Sound in the Ecstatic-Materialist Perspective on Experimental Music

Contents

• Introduction
• A multifaceted approach
• Overview
• Remarks and limitations
• Notes
• 1 Sound in 20th-century music
• Scelsi and the centrality of sound
• Key aspects of sound in the ecstatic-materialist perspective
• From music to sound
• From the beginning of the century up to 1980: a plural emancipation
• Spectral line
• Minimalist line
• Musique concrète and avant-garde lines
• From the 1980s onwards: a non-linear expansion
• Sonic map
• Case studies: selection of pieces
• Closing remarks
• Notes
• 2 Morphology and structure of musical works
• Starting points of the analysis
• Sequential method
• Step 1: Identification of common characteristics and morphologies
• Step 2: Identification of common developments (unfolding structures)
• Results
• Low-level attributes
• (A) An expanded spectrum
• (B) Microtonal variations
• (C) Systematic glissandi
• (D) Rhythmic development
• (E) Static masses
• (F) Repetitive clusters
• (G) Dynamic and timbric contrasts
• High-level attributes
• (H) Hypnotic reiterations
• (I) A plastic and sculptural arrangement of sound
• (J) Restricted number of elements conceived globally
• (K) Limited dialectic among elements
• (L) Sonic challenges
• (M) Micro-/macroconstructions
• Specific piece: in vain
• Perceptual grammar
• Closing remarks
• Notes
• 3 Listening
• Listening to experimental music
• The experimental music blind spot in studies on musical perception
• The auditory process of E-M music
• Early-stage perception
• Late-stage perception
• Listening survey
• Results
• Music training discrimination
• Cross-genre connections
• Modes of listening
• The internal-external immanent domain
• Towards a multifaceted listening mode
• The aesthetic attitude
• Closing remarks
• Notes
• 4 Composers and performers
• Dialogues
• Musical contexts and genres
• Perception and the space of listening
• Compositional practice
• Sound and time
• Closing remarks
• Notes
• 5 The ecstatic-materialist perspective
• The ecstatic and the materialist
• Phenomenological materiality: the imprint of sound
• Ecstatic potential: sound-as-trace
• External-internal
• Sound in the ecstatic-materialist perspective
• Unity
• Unstable presence
• Coherence and convergence
• Personality and intention
• Intimate temporality and repetition
• Space-matter: the materiality of space in sound
• Vertical time: the ecstatic potential of space-matter
• Musical communication
• Closing remarks
• Notes
• 6 Going beyond sound-in-itself
• The conceptual and the sensorial-perceptual paradigms
• Sonic materialism and the philosophical debate around sound
• The materiality of the ecstatic-materialist perspective
• The proximal hypothesis: the material presence of space-matter
• The embodied cognitive level
• Going beyond sound through sound
• Notes
• 7 Epilogue: The ecstatic-materialist perspective in context
• The ecstatic-materialist context
• Empowered listening
• Closing remarks
• Notes
• Discography
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index