TRANSCENDENT MACHINE: AN ANALYSIS OF ÉLIANE RADIGUE’S ARP 2500 SYNTHESIZER MUSIC

Abstract

From 1971 to 2000, the French composer Éliane Radigue (b. 1932) recorded a singular body of work using the ARP 2500 analog modular synthesizer, an exceedingly rare electronic musical instrument. Drawing on interviews, archival research, spectral analysis, and my own expertise with modular synthesis, this dissertation offers an account of Radigue’s method of composing and recording the music she made with her ARP 2500. I argue that while Radigue worked mostly alone on these compositions, the working relationship she had with her ARP 2500 takes the form of an essentially collaborative, intersubjective process. Along the way, I locate Radigue’s aesthetic thought in a broader context of French and American (post)modernism. I also provide an in-depth discussion of what is perhaps Radigue’s best known electronic work, Kyema (1988), a composition for ARP 2500 synthesizer and traditional Tibetan wind instruments, which comprises the first movement of Trilogie de la Mort (1988-1993).