Challenge of Electronic Music

By GORDON MUMMA
1 HE TWO most significant and
fruitful trends in 20th Century
mnusic are the development of
serial techniques, and, more re-
cently, the exploration of timbre.
The lay-public is familiar with
"serial music" by the notorious
title of "12 tone music." Actually,
"12 tone music" is an early and
now rather crude concept. The
exploration of timbre began
shortly after the First World War
with the music of Edgar Varese
and John Cage. It was not until
after the Second World War and
the development of good electronic
audio equipment that composers
found it possible to consider tim-
bre as an element of musical im-
portance.
The development of serial musi-
cal order has its roots in the de-
cline of tonal music (i.e., music
which is, roughly, in a definite key
and which relies upon tonal reso-
lution as the major factor in its
dramatic organization).
Wagner's "Prelude to Tristan
and Isolde" demonstrated that the
logic and dramatic form of music
are not dependent upon tonal
resolution. Although the harmonic
structure of the Tristan Prelude
depends upon implications of tonal
resolution, these implications are
extremely vague. The predomi-
Gordon Mumma studied
composition with Homer Kell-
er, Ross Lee Finney and Leslie
Bassett. During the past eight
months he has been working
working with University art
instructor Milton Cohen in the
coordination of light and
sound. Four of his own elec-
tronic compositions were per-
formed in New York last
March.

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of Composing for the Next
nant musical order of the Tristan note was repeated ufntil all of the
Prelude is contained in its melodic other eleven were sounded.
gestures and in the timbre con- Schonberg allowed for impor-
trasts of its sound texture, tant expansions on the order of
this row: he used it in its retro-
THE FIRST significant musical grade, inversion, and retrograde
development after the Tristan inversion forms. He also made use
Prelude is serial order. This oc- of transpositions of the row onto
curred with the work of Arnold other pitch levels. In his later
Schonberg. The impact of Schon-
berg's concepts and personality
has been enormous. The signifi-
cance of his musical output is not
as great.
Most of Schonberg's music suf-
fers from a basic contradiction.
The implications of his crudely
serial "12 tone" order belong in an
atonal context. But the traditional
forms of western music which
Schonberg also uses are an out-E
growth of tonal orientation. In,
the context of atonal orientation
the use of traditional musical
forms is irrelevant and absurd.
Schonberg's best compositions
are the "String Trio" and "Violin-
Piano Phantasy." With these late
works he had slowly come to {
realize that he must find new
dramatic forms for his serial mu-
sical development.
SERIAL ORDER is difficult to
explain. Initially, the "12 tone
technique," according to Schon-
berg, was a means of establishing
an order of equal relations be-Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Ge-
tween the 12 chromatic notes of sange der Junglinge," a eom-
the octave. This order he called snge der boylsgpraorn-
the "row." position for boy soprano and
Schonberg use of the row electronically generated sounds,
strictly determined the appear- represents the most advanced
ante of note pitches. No single musical thinking of our time.

L


our concepts of serial order. He
has established the use of ordered
the Course permutations of a row (the ini-
tial order of a row has the possi-
bility of ordered change).
200 Years By electronic means an infinite
number of different frequencies
are available. Stockhausen has
been pioneering in his work with
rows of more than twelve chro-
works he developed permutations matic notes and in the develop-
on the order of note appearances. ment of musical parameters which
It is in the concept of permutation influence the change of a row's
that the more sophisticated recent contour.
developments in serial order occur. It is unnecessary to say very
Alban Berg was even more help- much about Stockhausen's com-
lessly restricted by tonal orien- positional techniques. Those who
tation than Schonberg. Berg's suc- have heard his phenomenal "Ge-
cess is due, for the most part, to sange der Junglinge" cannot fail
his opera "Wozzeck." Wozzeck, to be impressed with the results
hwever, is a rather conventional of his serial techniques and ex-
Sturm und Drang drama. Like all ploration of controlled timbre.
of Berg's music it is firmly en- With the advent of magnetic
trenched in 19th Century Vienese tape, work with controlled timbre
musical gestures. (which was started thirty years
WEBERN has written ago by Varese and Cage) has blos-
ANTO WEBRN hs wrttensomed forth with new vigor
the most important music in Moed rh withonellatovig
the first half of this century. Modern audio oscillaors make
The tonal-atonal contradictions it possible to produce any kind of
which undermine so much of the sound. By electronic means the
music of Berg and Schonbeg exist sound of conventional instruments
to a much lesser degree in Webern. may be duplicated, but it is the
The only traditional musical form production of new sounds which
with which Webern had any suc- has captured the composers' imag-
cess using serial development was inations. Besides, it is easier to
the theme and variations. play a conventional instrument
The apparently conflicting con- than to imitate it electronically.
cepts of tonality and atonality
have resulted in the bloodiest bat- CONTROLLED timbre involves
tleground of 20th Century music. the construction of new tim-
For most people atonality implies bres from groups of sine waves or
the impolite invasion of total single pure frequencies.
chromaticism on our comfortable As composers demanded in-
diatonic and tonal musical order. creasingly dramatic and complex
Of the composers before the sounds they found it easier (and
Second World War, only Webern more rewarding) to work with
honestly considered the impliea- "white noise" and filter out th-
tions of total chromaticism, His undesired frequencies. White noise
concern with the smallest detail contains all the audible frequen-
of the shortest noto and his shim- cies sounding simultaneously. It
mering and transparent musical sounds very much like surf, or the
textures have forced composers to hiss of an improperly tuned FM
re-evaluate the substance of iso-raio n
late soudsradio.
lated sounds Further control of electronically
KARLHEINZ Stockhausen has generated sound is possible by the
been foremost in expanding use of reverberation. Multi-chan-
b m m xnng nel tape is used to control the
physical source of sound in space.
An interesting development
O' DAY which is related to the control of
timbre is the concept of aggregate
ONay sounds. When the American com-
(M ay 0 poser Charles Ives wrote music
for six orchestras "to be played
disregarding what each other is
doing" he created aggreg ate
sounds. His "Unanswered Ques-
tion" makes aggregate use of wind
instrument sonorities in contrast
with string sonorities.
Elliot Carter aggregates the vio-
lins against the viola and cello in
his "String Quartet." A most im-
pressive use of aggregate sound is
made by Stockhausen in his
"Gruppen" for three orchestras
lMOST of the work with elec-
tronic music is done by com-
posers in the state radio stations
ea dear of Koln, Milan, Paris, Helsinki,
V CG ar and Tokyo.
ERRecently the Rockefeller Foun-
dation gave $175,000 to Columbia
University to establish a studio
for electronic music in New York
City.
The formidable problem which
faces the composer today is the
establishment of his own musical
precedents. Because of the vast
y control of sound now at his com-
mand he must re-evaluate the
elegantly gift boxed basic nature of the musical ma-
Choose Mother's favorites terials with which he works.
from a wonderful selection of Questions of aural perception
nylons by her favorite-famed are foremost: How short can a
Kayserl Lovely, newly tinted sound be before we no longer hear
neutrals or beautiful, costume- it? To what extent does volume,
making "Perfection" shades frequency, and complexity of tim-
with delicate seams or seamless bre effect this length?
..day or evening sheers...spe- The music of Webern, Stock-
cial features like Kayser's pat- hausen, Varese, Cage, Luigi Nono,
ented "Fit-All-Tops" for extra Michael Gottfried Koenig, and
comfort at the thigh. Come in, Pierre Boulez has challenged the
choose hers now, for a happy, tedious rehash of tonally oriented
happy Mother's Day! Propor- archaic sounds and devices which
tioned lengths. is still perpetrated by Hindemith,
$1.15 - $1.50 Milhaud, Copland, and Piston.
This challenge is destined to

shape the course of musical com-
VAN BUREN SHOP position for the next 200 years.
8 NICKELS ARCADE It is already responsible for the
most exciting music written la
this century.
Page Thirteen

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SUNDAY, MAY 3, 1959

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