Music in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production

A commented journey through time…

Jan Smeddinck (#1976868)jan83@tzi.de

Sound Culture, Petra KlusmeyerHfK Bremen, Germany (2009)

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The Book

• Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music– Continuum Inter. Publis.

(7. Oktober 2004)

• Daniel Warner & Christoph Cox (Eds.)

• Chapters 22, 24 & 25

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdourish/3103575261/sizes/o/ http://mitpress.mit.edu/images/products/books/0262041960-f30.jpg

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Mechanical Reproduction of Music

• 14th – 18th century: barrel organs etc.• 1857: Phonautograph – Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville– Recordings made audible in 2008

• 1877: Phonograph Cylinder– Thomas Edison– First real recording

• 1885: Gramophone– Emile Berliner– „cheap“ copying (from master)

http://getfantasticdeals.com/library/Gramophone.jpg

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Music Across Time & Space

• “The effect of recording is that it takes music out of the time dimension and puts it in the space dimension.”– Brian Eno (late 1970s)

• Recording makes music all present– Mc Luhan

• “So not only is the music with us now, in some sense, on record, but the whole global musical culture is also available.”– connect to present & internet

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Electronics ~ 1900

• 1906: Electronics (Triode)– Lee De Forest– vacuum tube / electronic amp.

• 1920s: Microphones, loudspeakers, usable electronic instruments

• 1930s: Steelwire recorders• 1935: AEG K1 Magnetophon

– Fritz Pfleumer

• 1939: John Cage: “Imaginary Landscape #1”– First composed piece to use means of

electronic reproduction (var. speed phonographs)

http://www.tonaufzeichnung.de/images/Tonband/magnetophon_K1_gross.jpg

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Culture & Technology

• also 1930s: Jazz becomes recorded– no full coincidence• Brian Eno (p. 128)

http://justbooks.org/calendar/images/Jazz%20NIght.jpg

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Walter Benjamin

• 1935: „Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit“

• Argues about photography and film• The reproduction can take a position

concerning the original• The reproduction can put the original in a

different context• While the original may remain untouched,

it’s here-and-now is devaluated (ref. towards Eno on space & time)

• Loss of ‚originality‘: traditional role of art -> politics

• link to visual culture / art– e.g. montage, collage, borrowing, … (Cutler, p.

144)

http://www.braungardt.com/Theology/Benjamin/Benjamin.jpg

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Tape Recorders

• 1947: Improved electric tape – John T. “Jack” Mullin

• Music is opened to environmental sounds– nature & technology

• music, brains & the universe: music & math

• Tape vs. discs– mutable, cuttable, reversible …

http://www.hifiengine.com/images/model/revox_pr99.jpg

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Improved Electronic (Re)Production

• 1950s: Stereo becomes commercial (Ampex)

• Musique Concrète (Pierre Schaeffer & Pierre Henry)

• 1951: John Cage: “Imaginary Landscape #4”– Radios as instruments

• 1956: Karlheinz Stockhausen: “Gesang der Jünglinge”– natural sounds (voices) mixed with

electronic, 5 channel sound

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Improved Electronic (Re)Production

• 1960s: Cassette, Synthesizers & Experimental Digital Recording

• Multi-Track recording– towards studio composing & ‘crowded’ rock music

• 1964: Compact Cassette• Glenn Gould goes studio only!

– subverted authenticity

• 1966: Dolby Noise Reduction• Dub• 1967: James Tenney: „Viet Flakes“

– pop + classical + asian music• antedating mashup

http://www.briangreene.com/april12/i/Tdkc60cassette.jpg

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Chris Cutler• * 1947: Percussionist, composer, music theorist• 1968: Henry Cow (@ Cambridge): avant-garde rock• „Indeed, from the moment recordings existed, a new kind

of „past“ and „present“ were born – both immediately available on demand. Time and space homogenised in the home loudspeaker or the head phone, and the pop CD costs the same as the classical CD and probably comes from the same shop. All commodities are equal.“ (p. 147)– Young musicians grow up in the electronic recording age– Now they (~ we) are the first digital natives!

• Good writings: SCALE & The Age of Virtual Communities of Taste

• Sound declines to disappear (p. 138)– Organic response: RECYCLE

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/HenryCow_AlbumCover_Concerts_inside.jpghttp://www.ccutler.com/ccutler/Images/electrifiedKit.jpg

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Plunderphonia

• John Oswald: „Plunderphonic“ (~ 1985)– sued by Michael Jackson

• Antedates Youtube, remix-culture, sampling, UGX

• Consciously self-reflexive (Cutler, p. 141)

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Plunderphonia

• Using „macrosamples“ and „electroquotes“– Since arrival of recording: copyright no

longer simple…

• To refer, or not to refer?• The power of pure atomic recordings…• Sound freed from the reference…– Steal this Film II: around 33:00 min..

• about the good of copying for music

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Art Widespread

• 1970s: Radio-Cassette (“Boombox”, 2 tracks), Walkman, Commercial Digital Recording (PCM), Quadraphonic Sound

• Stockhausen: „Opus 1970“– players control loudspeakers and distortion

• Miles Davis: electric records• Turntable culture:

– NY Hip-Hop DJs, scratching

• 1975: Brian Eno: “Another Green World”– Invention of ‘Ambient’

• 1977: Kraftwerk: “Trans-Europe Express”– Sequencers

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Brian Eno

• * 1948: Art school, glam rock, ambient, avant-garde (Bowie)

• Electronic composer– Producer: e.g. U2, Coldplay,

• Can‘t read or write music, or play an instrument well– ref. music escaping sheets (Chris Cutler)

http://smith3000.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/brianeno.jpg

Working towards different music, because constraints of classical composition are shifted

- Oblique strategies

Ode To Gravity: Pt. I: 59 min. 30 sek. - 1:02:35

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The Studio as Compositional Tool

• interplay of live vs. recording–many times mixed

• lifting musical constraints• “…working directly with sound, and

there is no transmission loss between you and the sound – you handle it.”– Brian Eno (p. 129)

• summary on the history (Ode Pt. II first 3 min.)

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Digital (Re)Production

• 1980s: CD, DAT / DAB– WAV & AIFF– Samplers become affordable

• 1982: MIDI & Roland Baseline and Drum Machines• Rise of electro and techno

– Detroit: Auto-city!

• Ambient -> chill-out• 1989: Max• (Re)Producing sound by writing (code)…

– Cage‘s Williams Mix (1952) took a year now 5 min.– Math turns directly into music (NIN, LOSD, Kiln)

• also natural science – conversion between digital media!

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Unlimited Reproduction

• 1991: MP3 (Fraunhofer IIS, Erlangen)• 1992: Minidisc• 1997: Max/MSP• 1998: Portable MP3 players• Embracing glitches and errors of electronic

music (e.g. scratches, compression)– also 8Bit

• Oval – Post-Post• People Like Us – Recyclopedia Britannica (2002)

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Studio as the Instrument

• 2008: Brian Eno: Bloom (iPhone app)

• Technology becomes mobile and ubiquitously available

• Focus returns to the performance– Which often involves recording…

• Even less transmission loss…• Everybody can be a composer

http://www.buzzoutroom.com/main/images/bloom.jpg

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Kodwo Eshun

• * 1967: Writer and theorist, Prof. @ Goldsmiths• Black music & afro-futurism

– it‘s black, but it isn‘t !?!

• the „soulful“ vs. the „postsoul“• „Alien Music is a synthetic recombinator, an

applied art technology for amplifying the rates of becoming alien. Optimize the ratios of excentricity. Synthesize yourself.“ (p. 158)

• Science of machine music• Unlimited reproduction & the anxiety of missing

out (video interv. 03:00 ~ 2 min.)

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Generative Music

• „Leakage, seepage, adoption, osmosis, abstraction, contagion: these describe the life of sound work today.“ (Cuter, p. 152)

• Eno on evolution…• Steal This Film II:– 19:00 about how the internet is for

reproduction…

• Neural Network music composition:– http://cssp.us/pdf/D_Watts_Six_Degrees_CSSP.pdf

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Summary

• culture <-> technology• (or music, or society)

• ? -> (notation) -> reproduction -> production -> generation -> self-reproduction -> self-generation -> ?

• Milestones: Tape, Digitalization

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That’s it! !?!

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Sources & References• History:

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_recording_and_reproduction– http://www.caipirinha.com/Film/modulations/timeline.html

• http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin• http://

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arteclab.uni-bremen.de%2F~robben%2FKunstwerkBenjamin.pdf&ei=iNImSubfO8SksAazvMHZBQ&usg=AFQjCNGRprfP1sRRE3EEPSJdNAf_qQ-Hjw&sig2=2_aIh8nzZzytTqGPk6ibaw

• http://www.ccutler.com/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cow• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cutler• http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/• http://www.myspace.com/ambientlegend• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno• http://radiom.org/detail.php?omid=OTG.1980.02.02.A• http://cssp.us/pdf/D_Watts_Six_Degrees_CSSP.pdf• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RivGWjlLoQ• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodwo_Eshun• http://www.spikemagazine.com/0400brilliantsun.php• http://www.jahsonic.com/BSF.html• http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/6/6902/1.html• http://fr.truveo.com/Generative-Music-eng/id/1313610500• http://www.epitonic.com/artists/losd.html• Steal This Film I & II• Please also refer to the links on the slides…