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p160 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 33 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M3 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 160 p160 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 160 p160 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 160 p160 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) CONCLUSION ‘THE WORLD OF SOUND COMPOSITION HAS BEEN HAMPERED BY BEING CAST IN THE ROLE OF A POOR RELATION TO MORE TRADITIONAL MUSIC PRACTICE. IN PARTICULAR THE VAST BODY OF ANALYTICAL AND CRITICAL WRITINGS IN THE MUSICOLOGY OF WESTERN ART MUSIC IS STRONGLY ORIENTED TO THE STUDY OF MUSICAL TEXTS (SCORES) RATHER THAN TO A DISCIPLINE OF ACUTE AURAL AWARENESS IN ITSELF. SOUND COMPOSITION REQUIRES THE DEVELOPMENT OF BOTH NEW LISTENING AND AWARENESS SKILLS FOR THE COMPOSER AND, I WOULD SUGGEST, A NEW ANALYTICAL AND CRITICAL DISCIPLINE FOUNDED IN THE STUDY OF THE SONIC EXPERIENCE ITSELF, RATHER THAN ITS REPRESENTATION IN A TEXT. THIS NEW PARADIGM IS BEGINNING TO STRUGGLE INTO EXISTENCE AGAINST THE IMMENSE INERTIA OF RECEIVED WISDOM ABOUT “MUSICAL STRUCTURE”.’ TREVOR WISHART, ‘AUDIBLE DESIGN’ 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 160 p161 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 33 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M3 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 161 p161 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 161 p161 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 161 p161 161160 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) AFTERWORD Some time in 1966, my parents went out for the day.This was unusual and meant that I was at home by myself. More significantly, it meant that I had access to my father’s jealously guarded ‘Deccalian’ gramophone and could play my new Beatles record at previously undreamed-of volume. Even more exciting was the prospect of copying it on to a newly acquired tape recorder so that I would no longer have to depend upon such opportunities to listen to ‘that dreadful jungle music’, as he was wont to describe it. I duly pointed my crystal microphone at the Deccalian’s loudspeaker, made the ritual adjustments with the help of the ‘magic eye’ on the recorder and, in all innocence, set the process in motion. Reaching the end, I put the needle back to the start of the record while I rewound the tape. By chance, I restarted it part way into the recording at almost exactly the point that the record had reached. The two versions of Taxman played together, slightly out of sync, creating an odd spatial echo. Leaning over to retrieve the record sleeve, I brushed the tape reels as they turned, momentarily slowing the machine down. Suddenly the world lurched sideways as the Beatles swung wildly around the space between the two machines. I had encountered the Haas effect, one of the principles of psychoacoustics by which we perceive the origin of a sound. I began to experiment with great but uninformed enthusiasm and, later that afternoon, I found a way to combine two slightly delayed recordings of the same material and so it was that I invented phasing, the dramatic ‘jet plane’ effect so popular at that time. I say that I invented phasing because I had no knowledge of it before the event, any more than did the many engineers and others upon whom this honour is usually bestowed.The truth is that no one really knows who discovered it first and so I’ve always felt that my claim was as valid as anyone else’s. Unsurprisingly, no one else acknowledged my claim and even fewer were interested. Save, of course, my furious father who was convinced that I had hopelessly damaged his prized record player (I hadn’t). For me, however, a door had opened that afternoon and offered a brief but captivating glimpse into another world, one in which a medium to which no one paid much attention suddenly leaped on to centre stage, commanding, compelling and entrancing.This was the beginning of an expedition that has lasted 40 years so far, taking me to strange and unexpected places and forcing me to rethink time and again everything I thought I knew about sound. It hasn’t ended yet but my role now is more that of a roving ambassador between the world of sound and the world of everything else: I’m not one of the locals but I know many of them well and, having a foot in both camps, I serve as a bridge – a cultural and communications link. And so it is in that spirit that I’ve undertaken the writing of this book: to make the introductions, to show visitors around, to start to explain the new things they find and generally to help build links with the new sound world that so many talented and creative people have created, yet which is so little known (and even less understood) by the majority. If the people that you have met and the ideas that you have encountered in this book help to do this for you, it will have served its purpose. These are important encounters for, as Simon Emmerson says ‘…sonic arts is part of the soundscape and the soundscape is…the world around us’. Afterword 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 161 p162 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 33 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M3 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 162 p162 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 162 p162 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 162 p162 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) CONCLUSION The following list represents just some of the many published works to which I have referred in both my research and my writing and hopefully provides a useful basis for further study. The list also includes works not specifically cited but of potential interest. Attali, J. 1985. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis, MA: University of Minnesota Press Borwick, J. (ed.) Various editions. Recording Studio Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press Briscoe, D. and Curtis-Bramwell, R. 1983. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop; The First 25 Years. London: BBC Chadabe, J. 1997. Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Chion, M. 1994. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press Cox, C. and Warner, D. (eds) 2004. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. New York: Continuum Devereux, P. 2001. Stone Age Soundtracks: The Acoustic Archaeology of Ancient Sites. London: Vega (Chrysalis) Doyle, P. 2005. Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900–1960. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press Goldberg, R.L. 1979/1988/2001. Performance Art. London: Thames & Hudson Suggested Reading Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (eds) 1992. Art in Theory 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell Holmes, T. 1985/2002. Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition. New York: Routledge Hughes, R. 1980/1991. The Shock of the New. London: Thames & Hudson Kahn, D. 1999. Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press Mithen, S. 2005. The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson Nicholls, D. (ed.) 2002. The Cambridge Companion to John Cage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press de Oliveira, N., Oxley, N. and Petry, M. 2003. Installation Art in the New Millennium. London: Thames & Hudson O’Sullivan, D. and Igoe,T. 2004. Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. Premier Press Paul, C. 2003. Digital Art. London: Thames & Hudson Rush, M. 1999/2005. New Media in Art. London: Thames & Hudson Schafer, R.M. 1977. The Tuning of the World. New York: Alfred Knopf Sonnenschein, D. 2001. Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema. Studio City CA: Michael Wiese Productions Tisdall, C. and Bozzola, A. 1997. Futurism. London: Thames & Hudson Toop, D. 1995. Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. London: Serpent’s Tail Toop, D. 1999. Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World. London: Serpent’s Tail Toop, D. 2004. Haunted Weather: Music, Silence and Memory. London: Serpent’s Tail Weis, E. and Belton, J. (eds) 1985. Film Sound: Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press Wilson, S. 2003. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Wishart, T. 1996. On Sonic Art. New York/London: Routledge Wishart, T. 1994. Audible Design . York: Orpheus the Pantomime Ltd 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:37 AM Page 162 p163 QC Preflight Point 1 st 33 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M3 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 163 p163 1 st 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 163 p163 1 st 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 163 p163 163162 1 st SUGGESTED READING 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 163 p164 QC Preflight Point 2 nd 33 Job no : 76098 Title : The Fundamentals Of Sonic Art Client : AVA Scn : # 150 Size : 200(w)230(h)mm Co : M3 C0 (All To Spot)(Coagl) Dept : DTP D/O : 16.02.07 (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 164 p164 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 164 p164 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 164 p164 2 nd (Job no:76098C1 D/O : 09.03.07 Co: CM11) CONCLUSION Once again, this does not claim to be a comprehensive list but contains many of the works mentioned in the text and a range of other interesting recordings that will hopefully serve to give a sense of some of the recorded aspects of experimental music that have influenced the development of sonic art as a distinct subject. Many of them also happen to be personal favourites! Aphex Twin. 1996. Selected ambient works. Warp. CD 21. Audio CD The Art of Noise. 1998. Daft. Ztt. ZCID Q2. Audio CD The Beatles. 1992. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Parlophone. LC0299 0777 7 64642 2 8. Audio CD The Beatles. 1998. Revolver. Parlophone. LC0299 CDP 7 464412. Audio CD Kate Bush. 2000. Hounds of Love. EMI. EJ 24 0384 1. Audio CD Walter (Wendy) Carlos. 2003. Sonic Seasonings. East Side Digital. B00000DGXY. Audio CD Walter (Wendy) Carlos. 2006. Switched on Bach. Voiceprint. B000FG4KRS. Audio CD Brian Eno (and others). 2004. Discreet Music. Eg Records. B0002X7BIO. Audio CD Suggested Listening Brian Eno. 2004. Ambient 1; Music for Airports. Eg Records. B0002X7BIY. Audio CD Brian Eno & Robert Fripp. 1994. The Essential Fripp & Eno. Venture. COVE920. Audio CD Brian Eno & David Byrne. 1989. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Eg Records. EGCD 48. Audio CD Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. 2006. The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel. Castle. B000ECXCAY. Audio CD Genesis. 1994. The Lamb lies down on Broadway. Virgin. CGSCDX 1. Audio CD Godley & Crème. 2000. Consequences. One Way. OW543634. Audio CD Jimi Hendrix. 1997. Are you Experienced? MCA MCD 11608. Audio CD Alvin Lucier. 1981. I am sitting in a room. Lovely Music. LCD1013. Audio CD Alvin Lucier. 1982. Music for solo performer. Lovely Music. VR 1014. Audio CD Christian Marclay, 1999. Live improvisations. For 4 Ears. B0000080CH. Audio CD John Martyn. 1993. Solid Air. Island . IMCD 274/548147-2. Audio CD John Martyn. 1990. One World. Island. IMCD 86. Audio CD Joe Meek. 1999. I hear a new world. Triumph RPM. 502. Audio CD Augustus Pablo. 2004. King Tubby meets the rockers uptown. Shanachie. 44019. Audio CD The Pretty Things. 2003. SF Sorrow. Snapper Classics. SDPCD 109. Audio CD Steve Reich. 1992. Early Works. Nonesuch. 979169. Audio CD Steve Reich. 1990. Different Trains. Nonesuch. 7559-79176-2. Audio CD Steve Reich. 1996. City Life. Nonesuch. 7559-79430-2. Audio CD Steve Reich. 1999. Reich: Remixed. Nonesuch. 7559-79555-2. Audio CD Terry Riley. 1994. A Rainbow in Curved Air. Columbia. 477849 2. Audio CD 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07 6:38 AM Page 164 . its purpose. These are important encounters for, as Simon Emmerson says ‘ sonic arts is part of the soundscape and the soundscape is…the world around us’. Afterword 76098_CTP_158-176.qxd 3/24/07. Media in Art. London: Thames & Hudson Schafer, R.M. 1977. The Tuning of the World. New York: Alfred Knopf Sonnenschein, D. 2001. Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound. 1997. Futurism. London: Thames & Hudson Toop, D. 1995. Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. London: Serpent’s Tail Toop, D. 1999. Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real