Various – Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center - Vinyl

video upload by ZacJust3Letters

"Various – Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

Label: Columbia Masterworks – MS 6566
Format: Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Country: US
Released: Apr 1964
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental, Electroacoustic

A1 Bülent Arel– Stereo Electronic Music No. 1
Composed By – Bülent Arel
A2 Halim El-Dabh– Leiyla And The Poet
Composed By – Halim El-Dabh
A3 Vladimir Ussachevsky– Creation - Prologue
Chorus – The Little Chorus Of Macalester College
Chorus Master – Ian Morton
Composed By – Vladimir Ussachevsky
B1 Milton Babbitt– Composition For Synthesizer
Composed By, Synthesizer – Milton Babbitt
B2 Mario Davidovsky– Electronic Study No. 1
Composed By – Mario Davidovsky
B3 Otto Luening– Gargoyles
Composed By – Otto Luening
Violin [Solo] – Max Pollikoff

Copyright © – Columbia Records
Published By – Associated Music Publishers Inc.
Mastered At – Customatrix
Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman"

Milton Babbitt Demonstration on Electronic Music

Milton Babbitt-demonstration on electronic music (1966) part I

Published on Apr 19, 2016 Joe

A bit of electronic music history in via @auralhistories. Milton Babbitt on television.

Milton Babbitt-demonstration on electronic music (1966) part II


Related:

An Interview with Peter Mauzey on Astronauta Pinguim featuring a picture of Milton Babbitt with the RCA MK II synthesizer in 1958.

RIP Milton Babbitt - You can find some of his electronic music compositions and an NPR interview in that post.

A search on Milton Babbit for additional posts - some media content is no longer available as that, unfortunately, is the nature of the internet.

An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

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An Interview with Peter Mauzey on Astronauta Pinguim

Pictured: "Milton Babbitt, Peter Mauzey and Vladimir Ussachevsky with the RCA Mk II synthesizer (1958)."

"At Columbia University, Peter Mauzey was one of the instructors of Robert Moog, that would construct his own synthesizer in 1964 (together with Herb Deutsch), and change the world of music forever with his R. A. Moog Co. (which later became Moog Music). Peter Mauzey himself developed and built a variety of electronic equipment and also was responsible for many features and improvements on the famous RCA Music Synthesizer Mk II, at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center."

Full interview on Astronauta Pinguim here.

David First - Electronic Works 1976-1977 on Buchla 100

via Norman Records, via @_JoeOxley

shop.daisrecords.com/collections/fr…s-1976-1977-lp

"When people associate composer David First with his musical resume, anyone goes straight to his late 70′s avant punk band, The Notekillers and their influential 1980 single "The Zipper". Prior to his time in the basements of Philadelphia, he had already played in Cecil Taylor’s ensemble and after the Notekillers broke up he moved to New York City in the early 80′s, taking root in the downtown NYC avant garde scene. It was there that First honed his craft for experimental composition and ambient drone which still continues to the present day.

Though this narrative made sense, there was a piece missing in the puzzle of First’s musical background. In 1976, two years after playing with Taylor and the year before starting the Notekillers, he enrolled in a class in electronic music at Princeton in the department headed at the time by legendary electronic composer Milton Babbitt.

During his time at Princeton, First was introduced to the classical electronic music studio there, a lonely outpost of the famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center which housed one of the very first Buchla 100 series systems acquired by Vladimir Ussachevsky & Otto Luening.

Unfortunately, due to the introduction of digital technology within the music world, this system was left to languish in the studio unattended and nearly forgotten. First fell in love with this equipment and seized the opportunity to compose using the Buchla 100 synthesizer, at first experimenting only with electronic synthesis but later adding in his signature guitar stylings to make these compositions unique to the academic output typical of university music.

Thankfully, these compositions were recorded by First at Princeton on various reel to reel tapes and stored away for over 35 years. It wasn’t until the summer of 2012, when David First and Ryan Martin (of Dais Records) decided to revisit and transfer these reels to compile an album presented here as a selection of genuine, uninhibited exploration into modular electronic synthesis. Limited to an edition of 500 copies with liner notes by David First."

The San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2012

This one sent in via Brian Comnes.

This is a direct copy and paste from the mailer to preserve all links, so please excuse any formatting glitches on this one. 

January 20-22, 2012

ODC Theater

3153 17th

San Francisco

http://sfsound.org/tape/

8pm, $15 [$8 underemployed] each night

$35 festival pass

Box office: 415.863.9834 or buy tickets online

“Tape Capsule” -- The New York Times 

“Cinema for your ears.” -- SF Weekly     

“…literally surrounded by sound.” -- San Francisco Chronicle

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope it's a great one! 

Putting this post up between the cross over as I need to sign off for the festivities!

First of all, I'd like to say THANK YOU! for a great 2011! It was a busy one here in MATRIXSYNTH land.  The site had a record breaking 18755 posts (including this one) for the year.  That's an average of 51.38 posts every single day (not a single day missed, BTW).  I'm hoping to actually bring that number down a little. Before anyone freaks out, I'm not planning on changing much.  I plan on keeping MATRIXSYNTH exactly the same with the exception of raising the bar on what goes up just a little.   I think enough change happens in life and it's nice to have some constants you can fall back on.  I'm hoping MATRIXSYNTH continues to be one for you.   It's odd to think it's only been six and a half years!  I hope to keep the site going for many more to come.   As for bringing the number of posts down and a little history on the site...

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Milton Babbitt on Electronic Music - New Video

Just added to this post below the NPR video.

Video of the RCA Synthesizer - NPR Documentary on Milton Babbitt

NPR has a great documentary on Milton Babbitt with video of the RCA synthesizer.
See the bottom of this post.

RIP Milton Babbitt

Milton Babbitt passed away yesterday January 29, 2011. He was 94 years old. Via Wikipedia:

"Babbitt later became interested in electronic music. He was hired by RCA as consultant composer to work with their RCA Mark II Synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (known since 1996 as the Columbia University Computer Music Center), and in 1961 produced his Composition for Synthesizer. Babbitt was less interested in producing new timbres than in the rhythmic precision he could achieve using the Mark II synthesizer, a degree of precision previously unobtainable in live performances (Barkin & Brody 2001).

Babbitt continued to write both electronic music and music for conventional musical instruments, often combining the two. Philomel (1964), for example, was written for soprano and a synthesized accompaniment (including the recorded and manipulated voice of Bethany Beardslee, for whom the piece was composed) stored on magnetic tape."

Babbitt: "Occasional Variations"

YouTube via NewMusicXX | October 24, 2008 |
Re-Published on Sep 15, 2009 Karin Schneider

"Milton Babbitt: "Occasional Variations"
Realized on the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, 1968-1971"

image via Perfect Sound Forever

Update:


RCA Synthesizer comes in at 12:51. Do watch up to it. Only calling it out so you know when it comes in.
Full article on NPR

Update:

Milton Babbitt on Electronic Music

YouTube via echasalow | January 29, 2011 |

"1997, from the Video Archive of Electroacoustic Music. Barbara Cassidy and Eric Chasalow curators.

more videos at:

http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/12_2...

copyright 1997 Eric Chasalow, all rights reserved"

Update:

milton babbitt- vision and prayer

"NewMusicXX | February 02, 2011 | 3 likes, 0 dislikes
Re-Published on May 25, 2015 Joe

Milton Babbitt: "Vision and Prayer"(1961) for soprano and synthesized tape. Bethany Beardslee, soprano. The text and title are from a 1945 poem by Dylan Thomas, the first section of which reads: Who Are you Who is born
In the next room So loud to my own That I can hear the womb Opening and the dark run Over the ghost and the dropped son Behind the wall thin as a wren's bone? In the birth bloody room unknown To the burn and turn of time And the heart print of man Bows no baptism
But dark alone Blessing on The wild Child.

Plan B Model 7 Panner/Xfader and Model 21C Mini Milton

via
Update via Erik, spotted on Muff's:
"Please notice the campy Milton Babbitt image [below]. The 21C is a fully functional Milton sequencer, albeit only one bank of eight out of the shoot. It's intention was however to create a low-cost option for having two sequential sources which I feel to be important and addresses something that popped up in the second rising of analog - 1 sequencer per system is fine. It's not! But we could not help but including the option of expansion and the unit ships with the code to support an expansion both vertically (more banks) or horizontally (more steps, up to 16) and both at once. When the page goes up a schematic will be provided for those who want to DIY the (very) simple expansion units, although they will be released as products in short time. You'll notice three jumpers on the engine board - these will route the operation to either 8 or 16 steps. The output of the 16 steps will be present at the main (master) output jack."
And on the Panner: "He showed me a panner too, an ELF one which can be used as a crossfader also and a switch when controlled by a gate signal. It's really sweet and the panning is great. Pete was telling me to point to the sound and I could. I've tried this with MAX it's not easy. It's not linear or exp. because none of these will get you the -3 down in the center... A passive panner could also be a crossfader. Vactrols will allow for gating and a passive signal path."


click for a larger shot.
Update: It's worth noting in the Muff Wiggler thread, Peake volunteered to give Peter Grenader a hand soldering. I'm guessing this is Mike Peake, the main voice and driving force behind development of the Alesis Adromeda A6.

GeminiacalAcidestiny.mp4

YouTube via AlychneAbscissa.

Buchla starts at 1:09, but do watch the intro.

"This is my 2nd piece of Musique Concrète created with tape splicing, speed manipulation, over tracking, and filtering. The original sounds came from a Buchla synthesizer and then were tape manipulated into this composition. This tape spliced piece was completed in 1980 at the Unv. of Arkansas Electronic Music Laboratory under the direction of Professor Dale Millen. It was created on a classic Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center tape station consisting of 4 Ampex 1/4 inch half tracks, and Columbia-Princeton custom 12 channel mixer. All sounds were eventually tape spliced into the order of the song. I didn't just turn on the Buchla and let it roll, this piece was cut together. I've been told that this is the difference between West Coast and East Coast electronic music composition. I've been told.

See also: Vladimir Ussachevsky, Mario Davidovsky, Milton Babbitt, Peter Mauzey, Bülent Arel, Pril Smiley, Alice Shields, Otto Luening and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center."



Update via Reed:

"Here's a picture of the "classic Columbia-Princeton" setup..., complete with Buchla 100 and 12-channel mixer."

The Tone Generation Programme 12 - The RCA Synthesizer

"This special 45 minute edition examines the leviathan synthesizer introduced by RCA engineers in 1955, and features electronic sounds created only with the Mark 1 and 2 machines. Included are tracks composed by Otto Leuning, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen."
You'll find it at the bottom of this post.

Babbitt: "Occasional Variations"

YouTube via NewMusicXX
"Milton Babbitt: "Occasional Variations"
Realized on the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, 1968-1971"

The Tone Generation

Note: these are long, so you might want to bookmark this one for when you have time.
You might remember The Tone Generation from this post when the program was first announced. In short, it is a radio series on the history of electronic music. Thanks goes to this post on Califaudio for reminding me of the series. The next program will feature the RCA synthesizer. I am now subbed and will post when it comes in.

Update: if you prefer to download these as mp3s for the road or other, you can find them here.

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ARP 2500 Synthesizer Brochure

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

Click here for shots via this auction

"The brochure is 8.5 inches by 11 inches. It includes accolades from these artists: Hugo Montenegro, Gerald Shapiro, Milton Babbitt, Roger Powell, Pete Townshend, and Robert Morris. It describes the 2500 as “The Concert Grand of Synthesizers. Page four and five lists prices for function modules, keyboards, and cabinets. Page six shows 6 sample systems. Page seven lists those systems and gives the prices for those systems from $7,180 - $19,820. Page eight shows 3 other synthesizers and their prices. There are 8 pages counting the front and back covers."

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