ABSTRACT
Electronic music activity in the United States during the early 1950s was neither organized nor institutional. This chapter traces the works of early experimenters with tape music in North America including Louis and Bebe Brron and John Cage. It also traces the early histories of several other North American studios. New York City in the early 1950s was the base of operations for America’s experimental art culture—avant-garde music, film, painting, dance, and writing all thrived in the growing bohemian atmosphere of Greenwich Village. By 1954, the Barrons had established themselves as important providers of electronic music and sound effects for film. The music and sound effects were so stunning that, the audience broke out in spontaneous applause after the energizing sounds of the spaceship landing on the planet Altair IV. By 1954 the Project of Music for Magnetic Tape had run its course, largely because the participants became disenchanted with the restrictions of formal tape composition.
