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Between Air and Electricity

Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments

  • Overview
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
  • Chapter 3
  • Chapter 4
  • Chapter 5
  • Other Examples

Category: 1960s

Posted on May 2, 2017March 3, 2019

Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

Some objects seem particularly suitable for use in preparing loudspeakers. Perhaps ping pong balls were favored objects for this due to their lightness and characteristic sound. Comparing several of these set-ups reveals that—fortunately!—using a similar technology can still result in … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017February 7, 2017

p. 115 Rainforest by David Tudor

Several performances of Rainforest (1968-1973) by David Tudor, all using different objects attached to tactile transducers:

 … read more

Posted on February 6, 2017May 2, 2017

p. 111 Shozyg by Hugh Davies

An interview with Hugh Davies and some music played on the Shozyg (also using some of his egg slicer instruments):

Listen to more Shozyg music:

… read more

Posted on February 6, 2017April 4, 2017

p. 110 Apple Box Double by Pauline Oliveros

Apple Box Double (1965) by Pauline Oliveros. This video documents a performance of Pauline Oliveros and Seth Cluett in 2004:

And here another performance of Pauline and Seth on apple boxes, from September 2016:

 … read more

Posted on January 31, 2017October 5, 2018

p. 94 Mikrophonie I by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Mikrophonie I (1964) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, performed in 1966

And performed in 2007:

 … read more

Posted on January 31, 2017November 23, 2017

p. 88 Pendulum Music by Steve Reich

Pendulum Music (1968) by Steve Reich

(score from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/5-12-examples-of-experimental-music-notation-92223646/)

… read more

Posted on January 31, 2017November 23, 2017

p. 84 Quintet by Hugh Davies

Quintet (1968) by Hugh Davies:

… read more

Posted on January 31, 2017June 20, 2017

p. 75 Wave Train by David Behrman

Wave Train (1966) by David Behrman performed by Yoni Niv (Musica Nova) and Ronald Boersen (special guest). See also: Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen.

… read more

Posted on January 31, 2017December 8, 2021

p. 20 Drie Ideofonen by Dick Raaijmakers

Drie Ideofonen (1969-1973) by Dick Raaijmakers

Ideofoon 1

Ideofoon 1 (1970) by Dick Raaijmakers

Ideofoon 2

Ideofoon 2 (1970) by Dick Raaijmakers

Ideofoon 3

Ideofoon 3 (1970) by Dick Raaijmakers
… read more

Between Air and Electricity

  • Table of Contents
  • Cathy van Eck
  • introduction

key words

  • (acoustic) feedback
  • (hemi)spherical loudspeakers
  • contact microphones
  • everyday objects
  • flute
  • flying loudspeakers
  • movement
  • percussion
  • phonograph
  • piano
  • pick-ups
  • prepared loudspeakers
  • prepared microphones
  • sound reinforcement systems
  • space
  • tactile transducers
  • ten or more loudspeakers
  • trumpet
  • tuning fork
  • violin family
  • voice
  • walking
  • water
  • wearable

time line

  • 1950s and earlier
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s

Recent Posts

  • Megaphone Music I

  • A hydrophone synthesiser by Tomoko Sauvage

  • in steps by Ricardo Eizirik

  • Touch Amplifiers by Özgür Erkök Moroder and Steffi Weismann

  • Kkwaenggwari and Bambusoides by Ji Youn Kang

  • acoustic resonators by Jeff Snyder

  • Ohr-Weide — Salix aurita by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler

  • Drohnenmusik by Genoël von Lilienstern

  • Echo Moiré by Matteo Marangoni

  • Kropka na Ogonie and Soroka Fruwa by Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman

  • 112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert

  • Transduction and Acoustic Radiator by Kristen Roos

  • Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff

  • Points of Contact by Erfan Abdi

  • Vestiges of Discomposition and other works by Simon Whetham

  • The Springboard by Eric Leonardson

  • Touche Nature by I-lly Cheng

  • Small Movements by Adam Basanta

  • Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki

  • Apart by Oscar Bettison

  • Sound in a Jar by Ronald Boersen

  • Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti

  • Speaker Feedback Instruments by Lesley Flanigan

  • Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls

  • Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras

  • Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt

  • Tonewood by Hugo Morales Murguía

  • Klangflug by Lara Stanic

  • A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç

  • An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen

Accompanying website for the book Between Air and Electricity by Cathy van Eck
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