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Hugh Le Caine

Compostions Demonstrations 1946-1974

Hugh Le Caine, early electronic music pioneer, demonstrates his Electronic Sackbut in 1948 by playing the opening clarinet solo from Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'. And there's more. Working at his Toronto laboratory, supported by the Canadian National Research Council, he went on to engineer and prototype the touch sensitive organ, variable speed recorder, multi-track recorder, and numerous other magnificent electronic instruments. And he demonstrated his inventions by composing his own music and by arranging well known tunes, demonstrating at the same time that he was a talented musician and that he had a great sense of humor. This CD, produced by Gayle Young, Le Caine's biographer, is a comprehensive compilation of his music, much of it not available before. The CD also includes many of Le Caine's spoken explanations of his demonstrations which make the CD come alive with human interest.

Le Caine's compositions on this CD include 'Dripsody: An Etude for Variable Speed Recorder' (1955), 'Ninety-Nine Generators' (1956), 'Invocation' (1957), 'Study No. 1 for Player Piano and Tape' (1957), 'The Burning Deck' (1958), 'A Noisome Pestilence' (1958), 'Textures' (1959), 'Nocturne' (1962), 'Bird Spectrogram' (1963), 'Music for Expo' (1967), 'Safari: Eine Kleine Klangfarbenmelodie' (1964), 'Mobile: The Computer Laughed (Perpetual Motion)' (1970), and 'Paulution (Charnel Number Five) (1972).

Thanks to Gayle Young, these 'humorous sketches' are now available: 'This Thing Called Key' (1956), 'Arcane Presents Lulu' (1956), 'The Burning Deck' (1958), and 'Sounds to Forget' (excerpt, 1963).

The demonstrations include:
    Demonstrations of the Electronic Sackbut, some by Le Caine, some by other musicians, include: 'Bill Farrow Plays the Sackbut' (1946), 'Mal Clark Plays the Sackbut', and the 1948 Sackbut Demonstration Tapes, including 'Rhapsody in Blue', 'Sugar Blues', 'Sackbut String Quartet', 'The Sackbut Blues'. More, reflecting further development of the Sackbut: 'Coded Music Apparatus: Patterns on the Pitch Graph' (1955), 'Improved Timbre Controls' (1956), and 'Artificial Larynx, driven by Sackbut' (1957).

    Demonstrations of the Touch Sensitive Organ include 'Xmas Music: Organ Control for Automatic Light Display' (1954), 'Touch Sensitive Organ Demonstration Tapes' (1955), 'Mouth Cavity Oscillator with MKI Touch Sensitive Organ' (1955), 'Artificial Larynx' (1956), 'Organ Experiment with Pitch Control' (1956).

    Demonstrations of The Multi-track include 'Dripsody Demonstration' (1958) and 'Dripsody: An Etude for Variable Speed Recorder, Stereo version' (1957).
In its commemoration of a remarkable personality and in the historical importance of its content, this is an essential CD. In the extent to which it is also enjoyable, it is a stunning accomplishment.

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