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"I have been waiting a long time for electronics to free music from the tempered scale and the limitations of musical instruments. Electronic instruments are the portentous first step toward the liberation of music." —EDGARD VARÈSE

Key Points

  • Musique concrète, which began in the late 1940s, used natural sounds recorded on magnetic tape as a new medium for composition.
  • In the early 1950s, the German school of electronische Musik created compositions using electronically generated sounds.
  • By the late 1960s, smaller, cheaper synthesizers were available to many musicians and composers.
  • Digital technology, beginning with the invention of FM synthesis in the 1970s, revolutionized the world of electronic music.
  • Computers can generate sounds, create compositions, and interact with synthesizers via the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI).
  • One of the most innovative composers of interactive music is Tod Machover, who writes for electronically enhanced hyperinstruments.
  • Modern composers are moving toward interactive performances involving a live audience, either directly or via the Internet.

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