.T. Press.) t is indeedregrettablethat inancialupport ouldnotbe found or he ontinuance f this aluablejournal, heonlyone to takeelectronicmusic s itsspecial province.Articlescovered widerange, rom ighly echnical reatmentsfequipmentdesigntomoregenerally ccessible ssays n aestheticsnd on the appearanceofelectronic ffectsn rockmusic.The Review was also a helpfulsourceofcurrent ewsin thefield, istingnew recordingssomeof which were re-viewed),publications, nd special events uch as seminars nd importantconcerts.Other ournalswhichfrequentlyublish articleson electronicmusicincludePerspectivesfNew Music,Die Reihe (whichappears n Englishtranslationnder tsGerman itle), heJournal fMusicTheory, heJournal



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ELECTRONIC MUSIC BOOKSHELF 129oftheAudioEngineeringociety,nd theJournal ftheAcoustical ocietyofAmerica.The American ociety fUniversityomposers% Departmentof Music,Columbia University, ew York,N.Y. 10027) makes frequentmention felectronicmusic, ncluding omputermusic, n itstwopublica-tions, heProceedingsan annual collectionof papersread at ASUC con-ferences)nd theNewsletterwhichfeatures p-to-datehortnewsitems).In a morepopular,or practical, ein,magazinesforthe "hi-fi" nthu-siast, ike High Fidelityand Audio, and forthe experimenterhobbyist-technician)ike Radio Electronicsnd ElectronicsWorld,havemany rticles,andalsoadvertisements,hich reof nterestn theelectronicmusicstudio,especiallywhen t comesto selecting,ervicing,nd buildingstudioequip-ment.Along similar ines, the largerradio and high-fidelityquipmentstores ften arry goodselection fpaperbacks n many opics fpotentialinterest books on high fidelity,ape recording, uilding and servicingequipment,nterpretingchematic iagrams, asicelectrical heory,nd thelike. Suchbooks,frequentlypdatedand covering widerangefrom hoseaimed at beginners o those ntendedfortechnicians,re a good sourceofinformationor elf-studynd reference.Keepingup withtheever-expandingepertoire f electronicmusic onrecords s not easy.Until recently, lectronicmusic as such was difficultto locate withany thoroughness,n the SchwannRecord Catalog,whichindexesmainlybycomposer.However, chwannhas nowbegunto carryspecialsectionof electronicmusicrecords n the back of each issue. Con-sequently ertaincomposerswho were represented n recordsonlywithelectronicmusichave disappearedfrom hemain bodyof thecatalog,butappear in the electronicmusicsection,where nformationn thecontentsof individualrecords s nowmorecompletethan before.Much electronicmusicfrom oreignecord ompanies nd other pecialized ourcesdoes notappear butcross-checkheSchwann upplementaryatalog), o the sectionis byno meansa complete isting fall the electronicmusicavailable; butwithin ts imitations,henew specialsection s a distinct elp. The Con-temporaryusicNewsletter%Department fMusic,New YorkUniversity,Washington quare,New York,N.Y. 10003) also lists, nd sometimes e-views, ewrecords fcontemporary usic, mongwhich t isusuallypossibleto discern hoseusingelectronic quipment.

Jean Eichelberger IveyEditor,NewsletterAmerican ociety fUniversity omposers


ivey_an electronic music bookshelf (contemporary literature review)

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