Drone

Introduction

Drone is a musical style that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, tones or sonic textures which develop gradually over long time periods, with a minimal, sporadic or non-present sense of rhythm. A single note or group of notes often form a harmonic centre from which the music does not deviate, often using tuning systems other than equal temperament, most prominently just intonation which is derived from the harmonic series of integer multiples. A concentration on vertical development of elements is also characteristic, immersing the listener in a time-warped or timeless cocoon.

As a contemporary music genre, often differentiated as 'dronology', there is overlap with minimalism, ambient music, psychedelic music and freenoise. Also there are many hybrid genres such as drone metal, doom drone, drone rock, drone pop, drone sludge, drone blues, autumnal drone, field-drone and so on. Last.fm is a good source of music from current artists.

Origins

:: Scottish bagpipe music

:: Hindustani classical music

:: Sufi music

:: Japanese gagaku

:: Organum music of Medieval Europe

:: Australian aboriginal didgeridoo music

In the last 50 years...

The Theatre of Eternal Music

La Monte Young is often accredited with re-establishing drone in western classical music. Influenced by Anton Webern, Japanese gagaku, Indonesian gamelan, and Indian classical music Young's drone compositions began a revival of the genre.

In the early sixties he formed the Theatre of Eternal Music with singer and visual artist Marian Zazeela, a drone performance group incuding at various stages John Cale (of the Velvet Underground), Tony Conrad, David Rosenboom, Terry Riley, John Hassel, and others.

Well Tuned Piano is exemplary of this period, a piece often lasting six hours.

Music on a Long Thin Wire

Alvin Lucier's 1977 piece Music on a Long Thin Wire is another landmark. In his own words (1992): "Music on a Long Thin Wire is constructed as follows: the wire is extended across a large room, clamped to tables at both ends. The ends of the wire are connected to the loudspeaker terminals of a power amplifier placed under one of the tables. A sine wave oscillator is connected to the amplifier. A magnet straddles the wire at one end. Wooden bridges are inserted under the wire at both ends to which contact microphones are imbedded, routed to the stereo sound system. The microphones pick up the vibrations that the wire imparts to the bridges and are sent through the playback system. By varying the frequency and loudness of the oscillator, a rich variety of slides, frequency shifts, audible beats and other sonic phenomena may be produced."

Resurgence...

In the last decade drone music has been becoming increasingly prominent, through independent labels such as Kranky and Drunken Fish Records among many others, and artists like Stars of the Lid, Jesu, Sun O))), Ian Nagoski, Minit and Birchville Cat Motel just to name a few.

Contemporary Composers/Artists/Units

La Monte Young

Alvin Lucier

William Basinski

Ian Nagoski

Birchville Cat Motel

Minit

Kranky (label)

Drunken Fish(label)

Techniques and Approaches

• Wikipedia article