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28 June 2022 Comments Off on Acousmatic Works – What are they and how/when can I use them? Views: 2139 CE News

Acousmatic Works – What are they and how/when can I use them?

As Composers Edition launches its Acousmatic Music catalogue we’re here providing a quick guide to purely electronic works, sometimes referred to as works for tape whilst composers Anne LeBaron, John Palmer & Jack Van Zandt tell us about their work in this genre.

What are Acousmatic works? A predominately European term Acousmatic simply refers to musical works which exist solely as audio or ‘fixed’ media, now most commonly delivered in high quality digital audio formats such as wav and aiff or on CD or Blu-ray. Created with multiple audio channels they are usually also available in stereo mixes and thus playable in most spaces.

Where and when are they played? Being playable on any decent stereo setup upwards Acousmatic works can be played in a whole range of spaces: In auditoriums, art galleries, atriums, churches, courtyards, festival tents and so on. And of course, because they’re digital, they can be performed repeatedly without wear or multiple audiences over any duration.

Couldn’t I just use my favourite streaming service to do this? Well sure, if you have a licence, think the compressed mp3 format is good enough! And there’s far more to it than that. Acousmatic works are created with great care for curated spaces where you want to offer a special experience for listeners. Each is an skilfully composed aural journey, given just as much thought and care as any chamber or orchestral work. They are dynamic spacial works which fill and enhance the spaces in which they are played.

Are they like soundtracks? They work the other way round. Soundtracks are created to accompany visuals which dictate the form and narrative. Acousmatic works are made with and bring to the space their own structure and form.

So you could respond to them with say dance or movement? Sure! They are ideal for dancers, live visual artists. They can also be used therapeutically.


Composers Edition is offering an initial selection of acousmatic works. Kevin Malone’s Your Call is Important to Us reflects on the contemporary phenomena of automated telephone services we all have to deal with while Emily Doolittle’s Shimmering is derived entirely from recordings of hupack whale, sperm whale and musician wren songs. For three of our composers Acousmatic works form a substantial element of their output and we’ve invited them to tell us something about their work in this format.

Anne LeBaron

Anne LeBaron

In the desert
so much unseen life
within the dryness
a harsh devastation beckons
into beauty
if you look carefully and patiently.
Hallucinatory…oasis.

Walking in the charred canyons,
scarred by ferocious California fires,
a bluebird skims across the black on black,
swift life intensity.
Green shoots emerge from the ground
surrounding their blackened parent plants,
gentle bright screaming,
fleeting nuggets of pigment.
Rebirth after purification.

These were my thoughts while creating an electronic soundtrack for an abstract video inspired by White Sands National Parkw.s.2, by the media artist Seoungho Cho. A clip can be viewed here: https://www.li-ma.nl/lima/catalogue/art/seoungho-cho/ws-2/8858#

Although compositions for soloists, ensembles, and operas that include an electronic component comprise nearly fifty percent of my catalog, I’ve also created four standalone acousmatic pieces: Quadratura Circuli; Blue Harp Studies No. 1 and No. 2; w.s. 2; and This is Not a Carol. My first purely electronic composition, Quadratura Circuli (1979) was a product of analog techniques, including electronic sound synthesis, tape manipulation, and the use of electronic signal modifiers and modulators such as filter and reverb/delay applications, pitch transposition, ring modulation, phase modulation, and frequency shifting. Experimenting with this equipment, I discovered how to concoct an array of entrancing, seductive, and disturbing new sounds, and how to structure these sound objects into a standalone composition that would be played back over loudspeakers in a concert setting. Perhaps a loose analogy can be drawn: bees are equipped to see colors on the UV spectrum that are undetectable by humans; until the advent of electronic music studios, we were unaware of the infinite potential for sound production and manipulation. 

My next acousmatic compositions originated with my blue and gold Lyon & Healy harp as a sound source: Blue Harp Study No. 1 and Blue Harp Study No. 2 (1991). The idea was to create a fantastical harp that exceeded human performer limitations, thereby dismantling the stereotypical ‘angelic’ association with the instrument. At Harvestwork’s PASS Studios in New York, I recorded and edited an extensive series of samples into a computer via Digidesign’s Sample Cell with Sound Tools. Some of the more novel sounds were accomplished by unusual techniques that characterize my performances on the harp. These include broken chain links and steel tuning keys used as slide mechanisms on the strings; cello and bass bows to activate the bass strings; preparing the strings with alligator clips and paper strips; and bowing with an elongated coiled spring eliciting fast repeated attacks. Sequences, created with my harp samples on the controller keyboard, were mixed and edited using Opcode’s Studio Vision. The two contrasting Blue Harp Studies were forged by extensive editing processes, combining, repeating, and altering segments of the solo and collectively created sequences. Blue Harp Studies have been performed around the world at major electronic festivals. At the International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong in 1996, the Indian dancer Siri Rama gave a riveting performance with the Blue Harp Studies. A large white canvas was placed over a vast amount of blue paint spread on the floor, and as the music was heard, she danced on the canvas in a pattern that caused the paint to bleed through, forming the shape of a harp. 

In celebration of the 2020 winter solstice, I was asked to create a short piece for an online project, “Seasonal Séance.” This is Not a Carol was composed and performed on the Chromelodeon and subjected to electronic manipulation. A pump organ retrofitted with new tunings reflecting Harry Partch’s microtonal scale of 43 tones to the octave, the Chromelodeon is an instrument I’ve become enamored with during the time I’ve been writing my opera, LSD: Huxley’s Last Trip

John Palmer

Fragmented words extracted from a poem by William Blake turning into percussive eruptions, trumpet phrases dismembered into micro-segments of harmonics, human voices spinning in ascending motion, trains and airplanes turning into aethereal resonance, daily conversations dissolving into elusive speech, poems disintegrating into enigmatic utterances, gongs evolving into unearthly modulations…

When asked to describe the meaning of acousmatic music in my life, the most immediate definitions that come to my mind are: transformation, transfiguration, transcendence, the subconscious mind, the search for the ineffable and elusive. Above all, perhaps transcendence stands out as the most breathtaking condition I experience in this kind of composition. What I am writing is not a mere collection of beautiful words, but a sensual, emotional, intellectual and spiritual condition of unmatched artistic significance.

In works like Present Otherness, I AmMémoires, In the Temple, and “…as it flies…”, among others, the desire to explore imaginary worlds of the mind has given shape to transcendental journeys evolving on simultaneous levels: the geographical/physical, represented, for example, by Japanese instruments or voices; the ritual, as appearing in the recitation of a sacred text; the purely sonic, as the altered sounds of a musical instrument; the ‘converted’ semantic intrinsic in reshaped poetry and daily language. By altering the sonic characteristics of these sounds, I am deliberately abstracting their ingrained meaning while projecting it onto altered realms of perception that transcend the image attached to the original sound. By so doing, I am aware I am giving voice to a musical discourse that symbolises a search for something of a very profound nature.

In the acousmatic context I can alter an initial sonic condition into a new musical reality of a different order: an acoustic sound becomes mysterious, the real becomes surreal, the Known Unknown. It is in these new imaginary worlds that the sensual becomes spiritual, and the physical metaphysical; that the process of sonic evolution elicits a trans-forming awareness of music that is impossible to achieve with traditional acoustic instruments. In their physical property, acoustic sounds relate to the Conscious as much as their transformed (abstracted) sounds relate to the Subconscious. And I would go further and claim that, by attentively trans-forming a sound into another sound I am effectively going through a process of inner transformation that is affecting my awareness the same way a meditation session is purifying my mind. In this sense, the abstraction of acoustic sounds may be compared to a process of questioning the meaning of my existence anew. Indeed, this is where symbolism for me becomes a crucial artistic condition.

John Palmer Present Otherness

Jack Van Zandt

Jack Van Zandt. Photo by Elisa Ferrari

Fixed, recorded electronic “acousmatic music” pieces have been a major part of my work as a composer since the early 1970s. I began my work in this area as an undergrad in the electronic music studio at the University of California Santa Barbara, using Moog, EMS, ARP and Buchla modular synthesizers and quadraphonic tape recorders. During my years as a grad student at Cambridge University, my mentor in electronic music production was synthesizer inventor and MIDI pioneer Peter Zinovieff, who built some of the earliest digitally-controlled instruments, which I wrote a couple of pieces for. Since that time, especially in the past twenty years or so, the development of computer music technology has been a huge game changer for those of us who compose this type of music. I now have custom-built computers with digital audio workstation (DAW) software, synthesizers and plug-ins, along with studio equipment and electronic instruments, which I use to produce electronic music of all types. To date, I have composed around one hundred works of acousmatic and electroacoustic music and sound pieces, with durations of from a few minutes to several hours.

In the past twenty years, I have created many works of acousmatic music in audio and multimedia formats for streaming and live concert presentation that have been adapted for various uses that include dance and theatrical works; cyclic and evolving sound and visual art gallery installations; feature and documentary film, television and video for broadcast, streaming, and corporate and institutional use; public art projects for specific architectural settings; biographical, historical and cultural commemorations; ambient music sleep events; yoga and meditation classes and practice; experimental acoustic science projects; and more. 

Recently, in response to the changes brought about by the Covid pandemic, I have begun to create my own video content for my acousmatic and recorded electroacoustic works for streaming presentation. Some of these works may be seen on my YouTube channel and all will be available from Composers Edition in the coming months. The types of acousmatic music that I create include fixed media and electroacoustic concert music, ambient music, sound sculptures, sound design, musique concrète, musical clocks and sound pieces for architectural settings, and more. All of my recordings are produced in the highest quality standard audio and HD video formats, and always available in stereo. Multi-channel versions may be created for any existing work by request. And I am available to create special acousmatic content for specific projects.

Jack Van Zandt The Cloud of Unknowing – In memory of Georgia Ligeti

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