Electronic and Computer Music

By Peter Manning

Book Overview

In this revised and expanded third edition of the classic text on the history and evolution of electronic and computer music, Peter Manning provides the definitive account of the medium from its birth to the present day.
After explaining the antecedents of electronic music from the turn of the century to the Second World War, Manning discusses the emergence of early "classical" studios of the 1950s. He goes on to chronicle the upsurge of creative activity during the 1960s and 70s in the analog domain, as well as with live electronic music and the early use of electronics in rock and pop music. This edition contains new information about software innovations, digital media and the essential features of digital and audio control, the MIDI synthesizer and its many derivatives, and the evolution of computer workstations and multimedia personal computers.
Manning offers a critical perspective of the medium both in terms of its musical output and the philosophical and technical features that have shaped its growth. Emphasizing the functional characteristics of emerging technologies and their influence on the creative development of the medium, Manning covers key developments in both commercial and the non-commercial sectors to provide readers with the most comprehensive resource available on this ever-evolving subject.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195170857
• ISBN13: 9780195170856
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 474 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Complete and Detailed

This book is a must have in addition with the Chadabe's Electric Sound, and Holmes's Electronic and Experimental Music. Manning gets more specific about the qualities and characteristics of electronic music. A must have for those actively involved in the production, recording, technical, compositional, or performance aspects of computer music.

Technical but digestable

This book is a nice overview of electronic and computer music (as one might gather from the title.) It's great to sit near a computer and research some of the composers and pieces discussed, as many of them are on youtube and at least sound clips are available somewhere online. You're not going to learn how to program or compose from this book, but it's great for getting a decent background of what went on from 1890-1990.