User:Techn0logist/Electronic music in the 1920s and 1930s

Notes to self:
 * Is it wise to neglect the Hammond, Novachord, electric guitar, electric pianos, and so on?
 * I believe some work is needed to find sources that give a good overview of electronic music compositions in the 1920s-1930s. The sources I have now don't really sum things up.

Origins: late 19th century to early 20th century
See first two paragraphs of article

Early compositions for electronic instruments
Developments of the vacuum tube led to electronic instruments that were compact, amplified and cost-efficient.[cn] In particular, the non-contact playing style of the theremin made it a popular novelty.[cn] It was commercially produced in small numbers, followed by the ondes Martenot[cn] and the trautonium.

The increased practicality and availability of electronic instruments influenced composers to begin using them from the late 1920s onwards.[cn] They were typically included alongside other orchestral instruments,[cn] and most composers wrote parts for the theremin that could be played on a cello or violin. The difficult playing technique of the theremin made it unpopular with composers,[cn] and it had wider use in renditions of classical and popular music.[cn]

Avant-garde composers criticized the use of electronic instruments for conventional music. The instruments offered expansions in pitch resources that were only exploited by a small amount of composers at first.[cn] Among these were advocates of microtonal music such as Charles Ives,[cn] Dimitrios Levidis, Olivier Messiaen and Edgard Varese. Further, Percy Grainger used the theremin to abandon fixed tonation entirely, while Russian composers such as Gavriil Popov treated it as a source of noise in otherwise-acoustic noise music.

Electronic instruments also began appearing in film scores from the 1930s[cn] to accompany tense or otherworldly scenes.[cn]

Experiments with recording technology
Developments in early recording technology paralleled that of electronic instruments. The first means of recording and reproducing audio was invented in the late 19th century with the mechanical phonograph. Record players became a common household item, and by the 1920s composers were using them to play short recordings in performances.

The introduction of electronic recording in 1925 was followed by increased experimentation with record players.[cn-exists] [Need predictions/visions of phonograph for composing electronic music] Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch composed several pieces in 1930 by layering recordings of instruments and vocals at adjusted speeds. Influenced by these techniques, John Cage composed "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" in 1939 by adjusting the speeds of recorded tones.

Concurrently, composers began to experiment with newly-developed sound-on-film technology. Recordings could be spliced together to create sound collages, such as those by Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov. Further, the technology allowed sound to be graphically created and modified. These techniques were used to compose soundtracks for several films in Germany and Russia, in addition to the popular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the United States. Experiments followed by Norman McLaren.[This is poor. Need a lot of clarification on how these techniques were used]