Tomita’s influence can be
seen right through the 1980’s to today. Emerging artists from Electronica
to Acid House in the 90’s and Techno to today’s electronically
permeated music, Hip Hop, Rap, R&B. Tomita’s legacy
and unique sound design is prevalent in the designer of modern digital synth
and keyboard sounds to VST instruments in today’s modern Daw recording studios.
There are even plug in packages emulating these early sounds for the nostalgic
modern electronic music composer.
“To some these records are seen as a novelty items, but
what cannot be denied is Tomita’s masterful understanding of the synthesizer
and it’s boundless potential. The sound palette of albums like Pictures at an
exhibition are so broad, that elements like the synthesised voice are
recognisable in ’80s popular music, whereas the sequenced, FM
percussion sounds bear a striking resemblance to the textures of ’90s techno;
styles that occurred long after Tomita’s first work.”[1]
Going back to Varese, it’s
incredible to see how far electronic music had come by the 1970’s and even up
to today. In the early years there was a lot of resistance to the creation of
electronic music. In the early days of the organised sound, a term
Varese coined when talking about the production of recorded music as far back
as 1930.
“With such passionate, even Romantic, views, it is no
surprise that Varese encountered constant obstacles to his musical expression.
He composed only a handful of works, and he experienced rejection both by the
general public and his professional colleagues (including Schoenberg). His
attempts to convince Bell Laboratories to allow him to research electronic
music during the 1920s and 1930s failed. It was only during his seventies that
the musical world and the technological world caught up with Varese. He
composed Deserts for orchestra and tape in 1950–4, supported by Pierre Schaeffer
who provided facilities at the Radio Diffusion-Television Francaise (RTF)
studios, where he was working on musique concrete. Finally, in 1958, Varese was
invited by the architect Le Corbusier to create Poeme electronique for the Philips Pavilion at the
1958 World’s Fair. This was essentially a sound installation, which used four
hundred loudspeakers to create a walk-through sonic experience that combined
synthesised and recorded and processed sounds. It is also in many ways the
realisation of Bacon’s ‘sound-house’. This classic work remains highly
influential today a high point in the early development of electronic music.
What Varese’s career demonstrates, however, is that the origins of electronic
music lie much further back than this work, in the creative imagination of the
artist.” (Hugill, p23.)[2]
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