Portfolio of compositions

This text contains a short general description of my experience at the University of Birmingham. This is an attempt to communicate how my perception in composing music has changed and evolved. The focus is to introduce briefly my experience before I arrived at the University of Birmingham, then go through all the compositions I have worked on during my PhD programme. This attempt is to explain the main processes I have used for composing, giving a wider view of the issues that I was interested in developing. Furthermore, I will consider some technical aspects with reference to facilities that the University of Birmingham offers to students. This appears to be the right opportunity for them to explore technology almost without any restrictions. I also give some information about other nonmusical issues, which I was interested in developing in order to look into personal aesthetic directions. My main reason for being at the University of Birmingham was to explore compositional processes different from my previous experiences, in order to enlarge my abilities and perspectives in music composition

Dwelling and the sacralisation of the air: A note on acousmatic music

This paper adapts Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of ‘dwelling’ in order to effect a liaison between acousmatic music and ecological concern. I propose this as an alternative to both the propagandist use of music as a means of protest and to using the science of ecology as a domain that might furnish new compositional means. I advance the interpretation that acousmatic music ‘occupies the air’ in ways that transform the meaning of that dimension. It allows the sky to be sky and the earth, earth. I use the precedent of bell ringing as an example of sonic activity that occupies the air in order to furthe

Thinking Inside the Box: A New Integrated Approach to Mixed Music Composition and Performance

The Thinking Inside the Box project (TItB) seeks to address pragmatic concerns inherent to mixed music performance, and proposes ways to better consider the sound of the acoustic reality of the concert space at studio composition time. This is achieved through empirical investigation into subversive use of recent developments in hardware and software technologies. The primary concerns are (1) optimising the integration of live instruments and electroacoustic sound in the concert hall environment for both the performers and the public, by carefully choosing loudspeaker types and placement at commission time, and by avoiding sound reinforcement; (2) minimizing for studio composers the insitu trauma of the first live rendition of the piece, by bringing the concert hall acoustic environment into the studio composition process, using convolution reverb to reproduce in the studio the given loudspeaker setup through its impulse responses. This paper presents the conclusions of the project's early experiments in the form of three case study sets, and describes how this approach will be of use for any composer of mixed music

Affective spatialities in the acousmatic arts

This paper investigates the concept of affective spatialities in the acousmatic arts, by means of an exploration and exemplification of the theory that the listener may experience a sense of presence in the environment of the acousmatic work (the virtual acoustic space) which is inherently linked to their awareness of their state of being there. The claims and concepts of this theory are investigated in particular in relation to Gernot Böhme’s aesthetic theory based on the concept of atmospheres, and are developed specifically in relation to auditory experience. The value of this theory as an approach to listening, and as a direction for contributing to the discourse on acousmatic spatiality is exemplified through a discussion of a personal listening experience of Jeph Jerman’s Albuquerque Hotel Room. Creative Portfolio: This portfolio presents two acousmatic works: Elastic Geographies and As the Sea Haunts the Shore. The accompanying CD contains: Track 1 - Elastic Geographies and Track 2 - As the Sea Haunts the Shore. The essay discusses the compositional processes involved in the creation of these two works, highlighting some of the theories that influenced my approach to composition, as well as explaining the initial ideas behind each work

Editorial: Perceptual issues surrounding the electroacoustic listening experience

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link

Disembodiment: Reproduction, Transcription, And Trace

This article poses the question, what is so great about the body? Recent scholarship has emphasized the concept of an embodied cognition and reminded us of the significance of embodiment in musical performance. Yet, vital as these observations may be, they offer only a limited view of what ‘touch’ can mean. Following the semiotic notion of the index as a sign with a real connection to its object, writers and artists such as Friedrich Kittler, Ai Weiwei, Kenneth Goldsmith and Nicolas Donin have reflected on how the reproductions of the gramophone needle, the calligrapher's brush, the blogger's keyboard, and the programmer's code can trace meaningful points of contact. Examples from my own practice illustrate some of the many possible ways that digital traces can be touching

Masters composition portfolio

This portfolio will consist of three related parts. The first will part will be an essay in which I will consider listening in relation to ‘acousmatic’ music looking at some of the ideas and concepts that have been influential in the development of my own approach to listening over the course of this masters. I will also attempt to justify this approach with reference to ecological acoustics and the importance of the role of source recognition to listener interpretation, and as a result composition. As will become evident from this study two dominant influences that have emerged in relation to my compositional listening practice over the course of this masters, are the, to some extent contradictory, positions occupied by the soundscape and musique concrete traditions. I will try and reconcile elements of these influences by arguing that Denis Smalley’s recent ‘space-form’ approach to listening and composition can act as a middle ground providing an approach that takes account of the referential and indicative aspects of sounds and the role played by ‘source-bonding’, whilst at the same considering relations at the intrinsic level of ‘spectromorphology’. Following on from this, the second part of this portfolio will consist of a more direct commentary on my own compositions, which I will relate to the discussion in the first half. I will therefore talk about specific elements of my compositions in light of my earlier considerations, directly applying some of the terms and concepts that were introduced in the first part to aspects of my own work. The final, and third part will be recordings of the compositions themselves

Socio-Sonic: An ethnographic methodology for electroacoustic composition

This paper outlines a way forward for an anthropologically inclined electroacoustic music. Considering the similarities in methodological approaches between the fields of ethnography and soundscape composition, this paper proposes to further the use of contextual information when making compositional decisions with sound materials derived from field recordings: a socio-sonic methodology. To begin the discussion, theoretical readings of sound in context are presented. Parallels are highlighted between the practices of ethnographic study and soundscape composition, illustrated with the work of Steve Feld and the World Soundscape Project. A brief consideration of the soundscape-acousmatic continuum with reference to works by Luc Ferrari, Denis Smalley and Hildegard Westerkamp is followed by a combined summation of ethnographic, soundscape and acousmatic approaches to outline a socio-sonic methodology for composition. Examples of work by Peter Cusack, Justin Bennett and Bob Ostertag are discussed alongside my own work Manifest – a fixed-media composition based on field recordings and interviews made at political protests in Barcelona. The potential is for a music considered equally for its sonic and sociopolitical properties

ixi lang: a SuperCollider parasite for live coding

This demo paper describes the rationale and design of the ixi lang, a live coding language built on top of SuperCollider. The paper explains why SuperCollider is used for this task, and reports on a survey conducted with users of the language. It concludes that simple and constrained systems can be useful in specific musical contexts, in particular when sketching or improvising, but that such systems can be limiting in the long run