diversity – The Viral Underground

ELECTRONIC MUSIC:

I. Introduction: A Brief History

When it comes to major innovations in experimental (and mainstream) music, arguably none are more relevant today than the advent of electronic music.

Predating Luigi Russolo’s futurist manifesto, the Art of Noises (1913), a contemporary Itlaian composer, Ferruccio Busoni, predicted the use of machines in the future of music in his 1907 essay, Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music^[1]. Sure enough, by the early 1920s, some composers were using record players to play short pre-recorded sounds during live performances^[2]. After records, came tape music; the first accessible tape recorder was unveiled in 1935 in Berlin, Germany^[3].

Some notable examples of experimentation with electronic music, include Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s ‘That’s All‘ (1938), Johanna Beyer’s ‘Music of the Spheres‘ (1938), and Halim El-Dabh’s ‘Wire Recorder Piece‘ (1944; recorded the same year as his infamous composition, ‘The Expression of Zaar’). These pieces will be examined in more detail below.

In the following decades, other well-known European and American composers and musicians would go on to become infamous for their contributions to musique concrète in the early 1940s in France and the emerging elektronische musik in Germany in the early 1950s^[4].

‘Timeline of the Development of Electronic Music (1907 – early 1950s)’ by homebody10 using Canva

II. Notable artists

Some notable experimental musicians who contributed to electronic music are outlined in the following section. Recall, my goal is to focus primarily on underrepresented, diverse musicians who have been largely overlooked in time.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915 – 1973)

Most people think of names like Elvis Presley or Jerry Lee Louis when they think of the birth of rock n’ roll, but rock music would not be where it is today without Sister Rosetta Tharpe. While rock music is primarily guitar based, electric guitars generate electroacoustic sound as the guitar strings’ vibrations are electronically amplified^[8]. Not only is Tharpe credited for her innovative marriage of gospel and “proto-rock” music, but also, she is celebrated as a massively influential queer woman of colour in music; she is believed to have had at least one relationship with another woman throughout her touring career^[9]. One of her earliest recordings using the electric guitar is her 1938 cover of the gospel song ‘Denomination Blues‘ under the name ‘That’s All‘^[10] (see video below).

Reflection on ‘That’s All‘ (1938) by Sister Rosetta Tharpe:

From the first few seconds, you can immediately hear the very clear connection this song has to rock music’s roots: the driving rhythm, the high energy, and of course, the electric guitar. It’s really neat that Tharpe was so quick to pick up on the potential uses for electronically amplified instruments before some of rock n’ roll’s biggest names. I can really how she essentially used this very new vessel for music to revamp a very well-established genre like gospel. It is really the essence of experimental music – taking what came before you and what lies on the cutting edge to make something that transcends contemporary art.

Johanna Beyer (1988 – 1944)

Johanna Beyer was a German-born composer who moved to the United States in the 1920’s. She was classically trained in piano and studied music at Deutscher Konservatorien and Musikseminare. In New York, in the 1930s, she worked with a group of fellow modernist composers^[11]. Beyer is often considered to be one of the first female electronic music composers and was incredibly forward-thinking^[12]. One of her most celebrated works was her 1938 composition ‘Music of the Spheres‘^[13] (see video below). This recording of the composition was recorded by Electric Weasel Ensemble, 1977.

Reflection on ‘Music of the Spheres‘ (1938) by Johanna Beyer:

Even though this recording is from 1977 which is not *that* long ago, I can just tell that this piece would have been totally alien to someone in 1938. When I listen to this over 80 years after its initial conception, even now I am intrigued by its unique sound palette. If I were Beyer, I would have been so proud of having composed this when the world had never heard anything like it. I can really hear the influence this kind of electronic music likely had on film scores, particularly in the sci-fi genre.

Halim El-Dabh (1921 – 2017)

Halim El-Dabh was an Egyptian-American composer and musician who is often credited as another early pioneer of electronic music^[14]. One of his most groundbreaking and influential pieces is his 1944 recording ‘Wire Recorder Piece‘^[15] (see video below) from his wider; this recording is one of the earliest known examples of electronic tape music or musique concrète. El-Dabh‘s work predates the work of hugely celebrated musique concrète composers sucha s Pierre Schaeffer^[14]. Many years later, regarding this composition, El-Dabh told Egyptian indipendent online newpaper, Mada Masr:

“I wanted to find the inner sound, that vibration that’s always necessary for transcendence. I eliminated the fundamental tones of the harmony by changing the voltage — it changes the quality of the music, it seeks another quality in the voice, the hidden material, the inner part of the voice. That’s what the whole idea of electronic music is. You have a recording and you go inside the recording to find the hidden meaning”
Halim El-Dabh, Mada Masr Interview (2007)^[14,16]

Reflection on ‘Wire Recorder Piece‘ (1944) by Halim El-Dabh:

The first word that comes to mind when I listen to this piece is haunting. I think I read somewhere in my research for this blog post that El-Dabh had recorded voices of women singing when recording this piece. I’d have to check that, but either way, I can totally hear ghostly wails of what sound like women singing. This sounds like it could be from an old Legend of Zelda game, honestly, and I mean that in a really good way. Like I said about Beyer’s piece above, I think if I’d heard this in the mid-1940s I would have been totally shocked—this is really something otherworldly.

References:

[1] Busoni, F. (2021). Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music. (T. Baker, Trans.). (n.p.). Retrieved from: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31799/pg31799-images.html

[2] Holmes, T. & Pender, T. M. (2012). Electronic and experimental music : technology, music, and culture. Routledge, New York. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/electronicexperi00holm/page/n5/mode/2up

[3] Anonymous (2006, September 2). 1935 AEG Megatophon Tape Recorder. Mix Magazine. Retrieved From: https://web.archive.org/web/20130208162634/http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/aeg-magnetophone-recorder-090106/

[4] Martina (2022, July 25). The history and evolution of electronic music (and its subgenres). iMusician. Retrieved from: https://imusician.pro/en/resources/guides/history-evolution-electronic-music

[5] Kalervo, M. (1964). “Sister Rosetta Tharpe Helsinki Jazz Festivalilla” [photograph]. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Retrieved from: https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.626d10c2-e97c-460e-8b67-de7f3616ae30

[6] Keuning, J. (2018, March 9). “File:Tape Recorder (18495) – The Noun Project“. Marked with CC0 1.0. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67173269

[7] Halim_El-Dabh.jpg: stu_spivack derivative work: Xic 667. (2009, April 21). “Halim El-Dabh leads 1000 drummers, ingenuity cleveland festival“. Marked with a CC BY-SA 2.0 license. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6590856

[8] (2021, September 15). Electroacoustic Music: 3 Characteristics of Electroacoustic. MastercClass. Retrieved from: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/electroacoustic-guide

[9] Bendix, T. (2023, June 14). A Brief History of Queer And Trans Women in American Music. uDiscovermusic. Retrieved from: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/lgbtq-women-in-music-history/

[10] @James1Zero (2017 , October 13 ). Sister Rosetta Tharpe – That’s All (1938). YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z8HrN5UpGg

[11] Yust, L. (2011, February 16). Johnanna Beyer: A Composer Forgotten. Library of Congress Blogs. Retrieved from: https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2011/02/johanna-beyer-a-composer-forgotten/

[12] hardboiledbabe (2017). women in electroacoustic, minimalism, tape music, musique concrète, free improvisation, and related genres. Rate Your Music: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/hardboiledbabe/women-in-electroacoustic-minimalism-tape-music-musique-concrete-free-improvisation-and-related-genres/

[13] remain22 (2010, July 1). Johanna M. Beyer – Music Of The Spheres [1938]. YouTube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_REVFN7A6_4

[14] THE FATHER OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC: A BRIEF HISTORY OF EGYPTIAN COMPOSER HALIM EL DABH. (2019, February 4). Scene of Arabia. Retrieved from: https://scenearabia.com/Noise/halim-el-dabh-egyptian-musician-composer-invented-electronic-music

[15] Fire Water (2011, July 22). Halim El-Dabh – “Wire Recorder Piece” (1944). YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_kbNSdRvgo

[16] ElNabawi, M. (2013, December 15). ‘Music permeates everything’. Mada Masr. Retrieved from: https://www.madamasr.com/en/2013/12/15/feature/culture/music-permeates-everything/

In his futurist manifesto, The Art of Noises (1913), Luigi Russolo outlines a rough timeline of the evolution of music from the invention of the first flute to conception of the triad. Following this, he makes the observation that, with the exception of natural disasters and relatively uncommon climatic phenomena, nature is quiet. Throughout the 19th century, with the emergence of steam engines and factories in Europe came a striking increase in anthropogenic sound – “noise”, as Russolo called it. The Art of Noises was addressed to Francesco Balilla Pratella, a composer of whose musica futurista (futurist music) Russolo had just heard a performance. In reaction to its revolutionary sound pallete, Russolo writes: “… I conceived a new art: The Art of Noises, the logical consequence of your marvellous innovations” (Russolo, 1913, p. 4)_^[1].

Experimentation within music can no doubt be traced back to the first monk who dared break off in a polyphonic rampage, but I think Russolo’s realization that industrial noise could be seen as muscical provides a good starting place for an exploration into over a century of musical exploration. It could be argued that the very fact that music has evolved over time supports Russolo’s claim that his new musical idea was a “logical consequence” of Balilla Pratella’s futuristic compositions; musical composers inevitably take what is already present and accepted at their time and make it something novel – as do artists with any other medium. And so, I tend to align myself with Russolo’s reaction to his confrontation with Balilla Pratella’s futurist music. Experimentation is only natural.

Photo: Instruments made by Russolo (Russolo, 1913, p. 13)^[2]

But if experimentation is a logical step in the evolution of music, why bother discussing it? One interesting observation is that sometimes there is a lag period between when an artist first deviates from their contemporaries and when the deviation becomes accepted in the mainstream – if it ever does. Consider, for instance, the Velvet Underground, the namesake of this very blog; their first studio album (recorded alongside German singer, Nico and under the management of Andy Warhol), The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) was not warmly received by mainstream radio channels and music critics upon its release to say the least. Johnson (2023)^[3] cites a number of contributing factors to the album’s initial flop including bad timing and its unrestrained handling of taboo subject matter to name a few (more on this album in a future blog post). Yet, the album has gone on to be hailed as a modern classic and is hugely inspirational in all corners of the rock-adjacent music world. Acclaimed producer and composer, Brian Eno succinctly put this into perspective in a 1982 interview: “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band” (Jones, 2021)^[4]. This is one of countless examples of artists who innovated and saw little to no success at the time of their innovation. On the other hand, by the end of 1967 the Beatles were sailing on the success of one of their landmark releases, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), despite Decca Records refusal to sign them in 1962 and executives saying that they “… have no future in show business” (The Beatles Anthology, 2000)^[5]. We all know how that turned out not long into their career. This surface level observation shows that some degree of experimentation may be acceptable to the general public, but too much experimentation can spell critical and financial failure–at least in the short-term.

One final but very crucial point regarding experimental music that I want to be sure to focus on are the many diverse voices in music that tend to be overlooked or conveniently forgotten about; as with most industries and artforms, music history is laced with misogyny, racism, sexism, ablism, homophobia, transphobia, and colonialism; music history remembers, very fondly, hundreds of white, heterosexual, cis men in but comparatively few female artists, artists of colour, and queer artists have been remembered let alone celebrated by music historians. According to USC Annenberg School For Communication And Journalism (2023)^[6] the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart revealed that only 30% of the artists represented were women and that, of the women nominated for Grammy’s in the past 11 years 51.5% of them were white. It is easy to assume that these were issues of the past, but these recent statistics show us that they are still present as ever.

So with all of the above in mind, how is this blog going to look? My personal goal is to explore the world of experimental an avant garde music from the 20th and 21st century in a meaningful way: I aim to examine the general progressions throughout the decades from the early 1900s to the present with more focus on the individual decades spanning the 1940’s to the 2021’s. Many of the consequent posts will focus on a single decade at a time where I will seek out and listen to a variety of songs that experiment or deviate from contemporary music in some way. The bulk of the posts will include my own reflections on the music, briefly touch on any relevant context or history, and evaluate what makes it unique. My other focus here, as stated in the previous paragraph, is on diversity in experimental music. I want to reflect on how experimental and avant garde music has been pioneered by a diverse group of artists. I am also curious about whether experimental music can provide more of a platform for diverse artists simply by nature of being less widely accepted by the masses but so encouraged and celebrated by their fellow deviants.