Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-44mx8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-18T13:05:08.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The OREMA Project: A call for the liberation of sound analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2015

Michael Gatt
Michael Gatt*
Affiliation:
35 Notton Way, Lower Earley, Reading, RGG 4AJ, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following Edgard Varèse’s influential lectures –translated and documented in ‘The Liberation of Sound’– electroacoustic music has spawned many different styles and genres.His argument was for composers to follow their imagination and not be bound tothe constraints of musical notation. This, arguably, was one of the catalystsfor the emergence of electroacoustic musical works. With past and recenttechnological advancement, the varieties of genres and styles withinelectroacoustic music have only expanded, challenging the notion of how onecould analyse such works. It is therefore unsurprising that there is no generalconsensus on analytical methodologies. But for an art form that celebrates allmusical possibilities should the analysis of such musics be constraint to a setnumber of formalised analytical methodologies?

Rather than propose a new all-encompassing methodology, this article will arguefor a universal approach to electroacoustic music analysis and the liberation ofsound analysis. The concept of an analytical community (a community that acceptsmultiple analyses whilst encouraging practitioners to find new and innovativeways to analyse such works) will be raised as a means to address the issuesfacing electroacoustic music analysis, using the OREMA (Online Repository forElectroacoustic Music Analysis) project as an example of such an initiative.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 20 , Issue 3: Aesthetic Radicalism, Future and Past , December 2015 , pp. 316 - 322
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References

Batchelor, P. 2013. Towards a Framework for Analysing Public Sound Art. eOREMA journal 1. www.orema.dmu.ac.uk/?q=content/towards-framework-analysing-public- sound-art (accessed 23 March 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bent, I. 1980. Analysis. In S. Sadie (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Volume 1. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Boesch, R. 1996. Analyse en électroacoustique (Analysis in Electroacoustic Music: Music is not invented, it is composed). In Académie Bourges Actes II: Analyse en Musique Électroacoustique (Volume 2: Analysis in Electroacoustic Music). Bourges: Acteon-Mnemosyne.Google Scholar
Cook, N. 1994. A Guide to Music Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Delalande, F. 1998. Music Analysis and Reception Behaviours: Sommeil by Pierre Henry. Journal of New Research 27(1): 13–66.Google Scholar
Emmerson, S. 2013. Wandering Uneasily in a Familiar Landscape. eOREMA journal 1. www.orema.dmu.ac.uk/?q=content/wandering-uneasily-familiar-landscape (accessed 23 March 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmerson, S. and Landy, L. 2012. The Analysis of Electroacoustic Music: The Differing Needs of its Genres and Categories. Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference Meaning and Meaningfulness in Electroacoustic Music, Stockholm, June.Google Scholar
Ferrara, L. 1984. Phenomenology as a Tool for Musical Analysis. Musical Quarterly 70(3): 355–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatt, M. 2013. The Online Repository for Electroacoustic Analysis Project: A Community Approach to Electroacoustic Music Analysis. Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference Electroacoustic Music in the Context of Interactive Approaches and Networks, Lisbon, June.Google Scholar
Gatt, M. 2014. Tools for Understanding Electroacoustic Music. Unpublished PhD thesis, De Montfort University. www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/10754 (accessed 27 March 2015).Google Scholar
Hugill, A. 2012. Andrew Hugill’s ‘Papa Sangre’ analysis. www.orema.dmu.ac.uk/?q=content/andrew-hugills-papa-sangre-analysis (accessed 6 December 2014).Google Scholar
Kramer, L. 2011. Interpreting Music. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Landy, L. 1999. Reviewing the Musicology of Electroacoustic Music: A Plea for Greater Triangulation. Organised Sound 4(1): 61–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landy, L. 2006. The Intention/Reception Project. In M. Simoni (ed.) Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Music. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Landy, L. 2007. Understanding the Art of Sound Organization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nattiez, J-J. 1990. Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. 2013. Analytical Précis of Chime by Orbital: Towards an Analysis of Electronic Dance Music. eOREMA journal, 1. www.orema.dmu.ac.uk/?q=content/analytical-pr%C3%A9cis-chime-orbital-towards-analysis-electronic-dance-music (accessed 23 March 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ren, Y., Kraut, R., Kiesler, S. and Resnick, P. 2011. Encouraging Commitment in Online Communities. In R. Kraut et al. (eds.) Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Renninger, K. A. and Shumar, W. 2002. Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, S. 2003. L’analyse des musiques életroacoustiques: Modèles et propositions. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, P. 1966. Traité des Objets Musicaux. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, P. 1998. Solfege de l’objet sonore. Paris: INA.Google Scholar
Smalley, D. 1997. Spectromorphology: Explaining Sound-shapes. Organised Sound 2(2): 107–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, B. 2000. Music and Memory: An Introduction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Surowiecki, J. 2004. The Wisdom of Crowds. London: Abacus.Google Scholar
Varèse, E. 1966. The Liberation of Sound. Perspectives of New Music 5(1): 11–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Discography

Caine, H. 2000. Dripsody (1955). On OHM – The Early Gurus of Electronic Music. Ellipsis Arts, B00004T0FZ.Google Scholar
Ferrari, L. 2009. Presque rien No.1 C (1970). On L’Œuvre Électronique. Paris: Institut national de l’audiovisuel, INA-G-6017/6026.Google Scholar
Merzbow 2008. Meattrapezoid (2008). On Green Wheels. Japan: Editions Merzbow, B00BTPWA6W.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, P. 2000. Étude aux chemins de fer (1948). On OHM – The Early Gurus of Electronic Music. Ellipsis Arts, B00004T0FZ.Google Scholar