Reddit reviews Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture

You might really enjoy reading (Electronic and Experimental Music by Thomas Holms)[https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Experimental-Music-Technology-Culture/dp/0415896363]. I found it at my college library when I was looking for anything to keep the high of my Moog factory tour going. I'm really glad I stumbled upon it, and am still debating adding it to my bookshelf at home.

It thoroughly documents the history of electronic music, which Holms roughly describes as the history of music that does not need a human to be performed. It starts off in the late 1800's I believe and continues until contemporary synthesis. There's a lot of discussion about early researchers, organized by country of origin, and recording outputs of function generators onto tape reels and splicing tape to compose. The second half is then about synthesizers and techniques that are more akin to what is used today, in the modular to keyboard style machines.

Really a phenomenal history book, and a pleasant read, with interesting diagrams and photos of the old equipment, and diagrams of concepts being discussed.

If you are at all interested in the actual beginnings of electronic music then this book is a must:


[Thom Holmes - Electronic and Experimental Music] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Experimental-Music-Technology-Culture/dp/0415896363/ref=pd_cp_b_0)

It goes right from the early rumblings of electronic music, in the italian futurists manifesto at the start of last century, through to glitch experiments etc. It is an academic text but it is very readable and has a lot of information on a variety of topics - tape editing, synthesis, MIDI and their origins. I think the newest edition also has a sampler CD of key works. As the title suggests it does have an emphasis on experimental electronic music but a lot of pioneering is done on the fringes.