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Negotiating space: a composer’s perspective on Spatial Music

MACLEOD, DUNCAN

Authors



Abstract

Over the past 10 years spatial music has been an emergent trope within my practice that has exponentially grown from an initial interest in spectator immersion to engender a broad range of applications ranging from underpinning musical structure through to clarifying texture (Harley 1998).

Spatial music, namely sound localisation as a compositional parameter (Brant 1967) has been in use, albeit modestly, since the renaissance. It is in the past sixty years however that we have seen the most substantive output of spatial music, spurred on in part by the use of spatialisation in acousmatic and electro-acoustic music. In spite of this the use of space in acoustic composition is still largely overlooked (Blesser & Salter 2007). Indeed Alvin Lucier observes that although considerable effort is put into the conception, generation and notation of music relatively little thought is given to the actual propagation of sound, to the extent that ‘We have been so concerned with language that we have forgotten how sound flows through space and occupies it’ (1995). As such, this paper will examine and critically reflect upon the use of space as a compositional parameter drawing upon my own practice as well as key exponents of spatial music, namely Henry Brant, John Cage, Benedict Mason and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Citation

MACLEOD, D. (2017, November). Negotiating space: a composer’s perspective on Spatial Music. Paper presented at Sounding out the Space: an International Conference on the Spatiality of Sound, Dublin Institue of Technology, Ireland

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (unpublished)
Conference Name Sounding out the Space: an International Conference on the Spatiality of Sound
Conference Location Dublin Institue of Technology, Ireland.
Start Date Nov 2, 2017
End Date Nov 4, 2017
Deposit Date Jun 4, 2021
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5625001
Additional Information Conference website: http://www.soundingout2017.com/

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