Spatial awareness in instrumental music: Transformations of attention in a situation, becoming musical structure.

Even though the idea that “space and spatial experience as aesthetically central” regarding its sonic attributes is a central topic in acousmatic music, it is also of interest for orchestral composers, especially from 20th century onwards. The sound of the 20th century is so broad that gives today’s composers the potential of exploring a vast richness of “first heard” structures, that came as a result of the experiments and achievements of the past, and consequently to form their personal voice which can be relevant to it and capable to converse with it. A greater level of abstraction is needed in order to manage to condense what this knowledge offers to us and the consideration of space during the composition procedure seems to provide us a good starting point since many of the attributes of contemporary music could be included in it. Additionally it seems that a greater level of abstraction would not necessarily make the music less accessible to the audiences if such systems of abstraction take into account research into human physiology and considers the every-day environment. Regarding space in a macro structural level can provide us with the appropriate means to create an experience based on its phenomenology while contemplating its micro structure can lead us to results which are unifying sound qualities that otherwise could be considered to belong in different scopes.

Author: Nikos Kokolakis