The Imaginary Museum of Electroacoustic Works

The Acousmatic Musical Performance: an ontological investigation, 2013

"This investigation provides an answer to the following ontological question: what is an acousmatic musical performance? Chapter 1 discusses acousmatic sound – a fundamental constituent of the acousmatic musical performance – and considers ways in which acousmatic sounds are determined in advance of, and during, a performance. Chapter 2 presents the acousmatic performance as an agent-centred, skilful enterprise that serves both composers and listeners through intentional communicative acts. Chapter 3 examines the nature of, and relations that hold between, acousmatic performances and acousmatic works. Chapter 4 considers interpretations of works and highlights some of the various ways in which interpretations are formulated, regulated and executed. Chapter 5 focuses upon the notion of performance authenticity and questions whether it is possible for an acousmatic performance to be considered inauthentic. Taken as a whole, these five chapters highlight the central constituents of the acousmatic musical performance, unravel the collective input of composers, performers, listeners and technologies, and explicate the complex network of relations that coalesce within the performance environment. The methods employed within this thesis relate to the practice of musical ontology, and have been significantly influenced by Richard Wollheim’s realist account of type and tokens (Wollheim 1980) and Stephen Davies’ notion of thick and thin musical works (Davies 2004). These ontological theories provided a method for identifying and discussing the relations that hold between acousmatic performances and acousmatic works, and were ultimately fundamental to the formulation of a bespoke type-theory that serves music of the acousmatic tradition. Accordingly, the research serves two distinct communities. On the one hand, it serves the ontological community; acousmatic music has received very little ontological attention and, as a result, this research broadens the investigative scope of the discipline whilst considering how existing theories may be applied to music of the acousmatic tradition. On the other hand, it serves the acousmatic community; by abstracting and explaining the central constituents of the acousmatic musical performance, this investigation clarifies the roles of composers, performers and listeners, and demonstrates how understanding of these roles may inform creative practice. A portfolio consisting of six original acousmatic compositions has been produced. This compositional research allowed theoretical ideas to be tested, and works in the portfolio are cited to contextualise key points. These works can be found here: www.sargasso.com/?product=adam-stansbie-isthmus "

2013

Introduction 15

Organised Sound Volume 18 / Special Issue 01 / March 2013, pp 60 - 70, 2013

Adorno's theory of musical reproduction is unfinished, inconsistent and attuned only to score-based acoustic music – but it has relevance for electroacoustic performance as well. His theory prompts contemplation about what ‘good’ interpretation, and interpretation itself, means for fixed electroacoustic music. A digital sound file is frequently, if not typically, viewed as more rigid and precise than a score. This article uses Adorno's theory to compare ontologies of score and digital file realizations respectively, thus questioning the above assumption. Do electroacoustic works truly exist apart from their performed features, or is a given work only its performances? Different answers imply different work concepts and interpretive strategies. Toward the essay's goals, we examine three features often viewed as nonontological to an electroacoustic work, namely performed spatialisation, equalisation, and amplitude balance. We consider the impacts of these features when they are manipulated in real time, or performance to performance. As Adorno asks how choices of timing or dynamics dictate a notated work's aesthetic ‘clarity’, this paper asks how performed choices contribute to an electroacoustic work's clarity, and to the unique interpretive potential of electroacoustic music. Tape music and acousmatic music, with its diffusion tradition, are central to this paper's thesis; but multi-channel works are circumscribed by it as well.

The Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture, edited by Tim Shephard and Anne Leonard, 2013

If you consider yourself a musicologist, this chapter may not be for you. As the title implies, my aim is not to break new ground in the field so much as to introduce the lay of the land, as I currently find it, to those whose disciplines do not ordinarily address music as an object of study. Since many scholars of visual culture will already be familiar with aspects of the academic study of music, the following pages are not intended as a beginner's guide or "how to" manual. Instead, I propose a holistic, if necessarily selective and subjective, account of the history and priorities of (predominantly Anglo-American) musicology. What this brief survey lacks in detail, I hope it makes up for in usefulness. At any rate, my remarks and observations are not offered as conclusive statements on the discipline, but rather as a means of "joining the dots" and focusing further discussion. I begin by addressing musicology's problematic disciplinary identity before introducing some late-nineteenth-and twentieth-century figures whose work has formed the backdrop to a number of ongoing debates. I then consider what might be called the "privileged objects" of musical study, as well as the challenge to music's object status signaled by performance-oriented approaches. The chapter ends in an optimistic mood with some personal reflections on the present state of musicology and speculation regarding future areas of research. While all of the above is offered with art historians in mind, I do not attempt to flag up each shared interest or every occasion for dialogue, but prefer to leave it to readers to establish such connections for themselves.

Pryer, Anthony J.. 2014. The Ontology of Music and the Challenge of Performance: Identity versus Variety, and the Persistence of the ‘Text’. In: Taina Riikonen and Arjaana Virtanen, eds. The Embodiment of Authority: Perspectives on Performances, Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Musik. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, pp. 87-102. ISBN 978-3-631-65085. Downloadable item is the final draft version.

Journal of Musicology, 2019

Der Kanon der Musik: Theorie und Geschichte. Ein Handbuch, ed. Klaus Pietschmann and Melanie Wald (Munich: edition text + kritik), 2013

2009

This essay proposes the concept of corporeal liveness and applies it to a discussion of Glenn Gould’s solo piano recordings. The term corporeal liveness refers to a perception of the physical actions involved in making music, and is particularly useful in confronting notions of disembodied sound so often thought to be represented in recordings. Gould’s recordings, considered in conjunction with his intellectual persona—which often overshadows the physical aspects of his musicianship—present a fascinating opportunity to address these issues. Despite the overwhelming discursive focus on Gould’s intellectual abilities, his recordings are as much evidence of his performing body as of his brilliant mind. In addition to Gould’s constant humming, we also hear evidence of Gould’s body in the act of performance. The concept of corporeal liveness is invoked with two goals in mind: to challenge Gould’s conventional image as a cerebral musician—emphasizing instead the importance of his body in realizing his brilliant interpretations—and to confront the characterization of recordings as agents of musical disembodiment—focusing instead on their potential for reproducing the sounds of musical bodies themselves.

2018

The role of women in twentieth-century Hungarian operettas p. 55 ABSTRACT: This paper aims to develop a gender perspective on twentieth-century Hungarian operettas by focusing on the female protagonists. The prima donna and soubrette characters are situated at the dramaturgical centre of these works, and we adopt a libretto-centered analysis focusing on gender representations in oder to examine them. The research design encompasses three parts: firstly, a presentation of the context and the origins of the librettos – how the prima donna’s charachter influenced the narrative construction of the storyline. Secondly, a comparison of the female operetta characters – analyzing the sources and lives. And thirdly, an examination of the career paths of women, their material depedence and ability to make decisions. Operettas are the imprints of a given age, reflecting on social events, including women’s roles and changes in famele images. This research demostrates that populist theatre is capable of capturing the changes in women’s history of the previous century, and indentifying which factors had a decisive role in the formation of given librettos.