Electronic music

What it means

Electronic music refers to music whose sounds are generated or processed by electronic means, such as synthesizers, oscillators, or computer-based sound generation, rather than solely through acoustic instruments. The term is used both for a historically specific, clearly defined compositional principle and more generally for electronically produced music across many genres.

Musical use

As a distinct compositional approach, electronic music was developed from 1951 at the electronic music studio of the West German Broadcasting network (WDR) in Cologne, where composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen organized purely electronically generated sounds according to serial principles, deliberately in contrast to the musique concrète emerging at the same time, which used recorded everyday sounds. Since then, electronic music has developed in countless directions, from academic computer music to electronic dance music with synthesizers and drum machines.

Electronic music should be distinguished from musique concrète, which works with recorded rather than purely electronically generated sounds, and from electroacoustic music in the broader sense, which encompasses both approaches as well as the use of electronically amplified acoustic instruments. It differs fundamentally from purely acoustic music through its technical sound generation, which enables new timbres unreachable with acoustic instruments alone.

Performance practice

When studying early electronic music, listen specifically for purely synthetic, often unfamiliar timbres that clearly differ from acoustic instrument sounds, and compare them with contemporaneous works of musique concrète to recognise the different sound sources. If you work with electronic sound generation yourself, experiment systematically with individual parameters such as frequency, timbre, and envelope to develop a feel for the specific creative possibilities of electronic sounds.