The electronic music of Roberto Gerhard

Roberto Gerhard was a pioneer of electronic music in England creating over twenty substantial concert, theatre and radio works from as early as 1954. However, for various political, cultural and personal reasons Gerhard’s electronic music has not been published or widely disseminated. Gerhard’s electronic music is one of the richest repositories for understanding the development of the composer’s late compositional technique as well as the early development of electronic music in the UK. As a result of an AHRC study of the tapes held in the Gerhard Archive at the
Cambridge University Library it is possible to understand the composer’s technique and thoughts on electronic music and how they evolved as his work with magnetic tape became more and more refined.