120 Years of Electronic Music

120 Years Of Electronic Music (update v5.0)

Introduction

This site charts the development of electronic musical instruments from 1870 to 1990. For the purposes of this project electronic musical instruments are defined as instruments that synthesise sounds from an electronic source. This definition leaves out a whole section of hybrid electronic instruments developed at the end of the last century that used electronics to manipulate or amplify sounds and tape recorders, wax recording devices, Musique Concrete and so-on. It has been decided to leave in some non electronic instruments such as the Futurists "Intonarumori" due to their importance in the history of and influence on modern music.

The main focus of the site is on instruments developed from the beginning of the century until the 1960's. The more modern and current Synthesiser companies have been included for the sake of historical completeness but are already well documented elsewhere on the internet.

'120 Years Of Electronic Music' is an ongoing web project initiated in 1995 by the athor simon crab and is updated on a highly infrequent and erratic basis(currently v5.0 november 2005). The project is completely non-commercial and self funded. The aim is to make the information available on a free/open source basis i.e. you can use content in any way as long as the content owners are credited and it would be courteous if you could aknowledge the source by linking or refering to the site.

We rely a great deal on user input and invite your comments: please mail me at crab@bourbonesequalk.net and maybe of interest, my blog 'Stalker'

Many thanks, simon crab, London 2005

© 120 Years Of Electronic Music 2005