Chapter 3-early electronic music in the U.S.

Monday, we had our second assessment for the course. For this assessment there were five question, of which we got to chose three and focus on those questions. First question I chose was on the Mellotron, which I believe I did a fairly good job answering that question, although I ended up spending so much time talking about the Mellotron that I didn't have enough sufficient time to answer the other two questions in enough detail; so, overall, unfortunately, I don't believe I'm going to end up with a good grade for this assessment.  I seriously need to invest in a watch and limit myself on equal time for each question. That would be a good idea.  Then, for this upcoming Monday, my partner and I have to have come up with a proposal as to what we are going to do our presentation on; this is something I'm a little nervous about, because I still have no idea what to present on. But it's okay, we'll figure something out by Monday.

Anyways, this past week are on some notes that I took about John Cage (1912-92) and early electronic music in the United States.  John Cage also happened to be on of the other questions I chose for the assessment, and I know that if I had given myself more time, I would have done an awesome job on that question.  Instead of writing out my notes, however, I decided to scan and attach my notes into the blog (because there are 9 pages worth of notes from this chapter, making it a little hard to copy). It seems the blog won't let me attach my notes onto this site, so I ended up just putting the scans of my notes onto a website here

The Mellotron

Mechanically, how did this work?

         The Mellotron is an electro-magnetic keyboard that contained pre-recorded magnetic tapes.  These tapes would contain the sounds of various instruments that had been record from actual instruments and players.  When a key was pressed on the keyboard. it would play the sounds.  The Mellotron was actually a predecessor to the Chamberlin, which was originally invented by Henry Chamberlin in the late 40s/early 50s.  The Mellotron was developed in the 60s by the Bradley brothers (Frank, Norman, and Les) in London, England.

Why the master tapes were so important? And why the acquisition of these was crucial?

         The master tapes were crucial because they were the only way the Mellotron could work.  One of the nice things about the Mellotron was that people could go and purchase different master tapes  with different sounds and interchange them.

Who were the key players: the inventor, the significant users of this instrument. 

         When it comes the Mellotron, the inventors are the three Bradley Brothers, Frank, Norman, and Lesley Bradley who were based in London, England.  The Chamberlin was developed by Henry Chamberlin from Ohio.  Over the past four decades, there have been numerous musicians and bands that have used the Mellotron and the Chamberlin:

• Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues
• Rod Argent of The Zombies
• Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick
• Tony Banks of Genesis
• Al Kooper, producer for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Convinced Lynyrd Skynyrd to use Mellotron in their album
• Steve Wonder
• David Bowie
• Patrick Moraz
• Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
• Jesse Carmichael
• Aerosmith
• B-52s
• The Beatles
• Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys
• Paul McCartney on his solo albums
• Pink Floyd
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• and many, many more

*side note: to see a list of musicians that have used Mellotron in their works, go to http://www.mellotron.com/mellolis.htm)

Where did the original sounds come from?

        The original sounds for the master tapes came from instrumentalists who were part of the Musician’s Union.  An instrumentalist would be hired to play a chord that would be played continuously for 8 seconds; this was how long the Mellotron would play that chord for when using it.

Theories as to why the instrument didn’t receive widespread use. And how is this similar to the Theremin?

         One of the theories and explanations as to why the Mellotron was not received worldwide was due to the fact that the tapes were not as good of a quality as the Chamberlin’s master tapes.  The Mellotron was also known for breaking down very easily, and could not be used immediately because it need to warm up.  This made it hard for musicians that wanted to use the Mellotron onstage in their concerts, because they would need to wait for it to warm up.  The tapes were also known to stick and get destroyed.  Some concerts were known for having to be cancelled because the musician’s Mellotron would break down, and it was not easy to repair or to rent. 

This instrument introduced/preceded what significant recording technology?

           The Chamberlin and Mellotron preceded sampling, which is a significant recording technology that is used in the present.  Sampling holds the same premise that the Chamberlin and Mellotron used, taking samples of an instrument or sound and re-creating them later in a song.  The Chamberlin and Mellotron were really the beginning of this idea.

General timeline, geography and business drama. 

• 1948- Upland, CA: development of the first Chamberlin model, the Chamberlin 100
• 1951- Upland, CA: Chamberlin 200 developed
• 1956- Chamberlin Co. founded
• 1959- Ontario, CA: Chamberlin 300/350 model developed
• 1961- Ontario, CA: Chamberlin 400 and 500
• 1962- London, England: Bill Fransen, a saleman hired by Chamberlin to go around the U.S. and sell the Chamberlin, leaves for England with 2 Chamberlin 600 models and advertises for someone to manufacture the Chamberlins. He had been saying that the idea for the Chamberlin, which he had renamed the Fransen, was his own and he was looking for someone to manufacture them for him.  He finds the Bradley bros. who had their own company, Bradmatic, Ltd.
• 1963- Ontario, CA: Chamberlin 600
• 1963- London, England: Mollotronics, Co. is founded and the Mellotron MK1 is first developed, based off of the Chamberlin 600
• 1963-1964- Anaheim, California: Bradley brothers attended NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants, to show off their new invention; Henry Chamberlin also attended NAMM. This is where the brothers discover that they have actually ‘stolen’ their model for the Mellotron off of the already patented Chamberlin, something they did not know when Bill Fransen gave them the idea to manufacture it.  A stipulation was agreed between the Bradleys and Chamberlin, the Mellotron would be sold in the U.K. and the Chamberlin would be sold in the U.S.
• 1964- London, England: Bradmatic, Ltd. is renamed Streetly Electronics. Mellotron MK2 developed.
• 1970- Mellotron comes out with the M400 and Chamberlin comes out with the M1.
• 1975- Chamberlin M2
• 1975-1980- Chmberlin M4
• 1980- David Kean purchases Mellotronics USA and founds Chamberlin Archives
• 1981- Chamberlin Co. shuts down business due to poor interest in the device
• 1986- Streetly Electronics shuts down
• 1992- Markus Resch becomes David Kean’s partner for Chamberlin Archives.
• 1999- Streetly Electronics, which is now run by John Bradley (son of Les Bradley) and martin Smith,  releases the Mellotron MK VI
• 2009- Mellotron MK 4000 released
• 2010- Streetly Electronics just recently released a digital M3000 HD, available for the Apple iPad
• 
  

Discuss Mellotron vs the Chamberlin- many differences.

            Mellotron

• The master tapes were interchangeable. People could go and buy different tapes and change them in the Mellotron. 
• The quality of the tapes were not as superior as the Chamberlins
• Had a push-button mechanism
• Main focus of the Bradleys was to sell musical instruments

           Chamberlin

• Fixed sounds, no interchangeable tapes
• Chamberlin tapes were more superior because they were recorded with the high quality microphones and recording equipment of the time
• Had a lever mechanism
• Main focus was to make musical instruments for families to enjoy in their home

Discuss the issues with the musician’s union.

           The issue that started to arise with the musician’s union was the fact that the musicians decided that they should be compensated for their recordings that were being used on the master tapes.  After the popularity of the Mellotron started to rise, the musicians determined that, for every instrument used on the master tapes, those musicians should be payed some sort of amount; this was not limited to just the musicians that were used to record the instrument, but to every musician that was a member of the musician’s union who used that particular instrument; meaning every flutist or violinist or cellist in the union...that’s a lot of musicians.

John Cage

This week we watched a video on John Cage (1912-1992), a famous composer in electronic music, who was known for using aleatory, or chance, in his compositions.  The video was actually based on 10 different documentaries based around a 10 day, 9 evening, performance in New York City.  The performance ran between October 13-October 23 in 1966.  We only watched the John Cage performance, called Variations 7.  I found the documentary on his performance to be very interesting, because it consisted of various household appliances, such as blenders, fans, 10 telephone lines which were placed throughout the city, radios, and juicers, just to name a few of the 'instruments' involved.  Cage also told his 'performers', if you will, to bring whatever gear and appliances that could bring to use.  The reason I put quotations around the words instruments and performers, is because one thing that this performance did, was bring about the discussion as to whether these could really be thought of as a performance, instruments, or performers; a discussion which we did have in the class:

• Could Cage be considered a composer or a performer or both? 

I believe that Cage could definitely be considered a performer, because a performer is considered someone "who entertains an audience" (the definition of "performer" OxfordDictionary.com), and Cage definitely entertained his audience (at least that's what it looked like by the end of the performance in this documentary) and opened their minds with his 'unconventional' performances.  I believe that one job a performer, as well as a composer, has to do is to open up their audiences' minds to sounds and feelings that are conveyed when they hear these sounds.  After looking up on Cage and some of his known performances, I looked up on his 4'33" which consists of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of entire silence; it was meant to be a way for people to hear everything that surrounds them and how they interpret these sounds.  I watched a video of this performance that was done in Britain, and the thing I found entertaining, was how the audience was trying to stay silent the entire time and the only time they would make a sound is between the movements, when the composer and performers would turn the page, at which point the audience would cough, shift, sneeze, and clear their throats; the reason I found this entertaining is because (from what I watched in the documentary), I think Cage would have used the audiences' noise as part of the performance itself.

• Could the instruments that were used really be considered instruments (I mean, they were mostly household appliances)? 

It depends on the way in which the instruments are used. They may be used as normal appliances at home, but in this case, I do believe that they were instruments, because they were meant to be used as such.  As I said before, one of Cage's purposes in his performances was to open up people's minds to things beings utilized in ways that we were not, and still are not, used to them being utilized.  A blending being used as a musical instrument? Who would ever think that the noises that a blender makes, as being musical? In this case, Cage did. Who would ever think that attaching some strings to an oddly formed block of wood and then plucking those strings would ever make a good sound? Apparently enough people did, because we now have guitars.

• Can Variations 7 be a piece? What makes a piece a piece?

This is one question that I honestly don't know how to answer because I'm not really sure I can, for sure, what a piece is.  I know that one of the definitions talked about in class, is that a piece is something that has a beginning and an end, and Variations had a beginning and an end; so, technically this is a piece.  I consider a piece because it something that was performed by performers and had instruments in it, as unconventional as they may have seemed.  Based on other pieces that I've listened to, also have movements, a middle, where the story changes. And I honestly could not find a middle or movement in this piece, but then does that not make it a piece? I don't know.

• How was the performance more than just a sound performance? 

The performance was more than just a sound performance in that it was a visual performance because Cage used the shadows that were being made from the photoelectric cell lights as part of his performance; at one point, his pants were catching on fire, and he somehow found a way of using that as part of his performance. It was also an interactive performance because he used the audience as a part of it; the audience was only supposed to sit and watch, but they soon decided to go up in order to get a closer look, and he used that as all a part of it.  When it came to Cage, it was all about chance, nothing was determined.

Something I really learned from this class and some of the readings, so far, about Cage and Varese and Theremin, is that items we see as being conventional items shouldn't always be used in conventional ways. You never know what kind of other uses you could get out of them.

Second round on our first test...

This week I guess quite a few of us did not do so well on our tests in class so we got to have a second round on them.  It was not a re-do on the test, though; just a second go. I feel that I did definitely do better on this rewrite, partly because it became an at home assignment where I felt more comfortable, for sure.

Pierre Schaeffer's 4 delimitations (all used in non-traditional manners):

1. Living elements
2. Noises
3. Modified and prepared instruments
4. Conventional

His 7 values:

1. Mass- organizations of sound in spectral dimensions (placing on frequency level)
2. Dynamic- measureable value
3. Tone quality and timbre
4. Melodic profile- temporal evolution of the total spectrum of sound
5. Profile of Mass
6. Grain- analysis of irregularities of surface of the sound
7. Pace- analysis of the amplified dynamics of the sound (when does become loud/soft)

Harmonic plan- 20---------20K
Dynamic plan- ADSR (envelope of sound)
Melodic plan- pitch + tune over time