ABSTRACT
The postwar history of American music begins in earnest with the introduction of an iron oxide-coated magnetic tape in 1947. There was probably no time in history when it was as exciting to be a composer, performer, or auditor of new music as during the last thirty years in the United States! The dynamism, variety, and scope of new music in this country have been without parallel. These synthesizers broadened the base of electronic music, turning it from an aristocratic amusement for a few elite among composers who had access to expensive, bulky, and difficult-to manage equipment, to a vital part of the experience of nearly every American composer under thirty. Now we turn to the second primary, and parallel, development that gave composers the stimulus of vital new materials and made the music of our time an exciting adventure for all concerned: the discovery and common use of new instrumental, vocal, ensemble, and notational techniques.
