Introduction
Spatial music is electronic or electroacoustic music that uses sound localisation as a fundamental fundamental tool for composition. These compositions are generally either pre-recorded or performed in real time with the use of sound spatialisation techniques to give the effect of moving sound, or sound coming from different locations. Sounds are recorded from one or more microphones and relayed through speaker arrays that can range from just two loudspeakers to hundreds or even thousands of loudspeakers, which surround the audience, usually in a theatre context. In this essay, we aim to give a brief history of spatial music, showing the development of spatialisation techniques. We will also be examining the techniques used in works by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varese and Roger Reynolds.
Development
The origins of spatial music can be traced back as far as 1881, when Clement Ader used multiple sets of telephone transmitters and receivers to relay sounds from remote events to an audience at the Paris Exhibition of Electricity, but it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the first binaural, headphone based system was developed by Harvey Fletcher at Bell Telephone laboratories. In 1932, a curtain array of microphones was developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories with the aim of recreating an original sound wavefront. This, however, proved to be impossible with such an arrangement as it still is to this day. At this time, Alan Blumlein was focusing on developing a system which created an illusion of an original sound field, using a pair of directional microphones. This is still known as one of the best ways of recreating a sound field through two loudspeakers (Malham, Myatt, 1995).
In 1939, Leopold Stoc...
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...uld suggest that spatial music is now something that anyone with an interest in the field can partake in, allowing the number of spatial musicians to increase without the limitations of cost. Also, new spatialisation systems have been developed so musicians do not have to experiment as much to create their own systems as composers like Stockhausen and Varese did in the past.
It could be argued that, because of these systems, spatial musicians do not have to be as creative as before to achieve their desired results, but it could also be argued that new systems allow the composer to spend more time on other aspects of their music. However, this does not mean that spatialisation techniques are not in need of further development. Spatialisation systems are still unable to recreate an original wave field, and composers will continue to experiment until this is achieved.
11. Kim-Cohen, S. 2009. In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art
From this statement, I believe that there’s a fear of losing the expressive plane, if this problem triggers. On the other hand, we have the general audience. Listeners often neglect them. He argues that a good listener should know the musical structure in order to enhance the enjoyment of music on this plane.
Steven Connor delves into the mixing and creating of sound by computerisation, as well as the habits of sound; it’s immersion, pathos and objectivity.
Acousmatic music can be challenging to communicate its intention to the listener. Unlike traditional music their is 'no score, no system and no pre-segmented discrete units like notes' (Anderson, 2007; p. 2). Acousmatic music uses what is heard without seeing or knowing the physical origin of the sound as a compositional tool (Contré, WWW). 'It is a type of electroacoustic music, which exists in a recorded format, transmitted and perceived, during performances, via the loudspeaker' (Anderson, p. 2). Rather than understanding conventional musical forms acousmatic music may rely only on communication. Communication primarily focuses on language. There are different forms of language when introduced to electroacoustic music. Language can be understood through listening, perception and identification or understanding (Adkins, 1999; p. 2; Delalande, 1998; pp. 26 - 49; Nudds, 2007; p.7; Seddon, 2005; p. 1). These will be looked at to see if they can help in communicating the intention of acousmatic music to the listener. Understanding language beforehand may help in better understanding listening, perception and identification.
It is a common notion that for music to be able to traverse and grow within different soundscapes, music must go through a form of migration. There are two different forms of migration that have been seen throughout the world’s history. The first form of migration is called Voluntary Migration. Voluntary Migration is a movement in which a group of people agree to leave their region for their own personal benefits, whether they be focused around religious or economic opportunities. Given these positive opportunities, cultures can thrive and grow and
Different devices can change music immensely. For example, many people think of an instrument as something that involves keys, valves, or strings, but the truth is that something as simple as your voice or as complicated as a computer can create music just the same as a traditional instrument. Before fancy sound boards and computers were around to manipulate music into almost unnatural perfection, there was just a person with their instrument and an audience. If somebody messed up then it would be heard, but the world wouldn’t end. Now it is completely absurd to hear music that is not completely perfect thanks to the use of sound editing software, autotune, and lip
Imagine you and your friends are going to a movie at the theater. You all file in and sit down just as the opening credits start. It starts out as a black screen and slowly fades into a battle scene. One knight comes into the main focus of the audience. He is lying on the ground hit and is going to die. You can hear a voice from the screen reading dramatic dialog, but that’s all you can hear. No background sounds, no instruments, and no music only voices. What would it be like? No music through a whole movie. Would it change the way you experience the movie? “Music is so powerful, it can change everything about a film.” (Bond 44-45) Music has a big purpose for being here. It can even change a life for the better or worst.
The rise of electronic music can be traced back to the futurist movement in 1909, initiated by the book of an Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, Manifesto of Futurist Poetry. The objectives of the movement was then outlined by a composer Balilla Pratella, in his publication Manifesto of Futurist Musician. The document called for ‘The rejection of traditional musical principles and methods of teaching and the substitution of free expression, to be inspired by nature in all its manifestation.’
Polyphonic is operating on a “shoestring budget” of $150,000. The company is not helped by initial discussions about HSS with potential customers, which have resulted in cold receptions, at best, about the product’s potential application to the music processes despite its multiple strengths.
Digital Audio in music gave middle class people a chance to step foot in the music industry. Lowering costs, ultimately, allowing for a much larger demographic in audio engineering careers. People can now be creative and utilize affordable technologies with no limitations other than their own creativity. We live in a time of complete opportunity; limits are only defined by the individual. Technology will continue to improve and so will the music created by it. "There is a new, tonal vocabulary hidden there that could transform musical composition and create another wealth of great artistic works."
Such theoretical discovery is crucial to the my argument in that it entails that as part and parcel of embodied cognition, sound is never just sound, but it also and always-already refers to a past and a space-time constellation of individual and collective sense-making: “acoustemology means that as a sensual space-time, the experience of place potentially can always be grounded in acoustic dimension.”
Perhaps one of the greatest advancements in music that we use on a daily basis, the MP3 file, could also be one of our worst findings! The main idea of the documentary, The Distortion Of Sound, is that artists music is being distorted through modern technology; therefore sucking the originality and feeling out of their music when they put everything they have into their music.
Texture refers to the number and type of layers which are used in a music composition. It also looks at the relationship of these layers. It is in m...
Confucius once said, “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” Several millennia passed before anyone would be able to experience music whenever and wherever they wanted, without having to ...
Like other areas of study music and engineering are related in that, many of musical instrument require engineering knowledge in their designing. Music is majorly on transmission of sound and for that to happen engineering knowledge is required (Smith103). Due to these relations and the popularity of music, it has been incorporated in other disciplines for different to increase their popularity. For instance, the incorporation of musical concepts in unfamiliar disciplines make...