Category: sonicArts

Read for Thursday, 8/30: Jacques Attali, “Noise and Politics” (AC, pp. 7 – 9) R. Murray Schafer, “The Music of the Environment” (AC, pp. 29 – 39) The Schafer is longer, but contains very timely philosophy behind our environmental listening and recording activities. Be warned that I will give you an assignment (take-home) with questions…

Due Sept. 6. The Handbook for Acoustic Ecology defines a soundwalk as follows: A form of active participation in the soundscape. Though the variations are many, the essential purpose of the soundwalk is to encourage the participant to listen discriminatively, and moreover, to make critical judgements about the sounds heard and their contribution to the balance…

Just a reminder, everyone needs to join Google+ (it’s in the syllabus). We will use Google+ to discuss certain readings and topics, and more importantly, to handle checking out and handing off the field recorders for our next project. Each of you needs to join, then either send me an email with your username, or…

I forgot to give the next reading assignment in class. I’ve scanned in these two excerpts (assuming that not all of you have the book yet) so that you can also read the introductions that provide important context for the articles. Tuesday I will give you some questions to answer at home. (These files are…

At its most simple level, sound is a rapidly fluctuating change in some medium – typically, air. Hosken says “sound is caused by vibrations in the air,” but this only describes one medium. Generation Vibrations in the air need to be initiated in some way. Some action has to initiate, or start this fluctuation in…

The first listening quiz is September 6. Audio files can be downloaded here. (Note: you will need your BSU login and password to download the zipped folder of audio files from my iLocker account. The files are kept on a BSU server.) You will be responsible for knowing the name of the composer, title, and year(s)…

Due Tuesday, Aug, 28. Listen/Notate Listen/Notate is designed to make you more aware and sensitive to environmental sound that you normally would tune out subconsciously. Most of our focus this semester is on recording sounds, processing these sounds into musical gestures, and then arranging them into new works. Listening for unusual  and musically interesting sounds will…

With all reading assignments, be prepared to answer short questions during the next class period. Any quiz of this type will always be open note. For Thursday, Aug. 23, read: Luigi Russolo, “The Art of Noises: A Futurist Manifesto,” (Audio Culture: pp. 10 – 14), or online at  UbuWeb. Trevor Wishart, “What is Sonic Art?”…

Although the course is titled “An Introduction to Sonic Art,” a large part of what we will be studying and working on will be computer music. Your reading assignment addresses the issue of what is sonic art. Let’s address what is computer music. Defining Computer and Electronic Music Technically, anything reproduced through a computer or…

Creativity We need to distinguish between creativity and composition. Creativity is best thought of as a trait and practice that applies to many domains and activities. Composition is a specific creative domain or practice. Creativity can be learned. If one doesn’t believe that, then the teaching and studying of music in general lacks interest. For our…