Audible relationships in acousmatic music composition.

Abstract

On the opening page of his book Audible Design, Trevor Wishart states that “musical structure depends on establishing audible relationships amongst the sound materials” of a musical work. But how does one establish and create such relationships when composing, and how might they operate over the various timescales of a composition? Having focused my creative attention on consciously developing a variety of audible relationships based upon recurrent phenomena within my recent acousmatic compositions, this paper provides a valuable opportunity to share some practical compositional ideas and techniques, whilst also reflecting on the merits and difficulties of adopting such an approach. I will first look at the importance of the source sound material as the basis for musical explorations, and my thinking underpinning this aspect of composing. I will then consider some of the ways in which tangible correspondences amongst sound materials have been created and established within my compositions, with reference to particular sound transformation techniques. Both closely-related/similar sounds and those exhibiting more remote audible relationships will be considered, as will underpinning concepts such as spectral or morphological correspondence. This will be followed by a discussion of the various timescales over which these related sound materials have been arranged (ranging from localised repetitions and variations to more global recurrences), and how and why this potentially impacts upon the notion of connectedness amongst sounds and the impression of a coherent sound world. Additionally, the intended musical functions and significances of these relationships will be discussed. Finally, thoughts and reflections on consciously developing and integrating audible relationships into my compositional practice will be offered.