DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction to Sound

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction to Sound INTRODUCTION TO SOUND Course Reader | Autumn 2013 | Seth Kim-Cohen It's as if perfectly capable curators in the visual arts suddenly lose their equilibrium at the mention of the word sound. These same people who would all ridicule a new art form called, say, 'Steel Art' which was composed of steel sculpture combined with steel guitar music along with anything else with steel in it, somehow have no trouble at all swallowing 'Sound Art'. In art, the medium is not often the message. If there is a valid reason for classifying and naming things in culture, certainly it is for the refinement of distinctions. Aesthetic experience lies in the area of fine distinctions, not the destruction of distinctions for promotion of activities with their least common denominator, in this case sound. Much of what has been called 'Sound Art' has not much to do with either sound or art. - - Max Neuhaus, “Sound Art?” (2000) Table of Contents First Reading What is sound? A Primer (2003) Second Reading Alan Licht, “What Is Sound Art?” (2005) “When Does Sound Become Art?” Art Review Magazine (2005) Third Reading Michael Nyman, “Seeing, hearing: Fluxus” (1974) Fourth Reading Alvin Lucier, selected texts and scores (1965 - 1994) Fifth Reading Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noises (1913) Sixth Reading John Cage, excerpts from Silence (1961) Seventh Reading Michael Nyman, “Towards A Definition Of Experimental Music” (1974) Steve Reich, “Music As A Gradual Process” (1968) Eighth Reading Jonathan Sterne, “Hello?” from The Audible Past (2003) Bonus Resource Craig Dworkin, Unheard Music (2009) First Reading What is sound? A Primer (2003) WHAT IS SOUND? (WHAT IS SILENCE? WHAT IS NOISE?) Adapted primarily from Prof. Jeffrey Hass Center for Electronic and Computer Music, School of Music Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana For the full, more technical version, go to: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/acoustics/acoustics.htm We live at the bottom of a sea of air. As with the ocean, the farther down one goes, the greater the density of molecules and the greater the pressure it exerts on us. Sound is produced by a rapid variation in the average density or pressure of air molecules above and below the current atmospheric pressure. We perceive sound as these pressure fluctuations cause our eardrums to vibrate. When discussing sound, these usually minute changes in atmospheric pressure are referred to as sound pressure and the fluctuations in pressure as sound waves. Sound waves are produced by a vibrating body, be it an oboe reed, guitar string, loudspeaker cone or jet engine. The vibrating sound source causes a disturbance to the surrounding air molecules, causing them to bounce off each other with a force proportional to the disturbance. The energy of their interaction creates ripples of more dense (higher pressure) to less dense (lower pressure) air molecules, with pressures above and below the normal atmospheric pressure. When the molecules are pushed closer together it is called compression; when they are pulled apart, it is called rarefaction. The back and forth oscillation of pressure produces a sound waves. Amazing factoid #1: The threshold of human hearing, or the softest perceptible sound, corresponds to a pressure variation of less than a billionth of the current atmospheric pressure (though the threshold of hearing varies according to frequency, as you will see below). Sound waves in air are longitudinal waves, in that the pulsating motion of the air is in the direction the sound wave travels. Physicists classically demonstrate this with the “Slinky” model, in which a quick push on one end of a slinky will cause a longitudinal wave to travel down its length. A sound wave is also a form of a traveling wave, in that the air molecules disturbed by the sound source are unlikely to be the ones hitting your eardrum, but transfer their energy to other neighboring molecules. A sound wave, which is not impeded by another object, propagates (or spreads) out from the source as a sphere. How fast does sound travel? The speed at which sound propagates (or travels from its source) is directly influenced by both the medium through which it travels and the factors affecting the medium, such as altitude, humidity and temperature for gases like air. Bad news for Star Wars fans—there is no sound in the vacuum of space because there are too few molecules to propagate a wave. It is important to note that sound speed in air is determined by the air itself. It is not dependent upon the sound’s amplitude, frequency or wavelength. For comparison, the speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 meters per second or 186,000 miles per second (669,600,000 mph), which is roughly 870,000 times faster than the speed of sound. The difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound is why you see lightening before you hear it (unless you are struck by it, in which case it may be simultaneous!) What are the characteristics of sound waves? Sound waves can be characterized by three basic qualities, though many more are related: Frequency, Amplitude, and Wave Shape Some sound waves are periodic, in that the change from equilibrium (average atmospheric pressure) to maximum compression to maximum rarefaction back to equilibrium is repetitive. The 'round trip' back to the starting point just described is called a cycle. Periodic motion is classically demonstrated by observing the motion of a pendulum. The amount of time a single cycle takes is called a period. Simple harmonic motion, the motion described by the pendulum example above, is represented in sound as a sine wave, which traces the mathematical shape of it namesake. A sinusoidal wave (which also includes a cosine wave) is the only wave shape that produces a single frequency, as we will see in the waveform chapter. With any minute deviations in the sine shape, additional frequencies will be generated. Noise is characterized as being aperiodic or having a non-repetitive pattern. There are many different types of noise, depending primarily on the random distribution of frequencies. For example, some types of noise may sound brighter than others. Some periodic waveforms can be complex enough to be perceived as noise if our ears cannot detect perceptible pitches. Many real-world sounds, such as the "chiffy" attack of a flute note contain some combination of periodic and aperiodic components. What is frequency? The number of cycles per unit of time is called the frequency. For convenience, frequency is most often measured in cycles per second (cps) or the interchangeable Hertz (Hz) (60 cps = 60 Hz), named after the 19th C. physicist. 1000 Hz is often referred to as 1 kHz (kilohertz) or simply '1k' in studio parlance. The range of human hearing in the young is approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz—the higher number tends to decrease with age (as do many other things). It may be quite normal for a 60-year-old to hear a maximum of 16,000 Hz. Amazing factoid #2: For comparison, it is believed that many whales and dolphins can create and perceive sounds in the 175 kHz range. Bats use slightly lower frequencies for their echo-location system. The perceived pitch of a sound is our ear/mind's subjective interpretation of its frequency. A frequency lowered by 400 Hz will not be perceived by us as a change equivalent to a pitch to raised by 400 Hz. Therefore, frequency and pitch should not be considered interchangeable terms. One particularly interesting frequency phenomenon is the Doppler effect or Doppler shift. You've no doubt seen movies where a police siren or train whistle seems to drop in pitch as it passes the listener. In actuality, the wavelength of sound waves from a moving source are compressed ahead of the source and expanded behind the source, creating a sensation of a higher and then lower frequency than is actually being produced by the source. What is amplitude? Amplitude is the objective measurement of the degree of change (positive or negative) in atmospheric pressure (the compression and rarefaction of air molecules) caused by sound waves. Sounds with greater amplitude will produce greater changes in atmospheric pressure from high pressure to low pressure. Amplitude is almost always a comparative measurement, since at the lowest-amplitude end (silence), some air molecules are always in motion and at the highest end, the amount of compression and rarefaction though finite, is extreme. In electronic circuits, amplitude may be increased by expanding the degree of change in an oscillating electrical current. A woodwind player may increase the amplitude of their sound by providing greater force in the air column i.e. blowing harder. Discussions of amplitude depend largely on measurements of the oscillations in barometric pressure from one extreme (or peak) to the other. The degree of change above or below and imaginary center value is referred to as the peak amplitude or peak deviation of that waveform. When using audio gear or software, it is important to know whether your meter is a peak-reading meter or averaging meter (or neither). While there are many good reasons to keep an eye on a signal’s peak, the average is far more akin to the way we hear. Once you have an understanding of dB’s described below, the markings on the meters should make more sense. Decibels: While power is measured in watts, the most-used acoustic measurement for intensity is the decibel (dB). Named in honor of Alexander Graham Bell, a decibel = 1/10 of a bel. A decibel is a logarithmic measurement that reflects the tremendous range of sound intensity our ears can perceive and closely correlates to the physiology of our ears and our perception of loudness.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001) 1962 Dartington Summer School
    News Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001) 1962 Dartington summer school. France). The Gold Pierre was Later, in collaboration with Brian awarded to Ludger Bru¨ mmer (Ger- Hodgson and David Vorhaus, she set many) for Nyx, and the Silver Pierre Delia Derbyshire, British pioneer of up Kaleidophon, an independent stu- to Jonty Harrison (UK) for Abstracts electronic music, died in Northamp- dio where she worked on the classic for tape and large orchestra. No mag- ton, England, on 3 July 2001, aged album Electric Storm (1968), which isterium was awarded. Residencies 64. Born in Coventry, England, she was credited to White Noise and re- went to Abdul Wahid Hasnizam (Ma- was educated at Coventry Grammar leased on Island Records. This studio laysia) for Fatihah, Paavo Impio (Fin- School and Girton College, Cam- continued to put together electronic land) for Kaleva, Mei-Fang Lin bridge, graduating in music and music for the London theatre of the (Taiwan) for Interaction, Felipe Perez mathematics. She joined the British late 1960s. In 1973 she left the BBC Santiago (Mexico) for Ofaniel (angel Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in and after a short period with a pri- de la luna), Juan Pablo Sorrentino 1960 as a studio manager and trans- vate studio she gave up composi- (Argentina) for Mi Primer Cello, and ferred in 1962 to the Radiophonic tional work for many years. Rogelio Sosa (Mexico) for Tenso II. Workshop, where she remained until Recently, she had returned to take In the category for electroacoustic 1973. During that time she produced an interest in electronic music, en- music alone, prizes were awarded to music and sound for almost 200 ra- couraged by members of a younger Natasha Barrett (UK) for Utility of dio and television programs.
    [Show full text]
  • Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond Download Free
    EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC: CAGE AND BEYOND Author: Michael Nyman, Brian Eno, Arnold Whittall Number of Pages: 218 pages Published Date: 01 Oct 1999 Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Publication Country: Cambridge, United Kingdom Language: English ISBN: 9780521653831 DOWNLOAD: EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC: CAGE AND BEYOND Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond PDF Book This often left certain decisions about the musical content to performers, frequently involved the use of unconventional forms of notation including graphic and instruction scores , and was generally more concerned with defining the processes by which the music would be produced than all the details of the final performance outcome. About Michael Nyman. Even though it is only an illusion, but it seems that when John Cage walked into our room, the world has re-started in some fashion. Moreover, ideally this production is heard in surround sound, with multiple speakers all around the audience. Reference Works. Conseguir libro impreso. The actual composition is an electronic piece of music based on sounds mentioned in the book. Cage's experiments with random procedures and indeterminacy in composition as well as performance, his unique systems of graphic notations, and his innovative live electronic and mixed-media events of the 's through the 's served as the groundwork for radical experiments in avant-garde music by composers in both the classical and rock genres of music. Sonically, this matches the presentation of the split subject of the man, seen and heard separately as absent voice and present body, but with implications of identity. MARC Records. Popular Posts. This means that when the pedal is down, the spoken text provokes specific resonances from the instrument, according to the frequencies and dynamic level of the voice.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sound Effect
    COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright The Sound Effect: a Study in Radical Sound Design Ian Robert Stevenson A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Architecture, Design & Planning The University of Sydney 2015 ABSTRACT ABSTRACT This research project combines a theoretical intervention into sound ontology, with an empirical investigation into listening experience, in parallel with two technologically focused, research-led creative practice projects.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last Adventures Education Pack
    THE LAST ADVENTURES EDUCATION INFORMATION PACK CONTENTS 1. Teacher’s notes and your group’s visit to the theatre 2. About the performance 3. About the company 4. Tim Etchells 5. Tarek Atoui 6. KK Null 7. Interview with Tim Etchells and Tarek Atoui 8. Further resources available 9. Credits The Last Adventures Information Pack 1 ** 1. TEACHER’S NOTES AND YOUR GROUP’S VISIT TO THE THEATRE This pack is designed to help prepare a college or university group for their visit to the theatre. We hope the information provided will enhance students’ overall critical appreciation of the production and we look forward to welcoming you to the theatre. The aims of this resource pack are: • To provide some context to the work of Forced Entertainment, especially for those who may be encountering the work for the first time; • To provide some background as to how this work in particular is placed in the company’s repertoire; • To introduce Forced Entertainment’s artistic director, Tim Etchells, and this project’s key collaborators; • To provide signposts to further resources for those wishing to engage in deeper research. You can support this through: • Engaging students in a discussion or some preliminary research about the company, prior to their visit; • Making students aware Forced Entertainment’s work is very different from ‘traditional theatre’; that it can be seen as challenging and dark as well as funny and moving; • Ensuring in their visit that students are briefed to turn their mobile phones off and that quite a high level of concentration may be required throughout the show; • Encouraging students to think about what they might ask in a post-show discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Shape of the Stone Was Stoneshaped Between the Generations of Dick Higgins and David Rokeby Lisa Moren
    09 moren 9/2/05 11:31 am Page 69 The Shape of the Stone was Stoneshaped Between the generations of Dick Higgins and David Rokeby lisa moren Whereas my body, taken at a single moment, is but a conductor interposed between the objects which influence it and those on which it acts, it is nevertheless, when replaced in the flux of time, always situated at the very point where my past expires in a deed. Bergson 1991: 78–9 At first glance it may seem that a programmer clichés, through collage techniques in time and and builder of multi-media surveillance-to- space. Rokeby, although working in new media sound systems in the current São Paolo tools, consciously broke from the philosophy of Biennale has little in common with the demate- the media generation and worked distinctly as a rializations of a Fluxus artist, or in the direct software artist, who romantically makes art experiential forms of the Happenings art from the scratch material of code (Manovich movement. However, the fundamental gestures page 4 ‘Generation flash’). An examination of a within interactive art of the 1990s can be found selection of work by these two artists, and their in the corporeal work of Fluxus, performance relevant contemporaries, provides a point of art, Situationism, process art, participatory convergence regarding the mechanical transfer- works and Happenings generated in the 1960s. ence of ideas from the body to the computer and The notion that the viewer completes a work the transformation of the subject through manifested itself literally with the emergence of empowering the spectator to participate as interactive art.
    [Show full text]
  • Fylkingen's Text-Sound Festivals 1968–1974
    Fylkingen’s Text-Sound Festivals 1968–1974 Teddy Hultberg Abstract In the 1960s the concept and the genre of “text-sound composition” were born in Sweden. Being an offspring of sound poetry in various forms and of the new electro- acoustic music of the post-war years, it took shape as an intermedia art form par excel- lence. This essay traces the emergence of text-sound in a Swedish context and especially its appearance at the internationally renowned text-sound festivals held at Fylkingen in Stockholm during the years 1968–1974. By the time the term was invented in the 1960, text-sound composition, as an aesthetic practice, was already an international phenomenon. The Swedish version of this intermedia genre was given an international plat- form through the famous text-sound festivals that were organised by Fylkingen in Stockholm between 1968 and 1974. Founded as a chamber music society in 1933, Fylkingen had at this time developed into an organisa- tion that promoted all the new events in music, dance and theatre. And in this context sound poetry and text-sound composition appeared to be typi- cal art forms of the time – art forms that would explore the interstices between word and sound, poetry and music, and which would further the investigation of the electro-acoustic landscape staked out in avant-garde music from the post-war period by composers such as Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. In short, the history of text-sound composition can be seen as the history of how technology during the early 1960s changed the poetic expression when it opened the literary field to a new kind of sound poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • The Philip Glass Ensemble in Downtown New York, 1966-1976 David Allen Chapman Washington University in St
    Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) Spring 4-27-2013 Collaboration, Presence, and Community: The Philip Glass Ensemble in Downtown New York, 1966-1976 David Allen Chapman Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Chapman, David Allen, "Collaboration, Presence, and Community: The hiP lip Glass Ensemble in Downtown New York, 1966-1976" (2013). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 1098. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1098 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Music Dissertation Examination Committee: Peter Schmelz, Chair Patrick Burke Pannill Camp Mary-Jean Cowell Craig Monson Paul Steinbeck Collaboration, Presence, and Community: The Philip Glass Ensemble in Downtown New York, 1966–1976 by David Allen Chapman, Jr. A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 St. Louis, Missouri © Copyright 2013 by David Allen Chapman, Jr. All rights reserved. CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Electroacoustic Music Studios BEAST Concerts in 1994
    Electroacoustic Music Studios BEAST Concerts in 1994 Norwich, 7th February Manchester, 22nd February Nottingham, 18th March More about BEAST concerts:- The Acousmatic Experience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 7th - 10th April Concert news Edinburgh, Scotland, 17th May Concert archives London, 11th November Birmingham, 13th November Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Huddersfield, 18th November Rumours, Birmingham, England, 4th - 5th December 7th February 1994 Norwich, England Sound diffusion for the Sonic Arts Network 22nd February 1994 Manchester, England Sound diffusion for the Sonic Arts Network 18th March 1994 Nottingham, England Sound diffusion for the Sonic Arts Network The Acousmatic Experience, 7th - 10th April 1994 Amsterdam, The Netherlands A series of concerts performed by BEAST. 7th April 8.15 pm Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen 8th April 8.15 pm 1. Yves Daoust - Suite Baroque: toccata 2. Jonty Harrison - Pair/Impair 3. Yves Daoust - Suite Baroque: "Qu'ai-je entendu" 4. Kees Tazelaar - Paradigma 5. Yves Daoust - Suite Baroque: "Les Agrémants" 6. Barry Truax - Basilica 7. Yves Daoust - Suite Baroque: "L'Extase" 8. Denis Smalley - Wind Chimes 9th April 2 pm 1. Barry Truax - The Blind Man 2. Bernard Parmegiani - Dedans/Dehors 3. Francis Dhomont - Espace/Escape 4. Jan Boerman - Composition 1972 8.15 pm 1. Michel Chion - Requiem 2. Robert Normandeau - Mémoires Vives 3. Bernard Parmegiani - Rouge-Mort: Thanatos 4. Erik M. Karlsson - La Disparition de l'Azur 10th April 2 pm 1. Pierre Schaeffer & Pierre Henry - Synphonie Pour un Homme Seul 2. John Oswald - Plunderphonics [extract] 3. Carl Stone - Hop Ken 4. Mark Wingate - Ode to the South-Facing Form 5. Erik M. Karlsson - Anchoring Arrows 8 pm 1.
    [Show full text]
  • From Modernism/Modernity, 11, No. 3 (2004): 282-87. Fluxier-Than-Thou
    From Modernism/Modernity, 11, no. 3 (2004): 282-87. Fluxier-than-Thou: Review Essay Fluxus Experience. Hannah Higgins. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Pp. xv + 259. $29.95 (paper). Teddy Hultberg, Oyvind Fahlström on the Air—Manipulating the World. Stockholm: Sveriges Radios Förlag / Fylkingen, 1999. Bilingual text, Swedish and English. Pp. 337. 2 CDs: Birds in Sweden, The Holy Torsten Nilsson. SEK 400 ($52.00) cloth. Reviewed by Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University “Fluxus,” Dick Higgins has observed, “was not a movement; it has no stated consistent programme or manifesto which the work must match, and it did not propose to move art or our awareness of art from point A to point B. The very name, Fluxus, suggests change, being in a state of flux. The idea was that it would always reflect the most exciting avant-garde tendencies of a given time or moment—the Fluxattitude.”1 Hannah Higgins, the daughter of Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles, both of them foundational Fluxus intermedia artists, agrees. Again and again, in Fluxus Experience, she insists that Fluxus was not, as is usually thought, an inconoclastic avant- garde movement but a way of life, a “fertile field for multiple intelligence interactions” (193) that has strong pedagogical potential. In keeping with her father’s theory of intermedia (see Figure 33), Hannah Higgins uses a Deweyite approach to map possible intersections between Fluxus and other disciplines so as to “allow for a sort of cognitive cross-training through exploratory creativity” (193). Within our existing university structure, a potential Fluxus program “would by definition be unspecialized .
    [Show full text]
  • Sonic Arts Network file:///Users/Daniel2016/Documents/Unla COSAS Y WEBSITES
    Sonic Arts Network file:///Users/daniel2016/Documents/UNLa COSAS y WEBSITES... In conjunction with De Montfort University and Phoenix Arts Leicester CLICK HERE FOR TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION DETAILS Sonic Arts Network and De Montfort University invite you to the audio big top. Experience the travelling aural carnival that is SoundCircus: Your ears will bear witness to, and be amazed by, a disarmingly diverse range of experimental sound practices from across the UK and beyond… SEE and HEAR new commissions from Kaffe Matthews and Pete Batchelor! EXPERIENCE the untold delights of performances, installations, presentations and papers from a host of established and emerging artists! MARVEL at the sheer quantity of work with over 60 artists presenting at the event 1 de 7 19/8/16 16:38 Sonic Arts Network file:///Users/daniel2016/Documents/UNLa COSAS y WEBSITES... including: Adaadat, BEAST, Codec/X, Peter Cusack, John Levack Drever, Iris Garrelfs, Jonty Harrison, Modified Toy Orchestra, Adrian Moore, Pippa Murphy, Seed Records, Daniel Schachter, Volcano the Bear, David Zicarelli YOU WILL GASP IN AMAZEMENT AND BE LOST FOR WORDS!!! Each year the SAN Conference showcases the best work from artists in the UK using experimental approaches to sound and technology. It also provides a platform for artists to meet, listen and respond. SoundCircus will focus on new cultural trends and aims to highlight the broad range of approaches and thinking that surrounds the sonic arts through a variety of performances, installations and research presentations. Friday 11 June SoundCircus kicks off with a live spectacle featuring the talents of Leicester’s very own iconoclastic avant-post rock/jazz/folk improvisers Volcano the Bear.
    [Show full text]
  • Practical and Theoretical Explorations Into Composing with Disembodied Sound
    Phonographies: Practical and Theoretical Explorations into Composing with Disembodied Sound by John Levack Drever B. Mus, M. Mus A thesis submittedto the University of Plymouth In partial fulfilment for the degreeof DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dartington College of Arts August 2001 CONTAINS MUSIC CD UNABLE TO COPY CONTACT UNIVERSITY IF YOU WISH TO SEE THIS MATERIAL Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis and accompanying audio CDs have been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author'sprior consent. Abstract Candidate's Name: John Levack Drever B. Mus, M. Mus Title of Thesis: Phonographies:Practical and Theoretical Explorations into Composingwith DisembodiedSound This is PhD submissionis both practical and theoretical. The practical element consistsof nine electroacousticcompositions. The dissertationacts as a discursive accompanimentto the compositions, addressingmany of the contextual and philosophical issuesthat have arisen during the compositional processand the perfannance of the works. It charts out discoursesurrounding the different genresof electroacousticmusic that the works relate to as well as examining models of work in the respective genres (i. e. sonic art, text.. sound, acousmatic composition, inusique concrite and soundscapecomposition), and placesthem into a broader cultural and historical context. Chapter 2 is concerned with the impact of the advent of, and subsequent rapid development of electroacoustically mediatized sound on society and the individual. It relatesa diverse mix of conjectureson disembodiedsound from different fields, practices and cultures, including sonic art. Chapter3 exploresthe emerging genre of soundscapecomposition.
    [Show full text]
  • 'That It's Not Too Late for Us to Have Bodies'
    DOI: 10.32063/0602 ‘THAT IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR US TO HAVE BODIES’: NOTES ON EXTENDED PERFORMANCE PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Monika Voithofer Monika Voithofer is a PhD Candidate in Musicology at the University of Graz. She studied Musicology (BA, MA) and Philosophy (BA) at the Universities of Graz and Vienna and completed her MA at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with an award- winning thesis on the role of female artists within the International Society for Contemporary Music. In her dissertation she scrutinizes conceptual music and its entwined history with conceptual art practices. To this end, she is currently pursuing research at several institutions located in London, New York City and Chicago. Her academic work is focused on music aesthetics, twentieth century avant-gardes and contemporary music/art in the twenty-first century. Abstract: ‘That it’s not too late for us to have bodies’: Notes on Extended Performance practices in Contemporary Music Since the 1950s, intermedia and performance art practices increased in the field of contemporary music. The interdependency of different (analogue and digital) media and the revaluation of the body and physicality call for a multisensory, instead of “just” an auditory perception of these compositions. In the first sections of this paper the development of intermedia and performance art practices in historical European and U.S. post-war avant-garde movements such as Fluxus, Conceptual Art and Performance Art will be traced. Subsequently, some selected works by composer-performer Jennifer Walshe will be discussed, to demonstrate the influence of the avant-garde movements on and their (digital) continuation in The New Discipline – a term Walshe introduced in 2016 to describe her artistic techniques in regard to extended performance practices in contemporary music, where sound is still a crucial, but not the only, ‘pure’ medium.
    [Show full text]