Across the Sonorous Desert: Sounding Migration in El Mar la Mar

Joshua Bonnetta and J. P. Sniadecki’s El Mar La Mar (2017), an experimental documentary on the migrant trail across the Mexico–US border, features a striking audiovisual assemblage that gives equal weight to sights and sounds, allowing the viewer to contemplate the history of not only the cinema of migration but also the various traditions that engage with field recordings. This chapter investigates the ways in which the film challenges our expectations of what a migrant geography feels like, with special attention to the film’s soundtrack, from its contact mic-enabled drone sounds to disembodied audio testimonials, and the broader acoustic ecology that the film construes (influenced by musique concrète and post-Pierre Schaeffer anecdotal sound, in the work of Luc Ferrari).

Do I Get a Say in This? Environmental Sound Composition, the Phonograph and Intentionality

<p>Environmental sound composition, a term I employ to describe all forms of electroacoustic works in which the core materials are abstracted from real environments through technology, has been practiced in a variety of forms for more than 50 years. A tension exists between environmental sound composition and western art music, one that continues to make this marriage uncomfortable. In short, the use of mimetic materials in environmental sound composition does not fit the prescriptions of formalism, an ideology that electroacoustic composition inherited from western art music. Though attempts have been made to lessen this tension (Emmerson, 1986 and Smalley, 1996), an underlying anxiety persists in environmental sound composition, as the twin legacy of Pierre Schaeffer’s ideas concerning musique concrète and the concerns of acoustic ecology, a movement championed by soundscape composers (Westerkamp, 2002), continues to influence the genre. Recently there has emerged an increasing resistance to the didactic ideology of soundscape theory in particular, as exemplified by Lopez (1997), Ingold (2007) and Kelman (2010). However, soundscape theory continues to influence the production of environmental sound composition, as composers seek to align themselves with such concerns, or place themselves in opposition to them. In my view, the tension between formalism and mimesis has resulted in a widespread fixation on poietic intent in environmental sound composition. As a result, composers have tried to dictate how their works should be heard, while ignoring the complexity of listener response. While a number of fresh perspectives have arisen in recent years looking at environmental sound composition methodology and the role of esthetic analysis in such works, including Voegelin (2010) and Lane and Carlyle (2013), a rigorous investigation into the roles of intentionality, technology and hermeneutic analysis in the production and reception of environmental sound composition remains absent. My thesis explores the nature of the phonograph (an audio recording) and phonography (the act of recording) in broad terms, and then with specific attention to environmental sound composition. Various recording genres and phonograph types associated with these genres are identified, while the attitudes of composers towards technology and the ontological nature of their works are investigated. This approach is applied in making a critical assessment of environmental sound composition, exposing the specificity of the rift between poietic intention and esthetic reception. I argue for a hermeneutic evaluation of the phonograph on similar terms as those set out by Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida (1981). In examining the temporal dimensions of the phonograph, along with its formal and affective traits, my research aims to elevate the phonograph from the role of a passive bearer of composer intentionality, to that of a primary contributor to the listening experience. With this aim in mind, I present a portfolio of creative works as a second volume to this thesis, born of the ideas discussed herein, which explore the nature of the phonograph, its temporalities, the site specific aspects of phonography and compositional intervention with the phonograph. I will refer to my works throughout this thesis, detailing how I have incorporated my theoretical concerns into my compositional practice, especially in chapter four, five and six.</p>

Do I Get a Say in This? Environmental Sound Composition, the Phonograph and Intentionality

<p>Environmental sound composition, a term I employ to describe all forms of electroacoustic works in which the core materials are abstracted from real environments through technology, has been practiced in a variety of forms for more than 50 years. A tension exists between environmental sound composition and western art music, one that continues to make this marriage uncomfortable. In short, the use of mimetic materials in environmental sound composition does not fit the prescriptions of formalism, an ideology that electroacoustic composition inherited from western art music. Though attempts have been made to lessen this tension (Emmerson, 1986 and Smalley, 1996), an underlying anxiety persists in environmental sound composition, as the twin legacy of Pierre Schaeffer’s ideas concerning musique concrète and the concerns of acoustic ecology, a movement championed by soundscape composers (Westerkamp, 2002), continues to influence the genre. Recently there has emerged an increasing resistance to the didactic ideology of soundscape theory in particular, as exemplified by Lopez (1997), Ingold (2007) and Kelman (2010). However, soundscape theory continues to influence the production of environmental sound composition, as composers seek to align themselves with such concerns, or place themselves in opposition to them. In my view, the tension between formalism and mimesis has resulted in a widespread fixation on poietic intent in environmental sound composition. As a result, composers have tried to dictate how their works should be heard, while ignoring the complexity of listener response. While a number of fresh perspectives have arisen in recent years looking at environmental sound composition methodology and the role of esthetic analysis in such works, including Voegelin (2010) and Lane and Carlyle (2013), a rigorous investigation into the roles of intentionality, technology and hermeneutic analysis in the production and reception of environmental sound composition remains absent. My thesis explores the nature of the phonograph (an audio recording) and phonography (the act of recording) in broad terms, and then with specific attention to environmental sound composition. Various recording genres and phonograph types associated with these genres are identified, while the attitudes of composers towards technology and the ontological nature of their works are investigated. This approach is applied in making a critical assessment of environmental sound composition, exposing the specificity of the rift between poietic intention and esthetic reception. I argue for a hermeneutic evaluation of the phonograph on similar terms as those set out by Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida (1981). In examining the temporal dimensions of the phonograph, along with its formal and affective traits, my research aims to elevate the phonograph from the role of a passive bearer of composer intentionality, to that of a primary contributor to the listening experience. With this aim in mind, I present a portfolio of creative works as a second volume to this thesis, born of the ideas discussed herein, which explore the nature of the phonograph, its temporalities, the site specific aspects of phonography and compositional intervention with the phonograph. I will refer to my works throughout this thesis, detailing how I have incorporated my theoretical concerns into my compositional practice, especially in chapter four, five and six.</p>

A Personal and Fragile Affair: The Sonic Environment and Its Place In My Compositions

<p>To begin with, I will briefly outline my compositional process. This will help to provide an understanding of my motivations. I will then pose some questions relating to the practice of field recording and the use of these materials in electroacoustic composition. Through a discussion of early electronic music, musique concrete, soundscape composition and the ideologies of composers associated with these movements, I will reveal the tensions surrounding the use of referential material in acousmatic music. Finally, I will show how I have attempted to address these tensions in my own work.</p>

A Personal and Fragile Affair: The Sonic Environment and Its Place In My Compositions

<p>To begin with, I will briefly outline my compositional process. This will help to provide an understanding of my motivations. I will then pose some questions relating to the practice of field recording and the use of these materials in electroacoustic composition. Through a discussion of early electronic music, musique concrete, soundscape composition and the ideologies of composers associated with these movements, I will reveal the tensions surrounding the use of referential material in acousmatic music. Finally, I will show how I have attempted to address these tensions in my own work.</p>

Bidirectional Interactions With Humpback Whale Singer Using Concrete Sound Elements

We describe an art–science project called “Feral Interactions—The Answer of the Humpback Whale” inspired by humpback whale songs and interactions between individuals based on mutual influences, learning process, or ranking in the dominance hierarchy. The aim was to build new sounds that can be used to initiate acoustic interactions with these whales, not in a one-way direction, as playbacks do, but in real interspecies exchanges. Thus, we investigated how the humpback whales generate sounds in order to better understand their abilities and limits. By carefully listening to their emitted vocalizations, we also describe their acoustic features and temporal structure, in a scientific way and also with a musical approach as it is done with musique concrète, in order to specify the types and the morphologies of whale sounds. The idea is to highlight the most precise information to generate our own sounds that will be suggested to the whales. Based on the approach developed in musique concrète, similarities with the sounds produced by bassoon were identified and then were processed to become “concrete sound elements.” This analysis also brought us to design a new music interface that allows us to create adapted musical phrases in real-time. With this approach, interactions will be possible in both directions, from and to whales.

Electroacoustic Experiments of the Art Zoyd and Their Implementation in Soundtracks for Silent Films

The article is devoted to the work of Art Zoyd, a French group whose experimental style is often defined by modern researchers as “la musique nouvelle” (from the French — “new music”) and is viewed through the prism of the genre-style dialogue between rock and contemporary academic music. The idea of “metamusic”, expressed in the co-creation of several composers, as well as in the unity of visual, plastic, and musical components, is also important for understanding the style of the group. This trend is especially closely related to the personality of one of the founders of the group, Gerard Hourbette, who combines the gift of a composer with the talent of a programmer. The obvious reliance on the achievements of electroacoustic music, the desire to combine the scientific understanding of the phenomenon of sound with the implementation of practical musical projects (expressed in the creation of the research and creative center Art Zoyd Studios), make him related to the figure of the pioneer of musique concrète and the founding father of Groupe de Recherches Musicales, Pierre Schaeffer. The idea of the synthesis of the arts is reflected in the innovative multimedia performances of the group, as well as in the soundtracks to silent films. The article analyzes the sound scores for the films Nosferatu by Friedrich Murnau, Häxan by Benjamin Christensen, The Fall of the House of Usher by Jean Epstein.

Perceiving Sound Objects in the Musique Concrète

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there emerged a radically new kind of music based on recorded environmental sounds instead of sounds of traditional Western musical instruments. Centered in Paris around the composer, music theorist, engineer, and writer Pierre Schaeffer, this became known as musique concrète because of its use of concrete recorded sound fragments, manifesting a departure from the abstract concepts and representations of Western music notation. Furthermore, the term sound object was used to denote our perceptual images of such fragments. Sound objects and their features became the focus of an extensive research effort on the perception and cognition of music in general, remarkably anticipating topics of more recent music psychology research. This sound object theory makes extensive use of metaphors, often related to motion shapes, something that can provide holistic representations of perceptually salient, but temporally distributed, features in different kinds of music.

‘FROM THE TOTEM TO THE ANTENNA’: MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE AND THE UNIVERSAL AT THE END OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE

This article situates Pierre Schaeffer’s musique concrète in the context of the end of the French empire. In drawing out conceptual continuities between Schaeffer’s administration of colonial radio in the mid-1950s and works of musique concrète from the same period, I argue that both projects are predicated on a commitment to the capacity of acousmatic listening to provide access to universal essences. The invocation of the ‘primitive’ in Schaeffer’s writing and music thus serves to buttress the universalizing rhetoric of musique concrète, portraying it as a neutral site for the reconciliation of different cultures, underwritten by a shared human essence. As such, musique concrète partakes in the logic of a colonial humanism, in which empire is conceived of as another such neutral framework. By way of conclusion, a form of acousmatic listening opposed to essence and empire is elaborated from the writings of Schaeffer’s anticolonial contemporaries.

Musique Concrète Étude (Intermediate)

This chapter describes a lesson in which students create a one-minute piece of electronic music by editing, looping, reversing, changing pitch, changing speed, and spatializing a recording of a noninstrumental sound. This compositional activity was designed for first-year college music composition and audio production majors. First, this activity will help students learn to use a microphone to record their owns sounds and/or download open source material. Second, without the need to have experience with notation, melody, and harmony, this lesson allows students to engage with fundamental issues that composers face and can broaden their concept of what constitutes a piece of music.