This page is also available in German, French and Spanish


The
International Documentation of Electroacoustic Music 
contains:

The current Databases is now accessable via FileMaker Instant Web Publishing entitled "Werkliste".
You have now access to this "original" datas over the internet. This allows a much more precise and comfortable work, a better search and a very good sortfunction; and the database is more or less "up to date"!

This Database has also been published by Pfau-Verlag Saarbrücken 1996 ( ISBN 3-930735-59-8).

For more detailed Information visit the German Version.


The Database "Studios"

Contains the address's of 490 Studios as well as information about their respective equipment and facilities (hardware and software, teachers, personnel, etc.). Defunct or "historical" studios also are included. Some studios lack detailed entries about studio facilities or works produced. This may be explained either by a studio's purely pedagogical role, by its very recent establishment or simply because of a lack of response from the studio in question.

Studio names appear in their official (long) forms as well as in any abbreviated forms under which the studio may be known, or which have been adopted in our work list for economy of space. The number entered under "works" indicates the number of works realized at this studio in the file "Werkliste". Countries' postal abbreviations have been used for country sorting. (With regard to Germany, the "historical" studios of the GDR are classified separately from those of the Federal Republic of Germany; the same also applies to a few other east European countries).

The 17 fields in the studio data bank are as follows (example taken from the Studio GRM Paris):
1. complete studio name Groupe de Recherches Musicales de l'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel
2. abbreviated studio name (for work list) INA ° GRM
3. type of studio (private, group, university) public institution
4. contact person, studio director, co-workers Daniel Teruggi, Bernard Bruges-Renard
5. address: street / Post Office Box 116, avenue du President Kennedy, Pièce 3521
6. country (Code-Abbr.) F
7. postal code 75786
8. city Paris
9. phone (country, area, number) ( +33 ) 1 / 42 30 29 88
10. fax (country, area, number) (+33 ) 1 / 42 30 49 88
11. Email grm@ina.fr
12. URL / WWW http://www.ina.fr/INA/GRM/
13. number of works in studio work list 828
14. year of studio founding 1948
15. year of studio closing -
16. equipment, facilities, personnel, research Research on musical creation tools, Research on musical science, Courses, Workshop in Computer Aided Music, Diffusion of the more than 2000 items since 1948; 
The 4 Studios. Several Publications and large Discography (INA C ; some in co-operation with ERATO, WERGO)
17. comments Brief History: 
1948 : musique concrete, concerts de bruits, "Club d'essai". 
1950 : first public concert, Salle de Ecole Normale de Musique 
1951 : Prototyp "Phonogène"; Schaeffer: Symphonie Ö 
1952 : 3 tape-recorders 
1953 : broadcast premiere. Opera-concert "Orphée 53" in Donaueschingen 
1954: 'Deserts' by Varèse; first piece with orchestra and tape (sons organisés) 
1955 : Schaeffer´s SymphonieÖ a Ballett with Maurice Béjart. 
1958 : Founding of the GRM de la Radiodiffusion Française


The Database "Werkliste"

Contains data on about 23700 electroacoustic works composed by about 4000 Composers and produced or conceived at the above studios.

Works considered belong to the "serious music" category of "electroacoustic music" (as normally classified by performing rights organisations and radio establishments). The "serious music" categorisation of works is not easily verified and would be especially difficult to check for individual works. It may be true that (a small) part of the works appearing in our documentation do not meet the "serious music" criteria; the selection of works is left to the studios themselves and is neither verified nor altered by the editors. "Electroacoustic music" generally deals with "music for, or with, loudspeakers. Only in the area of computer music where 'note' rather than 'sound' generation may be employed, is this not necessarily the case and such cases would be noted as "score" in the entry for "type", (see for example certain computer-generated scores by Xenakis).

The term "electroacoustic music" and/or computer music, electronic and concrete music (see field "function"), spans music for tape or other recording mediums ["C"], music for tape and instruments ["C+"] and live electronics ["C*"], and may be produced for media including Film ["F"], Television ["TV" and "AV"], Theatre ["Th" and "MTh"], Radio ["R"] while also incorporating Sound-art ["SA"] and Performance work ["P"].

We have also included interpretative electroacoustic music with, for example, certain live electronic works by Stockhausen appearing in the list under both "Strobel Freiburg" and Akademie Basel" because they were rehearsed in both places. In the case of live electronic work, a lack of studio identification or multiple credits is not unusual.

The 13 fields in the 'work-list' data bank are:

Field 
example 1 
example 2
1. serial number in database 7037 12069
2. first name 
(multiple entries possible)
Pierre 
Pierre
Luigi
3. surname 
(multiple entries possible)
Schaeffer 
Henry
Nono
4. title Symphonie pour un homme seul Prometeo, tragedia dell 'ascolto
5. year 50/66 84-85
6. type / function 
(see "Abbreviations")
C C+*
7. duration (minutes : seconds) 21:23 133:00
8. tracks (multiple entries possible) 2 8
9. instrument / performer 
(see "Abbreviations" and (statistical Info)
- 2 S, 2 A, T, 2 sp, ch, b-fl, db-cl, trbn, 10 sol, ens
10. comments (including publisher) rev 12 parts comm Biennale Venezia, Th alla Scala Milan; Massimo Cacciari (text); 2 versions
11. LP, CD label (multiple entries possible) INA C 1007; PHI 6521021;  
DTL 93090; DUC 3
EMI 7243 5 55209 2
12. Country F D, I
13. studio (multiple entries possible) INA ° GRM Strobel Freiburg, CSC Padova, LIMB Venezia

A list of the abbreviations used (especially important for entries in the "type" and "instrumentation" fields) is available in the html-file "Abbreviations". These abbreviations are derived from English terms and/or the "Electronic Music Catalogue" by Hugh Davies.

The Filemakerdatabase has additional fields (like "notes", date of change and record, Assistant / realization of the work, birthyear, etc.) and will have some more fields in the future, including direct access to the music!


HTML-File Label-Listing (new!)

In this HTML-File all CD's and LP's found in the field "Label" in the database "Werkliste", are listed in table form. The left frame lists all record labels (in an abbreviated form), while the right frame shows the names of those composers who feature on this particular record label). By clicking on one of the 'short cuts' in the left frame then, you can display the full label name and its associated composers in the main frame. You may also use the "find" command in your browser for searching names and labels. Full names of the label short-cuts may also be found in the file "Abbreviations".

All CD's listed in the new Catalogue edited by Anette Vande Gorne & GRM are included in this list as well as all recordings currently known to us on other media (Vinyl,Cassette, CD-ROM etc.).


Documentation History

The present database has been developed tenaciously over the past several years, always dependent on available funds and personnel. Documentation began as a research project at the Elektronische Studio of the Technical University Berlin in 1988, the year in which Berlin was named the Cultural Capital of Europe (hence the original limitation to documenting only European electroacoustic music). Research funding was provided at that time within the framework of a related project called "Werkstatt Berlin 1988". A second step was taken in conjunction with the INVENTIONEN '90 festival, instigating an initial public presentation at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Glasgow. The most extensive assistance was granted by INVENTIONEN '92, allowing us to print the first documentation in book-form. A subsequent publication is now available at Pfauverlag under ISBN 3-930735-59-8 with the support of the GEMA-Foundation and the Siemens Arts Programm .

These four stages of financial support have been accompanied by parallel stages in communication and organisation: The first stage was more or less directed toward expanding the commendable documentation already undertaken by Hugh Davies in 1967.

Repertoire International des Musiques Electroacoustiques
International Electronic Music Catalog
Electronic Music Review Nos. 2/3, April/July 1967
compiled by Hugh Davies
a cooperative publication of
Le Groupe de Recherches Musicales de l'ORTF and
The Independent Electronic Music Center Inc (Trumansburg, New York 14886, USA
distributed by The MIT Press
Library of Congress catalog card number: 68-20151

1.1.2005 Hugh Davies died in London! Obituary by David Toop (The Guardian, 2.28.2005).

This phase of work eventually gave rise to a database oriented compilation. This form of documentation is by nature constantly in flux, with the never-ending addition of new information and works. The first data base version was created on HyperCard; all subsequent versions were realised with FileMakerPro. Most recently, we have integrated information taken with kind permission from:

The "International Documentation of Electroacoustic Music" is directed foremost to music researchers concerned with the "serious music" category of contemporary music, as well as to composers in this musical genre, and to co-workers in numerous studios world-wide. Through these individuals and interest groups, it is hoped that an ever-widening contact will be made with music producers and organisers, with editors of publishing houses, radio establishments, newspapers, etc., with libraries and training centres, and with all other interested parties the world over.

Our documentation is intended as a reference book which notes, from a present viewpoint, the current state of information in this case fixed in the end of the year 1998. It is hoped that with the help of our publications and through user and reader response, this information will improve, expand and become ever more complete. The documentation is by nature a "work in progress", with new works and studios constantly being added and with a constant need for updating and correction.

You may send information by email to: hein at kgw.tu-berlin.de

or better: ask for the proper login to change data and add items to the database direct by yourselve!

The database is also available on a CD-ROM edited by the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik (degEM) 2000 at Schottverlag Mainz, Newsletter "NZ"

Berlin, March, 2006, Folkmar Hein

(Original translation by Robin Minard with subsequent ammendments by David Prior & Folkmar Hein)