In 1913, Luigi Russolo invented various electronic instruments including "cracklers", "scapers" and "exploders". In 1930, F A Trautwein invented the "Trautonium" which produced notes by electrical contacts between a wire and a metal rail.
The Theremin, the Ondes and the Trautonium were all instruments that a performer could play at a concert.
Experiments were first conducted at Bonn University in 1949-50, followed by a public performance at Darmstadt in 1951. In 1951, the first electronic music studio was founded by Cologne Radio and Herbert Eimert. Other studios soon followed at Milan, Tokyo, London, Warsaw, Brussels and Munich. The equipment used during the 1950s were very primitive to todays standards and a composition lasting only a few minutes could take weeks to record and assemble on final tape. The equipment would usually include such items as Sine-Tone, white noise and square wave generators along with different filters such as low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and band-stop. Ring modulators, variable speed tape recorders and dynamic suppressors were also commonly used.
Electronic compositions from the 1950s that have been considered outstanding include Eimert's "F?nf St?cke", Stockhausen's "Gesang der J?nglinge", Krenek's "Spiritus Intelligentiae Sanctus", Berio's "Mutazioni" and Maderna's "Notturno". John Cage's first 3 "Imaginary Landscapes" in 1939-42 involved the use of records played at different speeds, audio oscillators and an amplified wire coil.
