Aural image and the language of electroacoustic music

A thesis in electroacoustic composition presented as a set of five electroacoustic works: Manches en bois ... manches de joie, Repeal, Suite from List of Contents, Corporation and Conquête de l’espace recorded on digital audio tape and accompanied by scores and a text. The whole forms the sharing of a personal strategy for electroacoustic composition. The text is in two parts. The first, through five chapters, expounds the author's approach to composition and shows how it is based on filmic models for the treatment of sound and aural image. Chapter One explains the author's concept of 'aural cinema' and defines briefly some analytical terms of reference needed for subsequent chapters. Chapter Two describes a general-purpose model for the language of film sound as developed by Claudia Gorbman, so that it can later be compared to aural cinema. Chapter Three describes the author's perception of how his music is heard by his audience and, in applying Gorbman's filmic model to the seemingly incompatible world of aural cinema, develops a term of reference for approaching electroacoustic music using aural images in composition -the phonoscope. In Chapter 4, the relationship between these two models: diegetics and phonoscopy is examined as it relates to the author's technique of composition. Finally, Chapter Five lays down some preoccupations of the author: transformation, experiential rhythm and some ground-rules for a 'phonoscopic' approach to composition. Part Two of the text (chapters Six to Ten) shows how the author's approach to composition works in practice, by describing the making of the five pieces which form the main part of the thesis, and the composer's intended communication with the audience.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

City University London

Year dc:date.issued

1996

Author dc:creator

• Evans, F.M.

• M Music