I’m a student of electronic music history by dent of stumbling across a book as a teenager called The Liberation of Sound. I heartedly recommend the book to anybody interested in a deep cut look at the foundations of electronic music, as the book was published in 1972 (thus spending most of its runtime in the later 19th century, and early 20th), and focuses on the philosophic break in the classical scene with tempered scales and diatonic structure that drove musicians to search for an alternative (in both structure and sound).
All that aside, while I have a decent appreciation of the names involved, most of the music I’ve ever heard is… well… respectable due to its age at best. While I respect it all, I only really start liking the sonic output in the 1960s and 70s (notably Subotnik, Sidewinder and Silver Apples especially).
Anyhoo, without further ado, here’s the oldest thing that I find listenable. What’s yours?
p.s. Of note, this was likely composed no later than 1955, which predates the commercial release of the synthesizer by a decade (also, one half of this duo was female, for what that is worth - Bebe Barron rocked). This was achieved through an interesting application of Cybernetics that left an indelible mark on the Barrons, but in practicable terms was tape loop manipulation of dying circuits.
To quote the Barrons:
“We design and construct circuits, which function electronically in a manner remarkably similar to the way lower life forms function psychologically… In scoring Forbidden Planet we created individual cybernetic circuits for particular themes and leit motifs, rather than using standard sound generators. Actually, each circuit has a characteristic activity pattern as well as a “voice”. Most remarkable is that the sounds, which emanate from these electronic nervous systems seem to convey strong emotional meaning to listeners. There were no synthesizers or traditions of using electronic music when we scored the film, and therefore we were free to explore “terra incognito” with all the surprises and adventures.”
Yeah, as a kid I loved Richard D. James version. It was ages before I realized it predated him.
Speaking of Aphex, I skimmed a live performance he did recently, and was amused to see he opened his set with a (uncredited) homage to Pendulum Music (Steve Reich, '68 I think).
These were my two favorite songs when I was in fourth grade. I was a weird kid. Still am.
I’m sure a lot of folks know this one, but hoo-boy no one I talked to at school did! Telstar isn’t fully electronic, but it’s the first time I heard an instrument and said “what even is that!”
Passionately is, I think, a lot more interesting. To my knowledge, this was a demo for 8-bit Atari computers. My dad had an Atari 400 and we listened to this over and over and over again. When I was six or seven, he upgraded to a 130XE, and I got the 400. I played a lot of games on that computer, but I watched this a ton.
I went looking for it on YouTube maybe ten years ago and was dismayed to find that the only versions up were like… wrong. I don’t know if it’s because they were on faster machines or different frame rates, but they were slightly too fast and it drove me nuts.
The first electronic music album I bought was Kraftwerk’s “Ralf und Florian”, from 1973, their first that relied more on synthesizers and drum machines than conventional instruments. It was on sale at Sam Goody’s in New York City, which I was visiting while in high school, somewhere between 1973 and 1976. I was into Tomita, Carlos, and (I blush to admit this) Rick Wakeman at the time (all borrowed and taped, though), and I bought it purely on the strength of the back cover photo of gear and the mention of synthesizers. I didn’t quite know what to make of it; it was a bit too repetitive, and listening to it today, it still strikes me that way, even though I can now place it in context.
The man produced some fantastic music and played on some of the greatest records in rock music. “Oh You Pretty Things” alone ought to be enough to dispel any embarrassment.
Speaking of the Clavioline, and (electronic-music-before-electronic-music-was-fashionable) … Mr. Sun Ra played a mean Clavioline. In this cut, it’s the lead part that sounds like a violin with a lot of vibrato:
