Contemporary Style

Pierre Schaeffer - Etude aux chemins de fer (1948) Click here to listen! Etude aux chemins de fer What am I listening to? Trains! Lots of recordings of trains. "Étude aux chemins de fer" translated to English means "Study at the railways" Nerd Stuff Musique Concrete is music created by formulating recorded and synthesized sounds into some reproducible structure. Pierre Schaeffer was one of the first composers to experiment with this form of music in 1942 in France. Over the following years Schaeffer formulated methods for recording and modifying tape created by the relatively new portable tape recorder. After recording, Schaeffer would physically cut up and rearrange the tape. To loop sounds he would make a copy of the tape and attach them end to beginning. To this day, we visualize video and sound editing in much the same way. Take Garage Band  for instance. Those boxes are very similar to how tape was laid out and layered. However, in Garage Band it takes t

Steve Reich - Piano Phase (1967) Click here to listen Piano Phase Nerd stuff So you aren't confused, I'll explain what phasing is right off the bat. There are two or more distinct parts in a phasing piece (in this case two). One part holds a steady tempo while the other slowly increase speed. This idea may sound similar to the concept of a round or a canon, but his form is different.  In cannon, one part plays a specific line and another part plays the same line but starts after the first. The aspect of a cannon that interests the listener on a technical level is how the overlap "works". The one thing that a phase adds is the transition. Instead of just starting later than the first part, the second part starts at the same point and then speeds up. The making of the piece (nerd stuff pt. 2) This is Steve Reich's first attempt to use phasing in a live performance with two musicians. Previously, he used one live performer with a tape loop. Us young folks do