Compositional Methods in Electroacoustic Music - Adrian Moore ...

University of Aberdeen
Having started composing with razor blades, splicing blocks and analogue hardware sound processing devices,
this talk will map a journey from the early 1980s to the present day examining my compositional methodologies,
how they have/have not changed and why I can’t bring myself to compose for more than two loudspeakers.
3.3 Concert 3
13:00
Lost and Found
Hindmarch, David
There are two complementary ideas present in this piece. The first is that of replicating acoustic shadows
through the reflectivity of colliding sound objects creating spatial disorientation for the listener.
The second notions is that of a virtual listener existing with in the 10 sound scapes that I have created seeming
to move around at will. The virtual listener is signified by the use of slow spatial movements within the
contrasting sonic environments altering the stereo images of the sonic materials.
I hope to demonstrate how the conventions of sound objects in stereophony can be made to behave in challenging
complex ways, rather than conventionally moving from left to write or front to back. The different
sonic environments demonstrate how sounds in the natural world constantly obscure and eclipse each other
creating acoustic reflections. It is possible to demonstrate how pedestrians and traffic flowing past a bus shelter
can cause subtle shades of colour seeming to pass through each other forming acoustic anomalies. I have
created a kind of dance between the audience and the virtual listener with in the different environments by
attempting to replicate these psycho-acoustic characteristics through recorded sounds within the context of
stereophony.
The piece is divided into 10 sonic environments:
1. Traffic and pedestrians in which pedestrians and traffic flow.
2. Expanded pelican crossing, with glimpses of contrasting environments.
3. A street with musicians morphing into the pure harmonics of the street music.
4. A display of the spatial anomalies created by trams, buses and trains. There is generated the notion of the
listener leaning out of the window of a train and hearing the sounds of bridges, trees, and tunnels flit past,
creating momentary sonic reflections and distorted echos.
5. The spatial and sonic reflections generated by the sound of the sea within a wide tunnel.
6. Sonic reflections caused as a helicopter flies over a beach which is bounded by tall cliffs.
7. The external and internal sounds of people walking and talking within a castle. The narrow spiral stone
staircases generated convoluted spatial movements and magnify deceptive acoustic reverberations.
8. The slow movement of a stream and singing birds demonstrating the notion of an independent listener
within the context of the sonic world.
9. A walk around a church in which the stone walls and wooden floors were augmented to emphasise the true
resonant nature of the building.
10. The sounds of a thunderstorm recorded from a resonant wooden summer house. The sounds of distant
traffic, thunder and rain are filtered through the wooden structure focusing the audience’s attention upon the
characteristics of the broad frequency spectrum generated by all of the sonic materials.
I hope that you are able to perceive many of these anomalies and find the whole world of acoustic shadows,
and the idea of a virtual listener participating along with the audience in a fixed acousmatic work as exciting
as I do.
Volmet North
Ramsay, Ben
Staffordshire University, De Montfort University
13