SITE AWARENESS IN MUSIC – recontextualizing a sensation of an- other place KNUT OLAF SUNDE Version 3.0 – 16. September 2019 – 1 – Site awareness in music INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 5 Urtext ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Background ............................................................................................................................................................. 6 Navigation ............................................................................................................................................................... 6 Four phases with artistic result ............................................................................................................................ 7 PART I: SITING ................................................................................................................ 11 Site Awareness ............................................................................................................................13 Context and connotations ................................................................................................................................... 13 Consequences of human perception .................................................................................................................. 17 Statements on siting ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Sound: Physics and psychology ................................................................................................ 19 A few basics of sound ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Soundscape ............................................................................................................................................................ 21 Aural illusions....................................................................................................................................................... 22 Sound in cognition ...............................................................................................................................................23 Plastic cognition ........................................................................................................................ 25 Perception, interpretation and intuition .......................................................................................................... 26 Abiogenesis – symbolic thinking ....................................................................................................................... 27 Place and remembering ...................................................................................................................................... 29 Context dependency ............................................................................................................................................ 30 Knowledge gap ...................................................................................................................................................... 31 Artistic presence....................................................................................................................................................32 Landscape ................................................................................................................................... 33 Power relations of landscape ............................................................................................................................... 33 Political landscape ............................................................................................................................................... 34 Afterthought ......................................................................................................................................................... 38 Land Music ................................................................................................................................. 39 Format and context ............................................................................................................................................. 39 Transfer .................................................................................................................................................................. 41 Escapism ................................................................................................................................................................ 41 Sound art, sited music and environmental music ........................................................................................... 42 The ‘objective’ concert hall ................................................................................................................................. 45 Export to the outdoors ........................................................................................................................................ 46 Time .............................................................................................................................................49 Durational music ................................................................................................................................................. 49 Information density speed ................................................................................................................................... 51 Method ........................................................................................................................................ 55 Audio material and relation to other media ..................................................................................................... 56 Site selection ......................................................................................................................................................... 59 Guidelines .............................................................................................................................................................. 61 Questions when on site ........................................................................................................................................ 61 Vulnerability: Exclusion, gender and isolation ................................................................................................ 62 PART II: CHASING AN IDEA ....................................................................................... 64 The holy mountain .................................................................................................................... 65 The quest .............................................................................................................................................................. 65 Gregorian chant ................................................................................................................................................... 65 The Great Canon of Repentance ........................................................................................................................ 66 Attending the Canon in Athos ........................................................................................................................... 67 Delphi in fumes .......................................................................................................................... 77 Tectonics of geology ............................................................................................................................................ 77 Narcotic effect ...................................................................................................................................................... 77 – 2 – Site awareness in music Politics of ancient Greece.................................................................................................................................... 78 Siting the myth ..................................................................................................................................................... 78 Discovery of the Oracle ....................................................................................................................................... 79 Pythia in her adython .......................................................................................................................................... 79 Aftermath .............................................................................................................................................................. 80 In-spire ................................................................................................................................................................... 81 Somebody knew .................................................................................................................................................... 81 PART III: THREE WORKS ............................................................................................ 83 Comfort Music ..........................................................................................................................