This book covers the history of electronic music. Beginning with the theory of sound production, it proceeds through the composers, engineers and performers from musical precedents and early experiences to new recent ambient music composers and turntablists. The author explains i the important theories pertaining to analogue and digital techniques. An important discography and a list of selected resource centres complete the book.

Table of contents:

• Introduction: new technology, new music, new listening
• What is electronic music?
• Electronic music resources
• Musical precedents to electronic music: origins of the avant-garde
• Electronic pioneers: Cahill, Theremin, Martenot, Trautwein, and Hammond
• Musique concrète and the ancient art of tape composition
• Three pioneers: John Cage, Edgard Varèse, and Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Renaissance of the inventing: the 1950s
• Robert Moog, Wendy Carlos, and the birth of the commercial synthesizer
• Once and future innovators: Robert Ashley and Gordon Mumma
• Music from mainframes: the origins of computer music
• Inside electronic music
• Electronic music in the mainstream: a loss of history
• Appendix:
  • Recommended recording of electronic music
  • Electronic music resources
  • Select bibliography