Andrey Smirnov: Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th-century Russia (2013)

“Sound in Z supplies the astounding and long-lost chapter in the early story of electronic music: the Soviet experiment, a chapter that runs from 1917 to the late 1930s. Its heroes are Arseny Avraamov, inventor of Graphic Sound (drawing directly onto magnetic tape) and a 48-note scale; Alexei Gastev, who coined the term “bio-mechanics”; Leon Theremin, inventor of the world’s first electronic instrument, the Theremin; and others whose dreams for electronic sound were cut short by Stalin’s regime. Drawing on materials from numerous Moscow archives, this book reconstructs Avraamov’s Symphony of Sirens, an open-air performance for factory whistles, foghorns and artillery fire first staged in 1922, explores Graphic Sound and recounts Theremin’s extraordinary career-compiling the first full account of Russian electronic music.”

Edited by Matt Price and David Rogerson
Foreword by Jeremy Deller
Publisher Koenig Books, London, in partnership with Sound and Music, London, 2013
ISBN 3865607063, 9783865607065
281 pages

Talk by the author (audio, 90 min, 2012)
Interview with author: Nathan Budzinski (video, The Wire, 2013).

Exh. review: Daniele Balit (The Wire, 2009).
Reviews: Agata Pyzik (Calvert Journal, 2013), Colin McSwiggen (n+1, 2013), Alessandro Ludovico (Neural, 2013), Jacob Gotlib (Computer Music Journal, 2014), Thomas Patteson (Current Musicology, 2017).

Author
Publisher
WorldCat

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Nicola Anne Candlish: The Development of Resources for Electronic Music in the UK, with Particular Reference to the bids to establish a National Studio (2012)

This thesis traces the history and development of the facilities for electronic music in the UK. It covers the early attempts to experiment with electronic music and create studios in less than ideal circumstances and the subsequent bids to create a national centre. It also covers some elements of worldwide development of electronic music and sound recording, in particular those which occurred before 1965. The thesis calls upon non-traditional sources and the author was able to access many documents in the personal archives of electronic music pioneers. There is substantial reference to committees and societies for electronic music and their effects on the development of facilities for electronic music in the UK. Some of the early pioneers are studied in detail; these include Daphne Oram, Tristram Cary and Hugh Davies. Unprecedented access to information on Hugh Davies and Daphne Oram was provided by the family estates of these recently deceased composers. This allowed the author to gain valuable insight into the working patterns and methodology of these composers. Many references to later pioneers such as Trevor Wishart are also made but the focus remains on the facilities available to composers rather than the composers and their works.

Doctoral thesis
Music Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Durham University, 2012
189 pages

publisher

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Sound Exchange: Anthology of Experimental Music Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe 1950-2010 (2012) [English/German]

“The long traditions of experimental music cultures in Central and Eastern Europe are diverse and multifaceted, but have been difficult to access until now. With contributions from selected music, media and cultural studies specialists from eight countries, this anthology bundles together elements of unearthing material locally and documents current positions and historical finds by protagonists, as well as musical aesthetic qualities in the history of musical experiments in Central and Eastern Europe. The anthology pursues commonalities and singularities and discusses their relationship with the international history of experimental music.

The often barely known musical and artistic positions portrayed here show a wide stylistic and aesthetic spectrum of electro-acoustic music, composed and improvised music, musical media art and audio art from 60 years of experimental musical culture in the context of decades-long political repression and an atmosphere of increasing openness and international networking following 1989.”

With contributions by Antoni Beksiak, Balázs Kovács, Daiga Mazvērsīte, Gerhard Lock, Hans-Gunter Lock, Māra Traumane, Martin Flašar, Michal Rataj, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Monika Pasiecznik, Pavel Klusák, Slávo Krekovič, Tautvydas Bajarkevicius, Viestarts Gailītis.

Edited by Carsten Seiffarth, Carsten Stabenow, and Golo Föllmer
Publisher PFAU, Saarbrücken, 2012
ISBN 9783897274877, 3897274876
400 pages

Book website
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