Re: [microsound] Music and architecture

[Sean Cooper <scooper@xxxxxxxx>]

>I find the interaction of these two fields fascinating. There are, of
>course, several approaches that have been taken. One that I've been
>pursuing lately has been of recording the acoustic environments inside
>certain structures. I've seen the term "tectonics" used in music but it
>really seems (to me, at least) to apply to field recordings of building
>acoustics. Recording the everyday activities and how they sonically
>interact with a given structure. I think it would be a great idea for a
>compilation. I have a comp (The Sound Inside: Music and Architecture)that
>has various people performing music within various structures, but to
>just record the environments themselves would make me a happy listener.

probably i'm stating the obvious here, but maryanne amacher composes pieces
that are designed to interact with the specific spaces in which they are
eventually heard (that is, for which they are composed). she rarely
releases her music for the expressed purpose that it's so integrally tied
to these acoustical spaces as to be incomplete without them. nonetheless, a
cd of her work, "sound characters," was released by tzadik about two years
ago, and she has contributed tracks to asphodel/sombient's three volume
"drones" series. the tzadik disc is half music of this sort (adapted for cd
release) and half "otoacoustic" music (music designed to produce audible
overtones in the ear of the listener such that the music is a sort of
collaboration between the tones she produced and those produced in the act
of hearing)...also, in case you don't know of the book "site of sound: of
architecture and the ear" (steve roden and brandon labelle, eds) that may
be worth looking into. it comes with a cd including pieces by achim
wollscheid, roden and labelle, rlw, the below-named tsunoda, john hudak,
and others.

morton feldman's "rothko chapel" also springs to mind, although that's a
little more along the lines of music as interpreted space rather than music
as the sounding of space.

>I've been inspired by some of the work of Toshiya Tsunoda, John
>Duncan, AER (on the Touch/Ash comps), etc.  Since some of the people on
>this list have both fields as a background, it would be interesting (for
>me, at least) to hear some perspectives, ideas, etc regarding this. 

i've really dug the aer stuff as well. hopefully wozencroft will one day
release a full-length cd of his music, although i must admit i quite like
their status as incidental music between other tracks on the various touch
compilations on which they've appeared.

sc, still waiting with baited breath for the english-language translation
of xenakis' "music and architecture"