7/27/2019 The Terminology of Electronic Music http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-terminology-of-electronic-music 1/10 NRC NRC TT - 602 TT - 602 NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA TECHNICAL TRANSLATION TT - 602 THE TERMINOLOGY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC BY WERNER MEYER-EPPLER FROM TECH. HAUSMITT. NWDR. 6: 5 - 7. 1954 TRANSLATED BY D. A. SINCLAIR OTTAWA 1956
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*Paper No. 2 of' aelectronic musiccasting System.Research Council
special collection of' twelve papers onpublished by the Northwest German BroadThese have been translated by the Nationaland issued as TT-6ol to TT-612.
In order to avoid possible confusion through theuse of imprecise expressions in the f ie ld of electronicmusic, an attempt is made to define the meanings ofcertain terms already in use. A clear dis t inct ion ismade between the instruments themselves and their modeof application.
With the increasing number of publications on the
problems of electronic music there is a danger tha t a growing
terminological confusion wil l add to the diff icu l ty of under
standing the sUbject matter. Misunderstandings frequently
arise because of fa i lure to dist inguish between the instruments
as such and their applications. We sha l l therefore attempt to
give precise, clear names to the classes of instruments which
have thus fa r become known and also to classify them according
to their respective applications e
I . Nomenclature of Musical and Noise Instruments
A. Acoustic Instruments
Acoustic instruments produce sounds directly without
any preliminary elect r ic osci l lat ion stage. Electr ical t rans
mission means (e.g. elect r ic actions) in no way a l t e r the
acoustic character of the instruments. Class IA therefore in
cludes a l l t radi t ional musical instruments as well as out-of
the-ordinary music and noise-producing apparatus such as wind
machines and steam organs. Human and animal voices also come
Depending on the design of the electr ic osci l la t ion generator
the following sub-classi f icat ions may be distinguished:
1. Electro-acoustic musical instruments
These include the radio organ of Abbe Pujet already
mentioned, a pipe organ which produces addit ional sound
combinations with the aid of a microphone, f i l t e r s and loud
speakers.
2. Electronic-mechanical musical instruments
The best kno\vu instrument of th is class is the
Hrumnond Organ*. For producing osci l la t ions this instrument
has rotat ing cogvvheels with electromagnetic sound pickup.
3. Purely electronic musical instruments
In this class we may mention espeCially the Trautonium,
the Mixtur-Trautonium, the Melochord and the Ondes Martenot.
*Str ic t ly speaking this should not be called , an "organ". I tincorrectly suggests a mere imitator and does not do jus t iceto many applications of th is unique and original instrument.
This classi f icat ion includes a l l instruments,
apparatuses and processes which are not used for concert orsolo performance but for the production of a composition with
the aid of a sound storage device (needle, photoelectric or
magnetic recording apparatus, perforated bands, etc . )*. This
application, of course, does not rule out the possibi l i ty of
using such instruments in an orchestra when furnished with
suitable playing mechanisms (manual, peddle, etc . ) . Basically,
however, any elect r ic osci l la tor can be used as a composing
means regardless of whether i t i s easy or di f f icu l t to operate.
By using a sound-storage device there i s no necessi ty of gett ing
through a given program of work within a prescribed period of
time. A heterodyne osci l la tor can be used as an elect r ica l
composing means just as well as a noise generator or impulsing
device. The purpose of these instruments is to permit composers
and the i r assistants to make direct records of their composition
on tape, film or the l ike . The reproduction i s then made by
means of a record-playing apparatus instead of a concert
rendering.
The distor t ion devices which are connected betvreen
the elect r ica l instrument and the storage device ( l inear and
non-linear dis tor ters , sound converters, modulators, synchro
nizers , phase-delay means, faders, etc . ) form parts of the
*The acoustic precursors of electr ic composing means were the"machinamenta" (musical clocks, music boxes,. glockenspiels,etc . ) , which, judged by the technique 9f t}J.eir day, had beenbrought to a high degree of p e r f e c t i o n ~ ~ , 4 ) . Related to theseare mechanisms which use more modern storage methods (papermusic rol ls and perforated discs) but employ a conventionalmusical instrument (piano) or group of instruments as the soundproducer. The signals from the storage device bear no directrelat ionship to the resul t ing sound process. Rather theyserve to in i t ia te the sound process according to some arbi t rarycode.