New Sounds in Music

Creator: Churchill Films

Complete Record: Presents new musical sounds and new ways of treating old sounds. Includes examples of chance music, tape music, synthsizer music, and other twentieth century innovations. This film presents fascinating new sounds and new ways of treating old sounds. Chance music, tape music, synthesizer music, and other twentieth century approaches to music are heard. In a mountain meadow we hear Christopher Tree play “spontaneous sound” on a hundred or more gongs and other percussion instruments. In a rehearsal hall experiments are done with chance music and group improvisation. Michael Tillson plays a prepared piano, and two high school boys experiment with electronic sounds. Some newly invented string and percussion instruments are demonstrated in a composition prepared for the film. Finally we go to the Mills College Tape Music Center for a presentation involving two Bukla synthesizers, an amphitheater, sounds from a bulldozer, television, radio, tape recorders, and (even) some musicians.