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Acousmatic music

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Acousmatic music is a form of electroacoustic music that deals specifically with acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The practice has a historical basis in musique concrete. It can be created using non-acoustic technology, exists only in a recorded format (as a fixed medium), and is composed for reception via loudspeakers. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sonorities derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as 'musical' (melody, harmony, rhythm, metre and so on), but rather admits any sound, acoustic or synthetic. With the aid of various technologies, such as digital signal processing tools and digital audio workstations, this material can then be combined, juxtaposed, and transformed, in any conceivable manner. In this context the compositional method can be seen as a process of sound organisation: a term first used by the French composer Edgard Varèse[1]

Origins

The term acousmatic dates back to Pythagoras; the philosopher is believed to have tutored his students from behind a screen so as not to let his presence distract them from the content of his lectures. The term acousmatique was first used by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer. It is said to be derived from akousmatikoi, the outer circle of Pythagoras' disciples who only heard their teacher speaking from behind a veil. In a similar way, one hears acousmatic music from behind the 'veil' of loudspeakers, without seeing the source of the sound.[2]

Developments

Within academia the term acousmatic music, or acousmatic art,[3][4] has gained common usage, particularly when referring to contemporary musique concrete; however, there is some dispute as to whether acousmatic practice relates to a style of composition or a way of listening to sound.[5] Scruton defines the experience of sound as inherently acousmatic, as Lydia Goehr (1999) paraphrases, "the sound world is not a space into which we can enter; it is a world we treat at a distance". [6]

Style

Acousmatic music may contain sounds that have recognizably musical sources, but may equally present recognizable sources that are beyond the bounds of traditional vocal and instrumental technology. We are as likely to hear the sounds of a bird, or of a factory as we are the sounds of a violin. The technology involved transcends the mere reproduction of sounds. Techniques of synthesis and sound processing are employed which may present us with sounds that are unfamiliar and that may defy clear source attribution. Acousmatic compositions may present us with familiar musical events: chords, melodies and rhythms which are easily reconcilable with other forms of music, but may equally present us with events which cannot be classified within such a traditional taxonomy.[7]

Performance practice

Acousmatic compositions are sometimes presented to audiences in concert settings that are often indistinguishable from acoustic recitals, albeit without performers. In an acousmatic concert the sound component is produced using pre-recorded media, or generated in real-time using a computer. The sound material will then be distributed spatially, via multiple loudspeakers, using a practice know as diffusion. The work is often diffused by the composer (if present) but the role of interpreter can also be assumed by another practitioner of the art. To provide a guideline for spatialisation of the work by an interpreter, many composers provide a diffusion score; in its simplest form this might be a graphic representation of the acousmatic work with indications for spatial manipulations, relative to a time-line. [8]

References

  1. ^ Ouellette, F.(1973),"Edgard Varèse",Calder and Boyars, London. ISBN 074502081.
  2. ^ Schaeffer, P. (1966) "Traité des objets musicaux", Le Seuil, Paris.
  3. ^ Dufour, D. (1989), "Peu importe le son", Le Son des musiques, Symposium Ina-GRM and France Culture, publishing Ina-GRM/Buchet-Chastel, Paris
  4. ^ Dhomont, F. (1996),"Is there a Quebec sound", Organised Sound, 1(1), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  5. ^ Mc Farlane, M.W. (2001)."The Development of Acousmatics in Montréal",eContact!, 6.2,Journal of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, Montreal.
  6. ^ Bauer, A (2004). "'Tone-Color, Movement, Changing Harmonic Planes': Cognition, Constraints, and Conceptual Blends in Modernist Music", The Pleasure of Modernist Music. ISBN 1580461433
  7. ^ Windsor, W.L. (1995). "A Perceptual Approach to the Description and Analysis of Acousmatic Music", Ph. D Thesis, City University Department of Music, September 1995, Sheffield.
  8. ^ Emmerson S. (2007) "Living Electronic Music", Ashgate Publishing Limited,Aldershot.

Further reading

  • Austin L. & Smalley D. (2000), "Sound Diffusion in Composition and Performance:An Interview with Denis Smalley", Computer Music Journal, 24:2, pp. 10–21, Summer 2000, MIT.
  • Chion, M. (1983),"Guide des objets sonores, Pierre Schaeffer et la recherche musicale", Ina-GRM/Buchet-Chastel, Paris.
  • Destantos, S. (1997), "Acousmatic Morphology: An Interview with Francois Bayle", Computer Music Journal: Vol. 21, no.3. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 11-19.
  • Smalley, D. (2007), "Space-form and the acousmatic image", Organised Sound: Vol. 12, No. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 35-58.
  • Smalley, D. (1997), "Spectromorphology: Explaining Sound-Shapes". Organised Sound 2(2): 107–26,Cambridge University Press.
  • Truax, B. (1999),"Composition and diffusion: space in sound in space", Organised Sound 3(2): 141–6, Cambridge University Press.

External links

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