HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC

History of Electronic Music

History of Electronic Music

Introduction

Electronic music is a loose term for music created using electronic equipment. Any sound produced by the means of an electrical signal may reasonably be called electronic, and the term is sometimes used that way -- in music where acoustic performance is the norm, even the introduction of electronic amplifiers may touch off discussions of electronic music (jazz and folk music, for example, have gone through a good deal of argument about the topic).

As a category of criticism and marketing, however, electronic music refers to music produced largely by electronic components, such as synthesizers, samplers, computers, and drum machines. Theoretically, the music could include any of an array of other "instruments". Music has been around since the dawn of time. Earlier on it was used as a communication tool. It helped simple messages to be sent and received. The dynamics helped give these sounds a mood and people begun to experiment with feeling, emotion and interpretation of sound. An example of this would be someone happy singing or someone sad whining. Sounds were used as messages or to describe emotion. After that people began taking other ideas to create art forms of music-this was creating music for the fun of it. However at this time it was very hard to write music as manuscript paper was very expensive and only rich people of the time could have their music written and performed. At this medieval period music was often chanted-and was very religious. Instruments played more of a part later when new instruments were invented-percussion being one of the first groups made..

The Renaissance period was between roughly 1400 to 1600. Renaissance music was vocal music. There were lots and trills and ornaments in the vocal line and the songs were normally religious. There was also lots of echo and reverb as they were normally performed in churches. Some renaissance composers were William Byrd, Robert Carver and Roy Henry.

The Baroque period was approximately between 1600 and 1720. This was where other instruments start to have more of a role in music particularly strings and harpsichord. The harpsichord was at the time used similarly to a modern rhythm section. The transformation of music was at this time very slow as there was no way of communicating or explaining new ideas of music without the person who's thought of it actually being there. There was no internet, no phones- no form of communication so most peoples ideas remained unheard and the music at this time often sounded simlar. One of the most famous Baroque pieces is Vivaldis 'The Four Seasons'. Some other baroque composers are John Bull, Hans Buchner and John Black.

The Classical period of music was between roughly 1720 and 1815. At this point composers were aspiring to be perfect and write perfect music. Bigger orchestras were used and the music was more dramatic. Form and Structure developed. Per Brant, Joesph Haydn and Beethoven were all classical composers however Beethoven was also known ...