Importing the Sonic Souvenir: issues of cross-cultural (original) (raw)

Importing the Sonic Souvenir: Issues of cross-cultural composition

Sourcing sound materials from distant and foreign locations has become a relatively common and elementary practice for the electroacoustic music composer to engage with. The ease and frequency of traveling has been responsible, in part, widening the availability of sound choice and collection and in turn providing a vast “acoustic palette as wide as that of the environment itself”. This practice of cross-cultural sound sourcing may be understood by our attraction to the exotic, and the unadulterated soundworld sonic souvenirs can yield. The need for originality as a consideration for the electroacoustic music composer can be addressed through seeking out new and unique sound materials in this way. With reference to terminology, ‘sonic souvenirs’ are discussed in an authentic sense and may be characterised by their environmental, instrumental or verbal origin. It is their significance and association with a unique place or culture that defines them. This paper attempts to make the distinction between elusive sonic souvenirs and more locally sourced sound materials, readily available within a composer’s vicinity. In many respects, the analogy of the keepsake souvenir picked up on a holiday presents a point of departure. Souvenirs are attractive mementos, but also tend to be mass marketed items, symbolic of an original object, lacking genuine status. They provide a memory or representation of our personal traveling history, acting as trophies of our accomplished globetrotting. While in practice importing sonic souvenirs into the studio remains unchanged from ordinary recording work conducted around and on our immediate doorstep, the significance of those materials can present a challenge in terms of their integration, consequence and reception of the finished work. The use of these sounds and the artistic endeavors that transform and sculpt these sounds into music raises a number of issues of ownership, integrity and appropriation. The need to be respectful in sourcing materials from outside ones own cultural home is often high on the composer’s agenda, but what does respectful borrowing entail? How do insiders and outsides of a given culture receive this practice? What are the benefits and positive outcomes of this hybrid format? And how does this practice relate to common areas of investigation within ethnomusicology? To answer these questions my paper will discuss a range of sonic souvenirs exhibited in electroacoustic works from the contemporary repertoire (Caspian Retreat, Pippa Murphy (2003); Ho, Ricardo Climent (2008); Gagaku, Mark Wingate (2006) and Galungan, David Berezan (2010), and aims to identify the issues arising from this cross-cultural practice. My own compositional work has been influenced by this concept and on several occasions I have incorporated sonic souvenirs into my acousmatic music (Karita oto, Sonidos Bailables, Cajón! and Dance Machine). This research builds upon previous investigations into the cross-cultural borrowing in electroacoustic music . Cross-cultural issues are also discussed with reference to a new compositional project in conjunction with the Milapfest Indian Arts Organisation (currently based at Liverpool Hope University, UK) where sound materials are sourced from entirely from musical instruments typical to the South Indian carnatic music tradition.

Sounds of Native Cultures in Electroacoustic Music: Latin American Study Cases

The electroacoustic music for tape of Latin American origin shows a rich history and a large, relative unexplored repertoire since its beginnings in the middle of the 20th century. In this paper, I study the inclusion of sounds of native cultures in a group of selected electroacoustic works between 1961-1989. A musical analytical inductive process divided in three stages was used to recognize and interpret this recurring topic. I formulate the notion of distance to embrace three types of references to the sounds of native cultures that can be found in this music. These references operate as indexes of a cultural identity that the composers were trying to portrait.

Standing on the river bank: Electroacoustic music between tradition and innovation

2019

Past decades of electroacoustic music development have shown that a certain degree of 'liquidity' (using Zygmunt Bauman's concept) has been manifested in the technology underlying musical creativity. For the sake of its radical innovativeness, electroacoustic music initially attracted massive attention among both creators and listeners. For a few decades this innovativeness remained the crucial attribute of this musical genre. Gradually the sequence of innovations became fixed as a standard, or even a tradition – specifically, a tradition of innovations. Returning to Bauman's concept, which is a topical update of Heraclitus's notion of universal flux, we find ourselves standing on a river bank, watching the flow of electroacoustic music history bearing along things of surprising value amongst the detritus. There are two main ways of approaching the river: either through jumping into the stream and becoming part of it, or through watching it as a relatively stable...

Sound Anthology: Program Notes

Computer Music Journal, 2018

I am thrilled to share a selection of music from the EcoSono Institute and from the first EcoSono Festival of Environmental Music and Sound Art in Anchorage, Alaska, 2017. The music here celebrates the beautiful soundscape of Alaska and world ecoacoustics with a focus on computationally driven and computer-mediated approaches. The EcoSono philosophy and methodology emphasizes close collaboration with the sounds and energies of the natural world that we can hear or feel, but that rarely become part of human music. We do this using a combination of computeraided techniques, including digital transduction technology; interactive mediation based on the performance of natural materials, and sonification (the computational mapping of environmental data into sound). Some of this music is made in collaboration with scientists who help interpret the data for music and whose discoveries are interpreted into music by composers. Some of the music features unedited field recordings, set in count...

About the aesthetics of electroacoustic music. A proposal

It is hardly disputable that, nowadays, almost any (music) production or listening experience is mediated by an electric, electronic or digital component that makes electroacoustic music a constant, extensive, and familiar presence, more than we can imagine, but still something hardly comprehensible, difficult to define, understand and interpret: “e-music’s ground is […] selectively sticky, given how it seems, on the one hand, to say that it defies definition and, on the other, to embrace so many” (Saiber 2007: 1616).

Un voyage du son par les fils électroacoustiques : l'art et les nouvelles technologies en Amérique Latine

2006

ii RÉSUMÉ EN FRANÇAIS L'histoire de la musique électroacoustique latino-américaine est longue, intéressante et prolifique, mais peu connue, même régionalement. De nombreux compositeurs nés ou vivants en Amérique latine ont été très actifs à ce titre, dans certains pays depuis plus de 50 ans, mais la disponibilité de l'information et des enregistrements de musique électroacoustique à cet égard et dans cette région a posé de sérieux problèmes aux éducateurs, compositeurs, interprètes, chercheurs, étudiants et au public en général.

Sound Design and Electroacoustic Music: Practices or Perspectives?

Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference, Florence (Italy), June 20-23, 2018, 2018

Sound recording and reproduction technologies enable a wide range of creative practices. Among those is the relative neologism ‘sound design’—a descriptor often associated with dramatic and visual media productions. While there appears to be broad agreement that sound design can play an essential role in those productions, there is less consensus about what it actually ‘is’. From a structural perspective, sound design might be seen as the sonic equivalent of other functional design responsibilities—costumes, sets, or lighting. But its artistic implications are less clear. In film, a sound designer’s artistic responsibility could range from creating specialised sounds (e.g., invented creatures, futuristic weapons) to overall responsibility for the sound track’s tone and content. Similarly, in theatre, they may be responsible for any combination of playback system design; diegetic and non-diegetic sounds; and choosing pre-show, transitional, or post-show music. For electroacoustic composers, the question is: where do we fit? In a conventional production hierarchy, the title ‘composer’ probably means what we would expect—someone responsible for the ‘score’. But while the title may seem clear, the role can be considerably less so, depending on the production context, and the style and materials of the contribution. For instrumental composers, there is usually an assumption that the 'score’ will meet the traditional expectations of ‘music’, and be reasonably distinguishable from other sonic layers. Some productions may encourage exploration within that paradigm, but the role is still usually clear. In contrast, an electroacoustic ‘score’ for a dramatic or visual media production may readily be conflated with ‘sound design’. After all, apart from projects where all sound is produced in real-time, both roles involve working directly with concrete sound materials on fixed media—and both potentially have at their disposal the full range of sonic possibilities, rather than a familiar subset of instrumental resources. In some production contexts—particularly more adventurous or inherently collaborative ones—the creative result of this ambiguity may be very positive. If a single artist takes on both roles, they may have considerable creative freedom. And if the roles have been assigned to two different artists, they may find common ground, while also supporting each other’s specialisms. But it is equally possible that the overlapping materials and range can encourage confusion about what is expected from each role—and about how to credit the resulting creative contributions. To examine this situation, we briefly review several related creative activities, then consider specific production contexts, with some thoughts from composers who have engaged in sound design work in those contexts. While definitive answers may be elusive, we hope the discussion will offer electroacoustic composers useful viewpoints on potentially rewarding creative opportunities.