Rough+draft+1

Coleman Wadsworth D-block SYP Progressive and Experimental Music Progressive is defined: favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are. Music, however is not as easily defined, Music can mean many different things yet everyone knows what it is. To me music is a combination of rhythm and sound, to someone else it could be an outlet for expression, or a form of art. So Progressive music by these definitions is the combination of rhythm and sound in a way that favors progress, change, or improvement. But progressive music while easily defined literally is a bit more difficult to pinpoint in actuality. What is it about the actual music that makes a song or a band progressive, and if progressive music is such an improvement, why is it left out of the mainstream. Progressive or experimental music has been around a long time, in fact it has existed ever since the creation of music. Whoever first decided to start organizing sound was experimenting with music whether they knew it or not and since then music has quite obviously progressed. That means that over the years people must have been experimenting and progressing musically, because even the oldest classical music must been experimental at some point. So to narrow my exploration I decided to focus on electronic music. Electronic music was created around 1874 when American Elisha Gray invented the musical telegraph, however, it was not until 1958 with the grand opening of Edgard Varese’s Poeme   Electronique  that it was taken seriously in the musical world. Poeme  Electronique  was a true musical experiment, Varese used a combination of recorded sounds, and purely electronic signals to compose it. Varese was not the first to experiment with this technique however his piece signified a turning point for electronic music. Previously electronic music was limited to universities and academia, but because of Poeme   Electronique  the world was revealed to the wonders of electronic music. Soon electronic music studios sprung up all around the world and a new era of experimentation began. Electronic music at the time was experimental itself, but due to the rate at which we create new technology, electronic music has been the primary source of experimentation ever since 1958. Electronic music technology is constantly being developed, and it has been since Poeme   Electronique , as a result electronic music since the 60’s was often experimental. Also electronic music puts the composer in a completely different situation. 1) no longer is music restricted to the instruments available, now the composer can create any conceivable and possible sound just by manipulating the waveform . 2) m usic is now much more easily crea ted in different tonal systems, due to limitless pitch possibilities. 3) electronic music is not limited by human performance. And 4) b ecause the sounds created in electronic music have no connection to the natural world, it is entirely up to the listener to interpret what is heard. All of these facts reveal how electronic music is a powerful tool for experimentation, and is truly progressive at the core.