(Excerpt from my e-book about this topic: https://www.dev.rofilm-media.net/node/537)

What the pioneers of electronic music worked on, emphasised more than before or even discovered, and how to translate this to our situation today:

Aspect 1:

The meaning of sine waves, additive synthesis and the real nature of sound

(excerpt from my e-book “New Concepts for Music and Sound”: https://www.dev.rofilm-media.net/node/537)

Experiment 2

Experiment two now. This time it´s not about certain notes nor melodies nor anything serial. This time it´s about timbre, sound and pitches.

(Excerpt from my e-book about this topic: https://www.dev.rofilm-media.net/node/537)

What was so groundbreaking about the goings on in Cologne and Milano (and Paris and London, and....) in the 1950s? What was it that makes us call this early electronic music “revolutionary”? What´s all the fuss about anyway? Why should I care about Boisselet, Stockhausen, Eimert, Madera, Berio, Krenek, Cage and, and, and? Why isn´t it wasting of time to study these old guys when I´m indeed looking for new concepts NOW?

(excerpt from my e-book “New Concepts for Music and Sound”: https://www.dev.rofilm-media.net/node/537)

Experiment 1

Me:

After being nearly forgotten by the public modular synthesis has seen a great comeback in the last, let´s say 10 years. What are the reasons for that?

ChatGPT:

There are several reasons for the resurgence of modular synthesis in recent years:

1. Versatility: Modular synthesis offers a high degree of versatility, allowing users to create a wide range of sounds and music. This versatility has made modular synthesis a popular choice among musicians, producers, and sound designers.

As more and more people have been talking about this ChatGPT thing recently, and even musicians and friends (and some of our members) have caught the fever, I have decided to have a detailed look at this thing. I was – and still are – rather skeptical and there are more than only a few aspects which make me even suspicious and alert. But as ignoring is a strategy of rather limited advantages I got the idea of testing ChatGPT by leading dialogues about matters I know a lot about – music and sound.

I´m going to publish these dialogues here at irregular intervals.

I ended up with the question “Isn´t a spectrum the same as (layered) chords, at least when working only with sine waves? “

Well, let´s have a look how the pioneers of electronic music in the 1950s tried to deal with questions like that, now, that they were confronted with completely new kinds of sounds in music.

One of the most systematically proceeding composers of that time is Herbert Eimert. He divided all (electronic) sounds in the following categories:

tone

sound

tone mixture

noise

First of all, what is Ered Nimrais? Well, it´s a fictive moutain massive mentioned in Tolkien´s trilogy “Lord of the Rings”.

Let me quote the booklet of my last sample library:

“In the south of Middle-Earth there are the mountains of Ered Nimrais, also called the White Mountains. Here we find Helm´s Deep, the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, the Path of the Dead, and at the foot of the mountains the realm of Rohan. From Gondor to Rohan along the peaks of the Mountains men have installed the signal fires to call for help.”

It all seems like a labyrinth of questions and half-baked ideas, or the scintillation of a misled mind. So let me try to find the beginning of some threads, take them up and find my way through this maze like Theseus used Ariadne´s clew of yarn to find his way out of the Minotaur´s home.

I admit: part 1 was rather evil and vicious than constructive. Well, waking up isn´t always a nice thing. Anyway.

Where might we start thinking about new music, about new sound – and what´s even deeper – about new concepts for both?