Acoustic music is produced by instruments without electronics, while electronic music is produced and/or altered by electronic means. Electronic music emerged in the 1890s-1950s and includes both electronically synthesized sounds and musique concrète. The original equipment included dynamic suppressor, filter, and tape recorders, while synthesizers and sequencers were introduced in the 1960s. Electronic instruments include synthesizers, keyboards, and electronic percussion. The ondes martenot and theremin are also electronic instruments.
The music played on the instruments seen in most orchestras and concert bands is acoustic. Acoustics, when applied to music, means that it is produced by an instrument or instruments that do not rely on electronics for their sound production. Electronic, when applied to music, means that it is produced and/or altered by electronic means. Electronic music can therefore refer to different types of music, including acoustic music that has been altered electronically, as well as the different types of music that are produced using a variety of electronic means. For the child who plays sometimes on a MIDI keyboard that sounds like an acoustic piano and sometimes on an actual acoustic piano, the distinction probably isn’t as great as it was when electronic music was a radical new idea.
Electronic music emerged through ongoing laboratory efforts in a number of Northern Hemisphere countries from the 1890s to the 1950s. At first, electronic music referred only to a collection of electronically synthesized sounds to distinguish it from musique concrète, which combined acoustic music with everyday sounds. Later the definition came to cover both and continued to broaden as new technology continued to develop. Some of the earliest and most famous composers of electronic music include Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Krzystof Penderecki, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edgard Varèse.
The original equipment of electronic music included dynamic suppressor, filter, ring modulator, sine tone generator, square wave generator, variable speed tape recorders and white tone generator. Synthesizers were introduced in the 1960s, and the one developed by American Robert A. Moog was particularly influential, providing additional sounds. The development of the sequencer, also in the 1960s, made it possible to program the synthesizer. With the advent of the personal computer, the synthesizer and sequencer went from rare tools in the hands of specialists to common and readily available resources.
Purists distinguish between electric and electronic music and instruments, reserving electronics only for instruments and music in which sound is generated by electronic oscillators or digital circuits, not simply amplified by electrical means. Electronic instruments proper, and therefore those that make electronic music, include synthesizers and a variety of keyboards, electronic organs including Hammond organ and electronic percussion, as well as martenot waves and the theremin. The ondes martenot was developed by the Frenchman Maurice Martenot and underwent considerable development in the way it was controlled, but still required two hands to control intonation, articulation dynamics, timbre, etc. Of the sound. The theremin was developed by Lev Theremin, a Russian, and is played with hand motions that do not touch the instrument. It was used in the Beach Boys song “Good Vibrations”.
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