1902 Thaddeaus Cahill sets up the Telharmonium or Dynamaphone, a 200-ton array of Edison dynamos that produced different pitched hums according to the speed of the dynamos. The electrical output was "broadcast" over telephone lines.
1906 Lee DeForest invents the Triode Vacuum Tube which led to amplification of electrical signals.
1907 Ferruccio Busoni publishes Sketch of a New Esthetic in Music discussing the use of electrical and other new sound sources in future music. He was to have a profound effect on his pupil, Edgard Varese.
19teens Italian futurists investigate, classify, and produce noise instruments. Most notable was Luigi Russolo.
1920's Varese writes Ionisation and George Antheil writes Ballet Mecanique: Both use percussion and noise instruments and deal with the "liberation of sound" and a new view of "spatial-temporal" relationships.
Electronic instruments invented during this period include the:
1948 RTF Studio, Paris: RTF (Radiodiffusion-television Francaise) broadcasts Pierre Schaeffer's Etude aux Chemin de Fer on Oct. 5th. This marks the beginning of studio realizations and musique concrete.
RTF primarily concerned with manipulation of acoustic sound sources (Musique Concrete). NWDR studio equipped with electronic sound generators and modifiers (Electronische Musik)
1950s Private studios in NYC: for example, the Barrons (Cage, Williams Mix (1952))
1952 Columbia University: Luening & Ussachevsky begin experimenting with tape music (musique concrete)
NRU Studio, Netherlands
1955 RAI Studio, Milan: Milan Studio established -- Berio. Both concrete & electronic; influenced by Cologne studio
NHK Studio, Tokyo: Mayuzumi founds studio in Tokyo.
1957 Experimental Music Studio of the U. of Illinois: Computer generated music. Hiller & Isaccson (Illiac Quartet (1956), Computer Cantata 1963))
Studio for electronic music, Munich: Riedl
Polish Radio, Warsaw: Penderecki, Mazurek
Studios in Rome and Isreal
1958 Columbia-Princeton Studio established in New York. Incorporated the RCA Mark II synthesizer, the first major voltage-controlled synthesizer.
Studio for electronic music, Brussels
Philips Studio, Netherlands
Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music, Ann Arbor
1959 Toronto Studio, University of Toronto
1960's Development of large mainframe computer synthesis. Max Mathews of Bell Labs perfects MUSIC V, a direct digital synthesis language. Beginning of computer generated sound; DAC.
Development of smaller voltage-controlled synthesizers by Robert Moog and others make instruments available to most composers and universities. Beginning of live electronic performance.
Studios established at Yale, MIT, Berkley (CA), San Diego, etc.
1966 NYU Studio: Morton Subotnick (with Buchla Synthesizer) Silver Apples of the Moon (1966-67)
1970's Development of real-time digital synthesis. Jon Appleton et al. invents the Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer, later to become the Synclavier. IRCAM (Paris) becomes a major center for computer music research and realization.
1976 IRCAM, Paris: Boulez, etc.
1980's MIDI instruments and software make powerful control of sophisticated instruments easily affordable by many studios and individuals. Acoustic sounds are reintegrated into studios via sampling and sampled-ROM-based instruments.