ï~~Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2011, University of Huddersfield, UK, 31 July - 5 August 2011
assessment of the material becomes jaded' (1986:
81)[15].
As there are limited written resources on the
maintenance of interest and unity in Acousmatic
composition, the composer may decide to resort to some
sort of analysis of existing repertoire in order to
understand how a given piece from the repertoire might
function. The concern of this paper is to attempt,
through analysis, to understand how interest and unity
can be maintained within the structural flow of
Acousmatic music. Two pieces will each be subject to
an analysis that seeks to assess and compare the use of
contrasting characteristics within their structures. Any
analytical assessment involves an element of
subjectivity, but if we are to attempt to understand how
interest and unity can be maintained within the flow of
an Acousmatic piece, it could be argued that an
assessment has to take place.
1.2 The analytical framework
An assessment can be usefully achieved through aural
analysis alone and the results of this type of strategy can
be very useful in determining how a given piece under
examination might be functioning. However, there are
other tools and strategies available to the composer to
assist in the assessment process. The graphical
abstraction of sound is something that seems to have
served musical analysis well, including, the analytical
work, specific to Acousmatic music, produced for
example by Cogan (1984)[2], Fischman (1997)[6],
Licata (2002)[10], and Roy (1998)[14]. In 1984, Robert
Cogan, in his book New Images of Musical Sound
presented the use of spectrum photographs as a
methodological tool to aid the analysis of music.
Cogan's groundbreaking work offered not only
interesting comments on this new way of observing
sound, but, as we will see, he also attempted to create an
analytical framework for the discussion of how the
musical features of pieces from a selected repertoire
change as their structures unfold over time. In his
conclusion Cogan noted,
WITH THE AIM of increasing
understanding by composers and
theorists, performers and listeners, this
book has traced and followed the sonic
creative and analytic processes. To
analyze is to create a map or model-a
model that reveals certain functions and
relationships [his capitals] (1984: 153)[2].
Following from Cogan's work, many practitioners have
recently become familiar with spectrograms and some
agree that they can offer the analyst some insight into
the spectral organisation over time within a given piece
of music. However, Ungvary and Waters (1990)[19],
Helmuth (1996)[8], Delio (2002)[4], Licata (2002)[10],
Twombly (2002)[18] and Landy (2004)[9] have all
discussed and/or demonstrated the limitations of the
spectrograms as an analytical tool. On the use of
Spectrograms for analysis, Licata has written, '[t]hese
tools provide the analyst with considerable means to
examine both the macrostructure and microstructure of
a composition's sonic landscape' (2002: 75)[10].
When attempting to understand something of musical
structure, the graphical abstraction of sound, such as
that provided by a graphic score or spectrogram is
primarily useful as an aid to an analytical framework. It
might be argued that spectrograms offer a more
systematic abstraction than graphic scores, but in those
published studies where graphical abstraction of some
kind has been used, such as the ones mentioned above,
other analytical strategies have been applied to the
music. In these instances the graphical representations
have afforded a convenient tool to enable the analytical
process, and have often been useful for the
communication of results and conclusions subsequently.
Alongside the use of Spectrograms, this paper will try
therefore to expand on Cogan's Theory of Oppositions,
which is the concern of the second half of his book, New
Images of Musical Sound (1984)[2]. Using the
spectrogram images as a visual aid to aural analysis, the
methodology will begin with the delineation of sectional
structure, and will be followed by the mapping of
changes in musical features within the sections and
overall piece over time.
For the composer the results of this type of analysis are
of the most use if they can be compared to the results of
a similar analysis carried out on existing repertoire from
the Acousmatic canon. Consequently, rather than
discussing the analysis of one published piece, this
paper will discuss and compare the results of the
analysis of the two pieces noted. '..fetters...' by
composer Natasha Barrett, received first prize at the
International Rostrum for Electroacoustic Music 2002
and the Nordic Council Music Prize in 20063. My own
piece, What Lie Within, is yet to win any awards, but it
serves here as an example of a compositional technique
in progress. There are of course many accomplished
pieces from the Acousmatic canon that could be used in
such a comparison, but..fetters... was chosen because it
has appeal as a modern Acousmatic piece and also
because as a prize-winning piece, it is a suitable
exemplar piece from within the repertoire. The former
point on.. fetters... is a subjective judgment based not
only its appeal to me as a listener, but also because
some of the topics and approaches of Barrett's work
have some similarities to the concerns of my PhD study.
Furthermore, whilst the rationale for awarding prizes
within composition competitions is context bound, for
this study at least, it is considered that other people's
subjective judgments, in this case peer review, might
offer some assurances above the arbitrary selection of
repertoire from a catalogue.
1.2.1 The spectrograms and the delineation of structure.
Tables 1 and 2 of the appendix respectively, show the
spectrogram analysis of What Lie Within, and..fetters.... To aid clarity the duration of each piece is
shown in a number of images that are organised
3 http://www.natashabarrett.org/fd.html accessed on 13.3.09.
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