A student's guide to

See http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/ for a marvellous website, dedicated to the huge range of electronic musical instruments that were created in the 20th century. It includes pictures and some sound samples. Look out particularly for the thérémin, the ondes martenot, and the telharmonium.

See http://theatreorgans.com/hammond/ for more on the Hammond organ and Leslie speakers.

A history of the electric guitar (and its most famous players) can be found at:
http://www.riffinteractive.com/expguitar/ElectricGuitarRoots1.htm

Synthesisers

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about all aspects of synthesisers can be found at:

http://tilt.largo.fl.us/faq/faq-c.html

Pictures of early synthesisers can be seen at:
http://www.sonicstate.com/synthfool/pics.html

Recording

For more on the history of sound recording and broadcasting technology take a look at:

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsoundrecording.htm

Read about the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and hear that early recording at:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/odjb.html

Tape Recording

For further details about musique concrète see:

http://www.musespace.com/writings/essays/musique.html

Learn more about Stockhausen at:
http://www.stockhausen.org/
http://www.elektronik.co.uk/critq4.htm

Some information about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop can be found at:
http://www.elektronik.co.uk/critq3-bbc2.htm

Analogue and Digital

For an overview of analogue recording see the website:

http://arts.ucsc.edu/ems/music/tech_background/TE-19/teces_19.html

Read an illustrated article on the differences between analogue and digital recording at:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

Computers and Music

For more on music software see:

http://www.mtlc.net/main.php

For information about MIDI and audio, see
http://www.cakewalk.com/Tips/Desktop.htm
but also see the later section in this guide "Controlling and Interpreting MIDI Data"

Further Reading

The topics outlined in this chapter are covered in much greater detail in Digital Sound Processing for Music and Multimedia by Andy Hunt and Ross Kirk. Focal Press. ISBN 0-240-51506-4. It has a supporting website with links that will be of general interest and which cover most of the technological concepts in this course:

http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/mustech/dspmm.htm

– follow the link ‘Supporting information for readers’ to get to the list of chapters, each of which has its own set of links to sites of interest and further tutorials.

Music from the Western Classical Tradition

Impressionism

See some of Monet's paintings at:

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~smith82/monet.html

Serialism

For more on serialism try (if you dare!):

http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~clemmons/458links.html

Minimalism

For more on Steve Reich see:

http://www.stevereich.com

And for Philip Glass go to:
http://www.philipglass.com/

General Links

Here are some websites where you can find out more about music and composers from the western classical tradition:

http://www.classical.net/music/composer/

http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/composer.html

http://www.gprep.pvt.k12.md.us/classical/composers.html

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/classmus.html

Popular Music and Jazz

Charts

Here are some sites to keep up with charts and other popular music news:

http://www.dotmusic.com

http://www.musreview.com

http://www.nme.com

http://www.mojo4music.com

Jazz

This site has a map of different styles of jazz and how they developed:

http://www.acns.nwu.edu/jazz/styles/style-map.html

Jazz FM broadcasts in London, some other parts of the country and via the internet.
http://www.jazzfm.co.uk/

BBC Radio 3 regularly broadcasts jazz.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/

http://www.notz.com/ukjazz.htm carries news about jazz in the UK, including jazz festivals and links to other jazz sites.

For national listings of jazz gigs, news and information about jazz in education go to
http://www.jazzservices.org.uk/

AS Music Technology

Sequencing

Further reading

Sound on Sound and Computer Music magazines are good sources for sequencing hints and tips. Both are available online:

http://www.sospubs.co.uk and

http://www.computermusic.co.uk

Recording

Microphones

Find out about the characteristics of specific microphones at:

http://www.akg-acoustics.com/

http://www.shure.com/

Multi-track Recording

A track sheet is used to keep a record of mixer channels, tape tracks, times and the parts recorded. It will prove helpful in organising your sessions and when writing-up your recording log. A good example for free download is available from:

http://www.soundcraft.com/learning/learning.html

Further Reading

Sound On Sound magazine carries many useful articles and reviews.

The associated website has an extensive library of online articles

from back issues:

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/

Harmony Central is another good online resource:
http://www.harmony-central.com/

Soundcraft is a British mixing desk manufacturer and produces an excellent guide to mixing and recording. It is available for free download at:
http://www.soundcraft.com/learning/learning.html

Arranging and Improvising

Here are some useful websites which you can use as a starting point for your listening.

http://www.demon.co.uk/londonorch

http://www.freesheetmusic.net

http://www.midifilecreative.com

Listening and Analysing (AS)

A lot of the information you need to identify the period of the recording of an extract will be revealed by the technology used.

http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/audiohd.html

A2 Music Technology

Sequencing, Recording and Producing

Composing

Sampling

For samples try:

http://www.samplearena.com

The Internet

Interesting websites for composers include:

http://www.peoplesound.com and

http://www.taxi.com

In addition, free software (including trial versions) and technical manuals can be downloaded – try:
http://www.prosoniq.com

Controlling and Interpreting MIDI Data

MIDI Files

Detailed information about MIDI files and how they are made up can be found at:
http://www.sonicspot.com/guide/midifiles.html

MIDI control messages

A full list of MIDI controllers, with details, can be found at:
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tutr/ctl.htm

General MIDI

For the full GM specification, and details of the more recent GM2 revision, go to:
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tutr/gm.htm

Further Reading

The MIDI specification is covered in detail in the book Digital Sound Processing for Music and Multimedia and itssupporting website includes a chapter on MIDI:
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~adh2/book/ch4.htm

An online MIDI tutorial can be found at:
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tutr/whatmidi.htm

Music for the Moving Image

The Development of Music for Film

Silent film has been viewed as a wonderful international art-form, not bounded by a specific language. You can read more about this at:

http://users.otenet.gr/~nexus7/filmmusien.htm

A useful summary of the history of film music can be found at:
http://www.americancomposers.org/hollywood_chihara_article.htm

Although we are focusing only on English-language films from the west,you should be
aware that there are many other fascinating film-music cultures around the world. They developed after the introduction of sound-films,as movies became language-specific.For instance take a look at this site dedicated
to the history and development of Indian film music (a massive industry, with an almost religious following):
http://www.musicofthemovies.com/cover.html

Much detail about the background and plot of films such as High Noon can be found at:
http://www.filmsite.org/

Sound Synchronisation and Reproduction

For an informative history of filmsound see:

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/motionpicture.html

Function of Music for Moving Images

The following article discusses the essence of music in the context of a film:

http://www.filmsound.org/filmart/bordwell2.htm

Television Music

Lalo Schifrin’s home page can be found at:

http://www.schifrin.com/

Studying Film Music

For answers to many general questions on film music go to:

http://www.webcom.com/~auricle/welcome-fmusfaq.html

An excellent searchable resource for finding out about almost any film you can think of is the Internet Movie Database, at:
http://uk.imdb.com/

Details of the music from films past and present (and interviews with composers) can be found at:
http://www.soundtrack.net/

The magazine Film Score Monthly has its own searchable site at:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/

Words and Music

Useful websites about songwriting include:

http://www.craftofsongwriting.com/ and

http://www.euronet.nl/users/menke/songs.html

Glossary

See also the following web-based glossaries: