Electronic and Experimental Music

Thom Holmes is a music historian and composer. He studied composition with Paul Epstein in Philadelphia, published the magazine Recordings of Experimental Music (1979–85), and worked with John Cage. He is a current member of Composers Inside Electronics, an electronic music performing ensemble dedicated to the realization of works by David Tudor. Holmes produces a personal blog, Noise and Notations, and writes the blog Moog: A History in Recordings for the Bob Moog Foundation. He curates an archive of vintage electronic music recordings and maintains The Sound of Moog, possibly the only complete collection of every commercial recording made using the Moog Modular Synthesizer (1964–70).

List of Illustrations x


Preface xxx


Acknowledgments xx


Part I Early History: Predecessors and Pioneers (1874 to 1960) 1


1 Electronic Music Before 1945 xxx


2 Early Electronic Music in Europe xxx


3 Early Electronic Music in the United States and Latin America xxx


4 Early Electronic Music in Asia and Oceania xxx


Part II Analog Synthesis and Instruments xxx


5 Tape Composition and Fundamental Concepts of Electronic Music xxx


6 Early Synthesizers and Experimenters xxx


7 Principles of Analog Synthesis and Voltage Control xxx


8 The Voltage-Controlled Synthesizer xxx


Part III Digital Synthesis and Computer Music xxx


9 Early Computer Music (1953–85) xxx


10 The Microprocessor Revolution (1975 to the Present) xxx


11 The Principles of Computer Music xxx


Part IV The Music xxx


12 Contemporary Classical and Experimental Music xxx


13 Jazz, Live Electronic Music, and Ambient Music xxx


14 Rock, Space Age Pop, and Turntablism xxx


15 Contemporary Practices in Composing Electronic Music


Pioneering Works of Electronic Music


Appendix: A Concise History of Computer Music xxx


Glossary xxx


Notes xxx