(compMus2) Reading Assignment: Acousmatics

I’ve let the reading assignments fall off a bit, but we need to get back to expanding our heads.

Due Wednesday, 10/22:

Read “Acousmatics” by Pierre Schaeffer, in Audio Culture, pp. 76 – 81, including the introduction in the gray box on p. 76.

Answer the following questions via email:

1. Briefly discuss the relationship between acousmatic listening, phenomenology, and the notion of subject and object (or subjective and objective). 
2. Compare “Pure Listening” to “listening to sonorous objects” as described on p. 78. What perceptual cue is eliminated in listening to the sonorous object? What listening advantage does Schaeffer ascribe to listening to sonorous objects instead of pure listening?
3. In reference to question 2, does the lack of this certain perceptual cue automatically change the listening focus to the sonorous object? If not, what process aids the change in focus?