Electronic

No development since 1950 has held more potential and had as far- reaching consequences for music than the use of electronically synthesized and processed sound. A direct descendent of the Musique Concrete movement of the '40's, Electronic music freed composers from all dependence on the performer, allowing them to exercise complete control over their compositions. Composers including Milton Babbitt and Karlheinz Stockhausen began to explore irrational rhythms and subtle gradations of pitch and timbre, which previously could only be approximated by a live performer. During the late-'50s and '60s, composers from around the world flocked to state of the art facilities such as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and Herbert Eimert's studio in Cologne, Germany. However, as Electronic music moves into its sixth decade, advances in personal computing technology have made these studios relatively obsolete, bringing powerful synthesizing and editing capabilities to the general public for the first time.