From the elements to the continuum: Timbre composition in early electronic music

Author: Ungeheuer, Elena¹

Source: Contemporary Music Review, Volume 10, Number 2, 1994 , pp. 25-33(9)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Attempts to achieve a continuous change of timbre can be found all over the landscape of electronic composing. In as much as timbre is a complex parameter that fuses together all the different properties of sound into its “character”, the Klangfarbenkontinuum figures not only as an exotic effect in the universe of electronic sounds but links a musical utopia with an acoustic premise and electrotechnical reality. This can be shown in the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig of the 1950s that were created in the course of an intensive interchange. Serial compositional methods — developed dialectically in the search for continual transitions with the help of distinct musical elements — are enriched by the scientific model of the unity of the acoustic world as it was formulated by Werner Meyer-Eppler. Electrotechnical transformations articulate the continuum of musical derivation.

Keywords: serial composition; continuum; Klangfarbenkontinuum; field composition; Karlheinz Stockhausen; Gottfried Michael Koenig

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/07494469400640271

Affiliations: 1: Institut für Kommunikationsforschung und Phonetik der Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

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