The advent of magnetic tape recording enabled composers to create works of music that, rather than rely on successive recreations in live performance, exist in the material world, in the way that a painting or sculpture does. A pioneering group in Paris called this type of composition musique concrète, but American composers were exploring the possibilities as well, in spite of not having coined a fancy term for the results. Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky, who first worked together in the music department at Columbia University, would later join forces with Milton Babbitt and others to found the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959. Today, electronic composition remains an important area of exploration for many contemporary composers. Although the ability to generate a "concrete" composition is still one advantage of working in the electronic medium, the more interesting aspect of electronic composition is that, by working with synthesizers (and now inexpensive computer software), composers can create a literally infinite range of timbres, vastly expanding the sonic palette with which they work.
Rhapsodic Variations is generally cited as the first work ever composed for traditional orchestra and electronic tape. The orchestra presents a simple theme in the opening measures, and the tape (nowadays usually transferred to compact disc), using the sound of a timpani roll, follows with its version of the theme. During the course of the piece, the theme undergoes some fifteen variations, with the orchestra and tape sometimes performing alone but usually working in conjunction. The relationship of the melodic material to the original theme becomes less clear as the piece progresses, and by the end of the work, only diffuse wisps of melody remain. Similarly, the tape, while sometimes having material that is clearly derived from the orchestra's original melody, other times has sounds that seem to belong to a different world. Finally, the orchestra and the tape begin their relationship in a straightforward way, with the two "voices" being heard essentially one at a time; are later characterized by taut coordination, requiring precise rhythmic synchronization; and eventually reach a sort of disengaged co-existence, occupying the same sonic space at the same time but otherwise existing in separate worlds.
Through these processes, the piece undergoes a progression from fairly "traditional" writing to music that unmistakably points to the second half of the twentieth century. The composers knew that they were establishing new paths, and the first part of Rhapsodic Variations establishes its own context through acknowledging its roots. Advances in computer technology over the past half-century have enabled the creation of electronic music that is vastly more sophisticated than this early example. At the same time, this piece will always fascinate us by its self-conscious position on the cutting edge and its equivocal dual occupation of the past and the future.
Vladimir Ussachevsky received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College in 1935.