commentary

a brief introduction
to the untold story of pioneering electronic
music beyond the western world

electroacoustic music
in a broader international
context BY ROBERT J. GLUCK

i n 1953, four composers were excitedly experimenting with a

new musical approach using recorded and electronic sounds.
Juan Amenabar and JoséVincente Asuar were in Chile,Mauricio
Kagel in Argentina, and Toshiro Mayuzumi in Japan.Their number
increased three years later,when they were joined by Reginaldo Car-
Joji Yuasa remembers Japan in the early 1950s.“It was an experi-
mental time in Tokyo.There was a lively atmosphere. In 1951, we
made a group called Experimental Workshop … we aimed to do
things in combined arts and we prepared a concert where we tried to
synchronize a slide projector with tape.”
valho in Brazil and Toru Takemitsu in Japan. Israeli composer Josef Tal’s personal story reaches back even fur-
What was exceptional for the time was that these composers were ther, to the late 1920s in Berlin.“I attended classes with Paul Hin-
situated neither in Europe nor North America. It was in 1948 that demith around 1927.I was on very friendly terms with him and with
Pierre Schaeffer,in Paris,created the first work that he would refer to the assistant director of the academy in Berlin... It was Hindemith
as musique concrete,and the history of electronic music is generally told who pointed me in the direction of electronic music.He was himself
from the perspective of Paris, Cologne, and NewYork. It sometimes interested in electronic music,and knew that it interested me … [The
includes Milan,Toronto, Utrecht, occasionally Tokyo, and the Bell next year, I worked with fellow students in the lab of] Friedrich
Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey.The story of technological Trautwein.We learned electronics theory, to create, measure, and do
innovation supports such a narrative, but if we focus instead on the experiments.”
diversity of expression,a more international history clearly emerges. By the early 1960s, electroacoustic music composers were work-
The time is ripe for recounting that history. ing in Cuba,Australia, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Mexico. Studios were
What drew people outside of centres in Europe and North Amer- founded in Buenos Aires and Cordoba,Argentina;in Santiago,Chile;
ica to explore electroacoustic music? Their motivations mirrored in Jerusalem,Israel;and in Tokyo,Japan.By the early 1970s,there were
those of European composers who sought to expand their musical studios in locations throughout the globe. Not all of these studios
resources—composers such as Claude Debussy,who looked to Japan, were able to sustain their operations for very long. In some cases,
or EdgardVarèse,who imagined sounds that could not be realized by much-hoped-for plans never came to fruition, and in other situa-
conventional means. tions, facilities were limited. Often, studios faced insurmountable
Some composers discovered creative possibilities of sound on their challenges politically, financially, and organizationally. Some, like the
own. Halim el-Dabh recalls a time in Egypt, in 1944.“I borrowed a Taller Experimental de Sonido in Chile, were unable to survive the
wire recorder from Middle East Radio, in Cairo. I used it to record departure of a central figure. It took Cuban composer Juan Blanco
a women’s ceremony and I imagined the variety of sound. I asked nearly a decade to found a studio in Havana.Yet clearly, thanks to
myself, If I cut some of it out, what would it be like? I listened to the persistence of visionary composers, new musical traditions were
the women singing,and I imagined if I eliminated the top vibrations finding fertile soil throughout the world.
of the voice,what would it be like? If I eliminated the drums and just In Turkey, despite valiant attempts by Bülent Arel, it took thirty-
left the voices and maybe did something with these voices ... there seven years for the first studio to open.The first manifestation of elec-
was some voltage control that I was able to do.The feeling was pos- troacoustic music in China sprang from graduate students at the Cen-
sible,but it was not easy to do.I didn’t think of it as electronic music. tral Conservatory of Music in Beijing.Wishing to perform an
I just thought of it as an experience.” electronic music concert in 1984, they lacked any existing models

spring 2006 | #94 musicworks 7

upon which to draw. One of them,Yuanlin Chen, joined the faculty increased attention to international activities:the International Com-
two years later and opened a studio,which was further developed on puter Music Conference met in Hong Kong in 1996, Beijing in
a musique concrète model in the 1990s by Zhang Xiaofu.Today, edu- 1999, Havana in 2001, and Singapore in 2003.
cational programs and studios,many of them multimedia in focus,are This is not to suggest that electroacoustic music is on solid footing
developing all over the People’s Republic and Taiwan,and a non-aca- in all parts of the world. Challenges remain for composers who
demic computer-music scene has begun to emerge. Korean com- wish to remain active in their home countries. For instance, it is rare
posers Sung Ho Hwang and Jaecho Chang, after studying in The to find non-commercial venues where new works can be heard in
Netherlands, established and ran university studios, and a computer- countries where economic resources are limited.
music association that annually presents the Seoul International Com- This essay represents an early attempt to describe the field from an
puter Music Festival.In Indonesia,composers including Harry Roesli, international perspective. I invite readers to contact me with infor-
Otto Sidharta, Frank Raden, and Sapto Raharjo were actively mation about their own work and about other international com-
engaged in electroacoustic music beginning in the 1970s.Adhi posers whose work they have encountered. Information about
Susanto experimented with electronic devices to perform gamelan emerging composers whose work has not yet been documented is
music.This activity followed the lead of Slamet Abdur Sjukur, who also welcome.We are just beginning to comprehend the depth and
composed an electroacoustic work for ballet in Paris, in 1963. (Two breadth of electroacoustic music internationally. I encourage com-
electroacoustic works by Indonesian composer I Wayan Gde Yudane posers to explore its multiple forms of expression.
are included on the CD accompanying Musicworks 90,Fall,2004.)
We have entered an era when a new, truly international historical [Note:This article is based on the author’s interviews with the composers, on
narrative about the history of electroacoustic music can be told.Few an interview by Joel Chadabe with JojiYuasa, and on research by Ricardo Dal
people, even composers and historians, seem to be aware of the rich Farra.This material is being assembled as part of the Electronic Music Foun-
and diverse history of this field.The growth of the Internet and the dation’s EMF Institute, <www.emfinstitute.emf.org>. Dal Farra’s documen-
recent non-Western settings of international conferences bring tation on South American composers may be found on the Fondation Daniel
Langlois Web site, <www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.
php?NumPage=542>.]

Robert J. Gluck is a pianist, composer, and writer based in Albany, New

York, where he teaches at the University and directs its electronic music studio.
His interactive installation with Cynthia Beth Rubin Layered Histories,has
showed recently in Prague,Toronto,Los Angeles,Miami and Providence,Rhode
Island. His musical performances feature electronically expanded acoustical
instruments and Disklavier.

résumé français
Cet article est le premier volet d’une discussion sur l’histoire
de la musique électroacoustique à l’échelle internationale.
Bien que le public et la base institutionnelle de la musique
électroacoustique soient plus solidement établis en Europe de
l’ouest, au Royaume-Uni, aux États-Unis et au Canada, la
musique électroacoustique connaît déjà une longue histoire
dans de nombreuses autres régions du monde, notamment en
Amérique du sud, en Israël, en Afrique du sud, en Asie et, plus
récemment, en Chine et en Corée. Dans certains de ces pays,
les premiers efforts ont été déployés dès les années 1950. Si
les compositeurs se voient souvent dans l’obligation de
voyager pour poursuivre et approfondir leur travail de studio
et trouver un emploi, il semble que l’on trouve dans plusieurs
de ces pays de plus en plus d’opportunités, tant du point de
vue de l’éducation que de la création.

8 musicworks #94 | spring 2006