Acousmonium

Das Acousmonium ist das Schalldiffusionssystem, das 1974 von Francois Bayle entworfen und ursprünglich von der Groupe de Recherches Musicales im Maison de Radio France verwendet wurde. Es besteht aus 80 Lautsprechern unterschiedlicher Größe und Form und wurde für die Bandwiedergabe entwickelt. Wie Bayle 1993 in einer CD-Hülle schrieb, war es so Eine weitere Utopie, die dem reinen “Zuhören” gewidmet ist … als durchdringbarer “Projektionsbereich”, arrangiert im Hinblick auf das Eintauchen in den Klang, auf die räumliche Polyphonie, die artikuliert und gerichtet ist. Das Verteilen von Kompositionen aus elektroakustischer Musik oder Musique concrète über ein Acousmonium wird als Diffusion bezeichnet. Dies geschieht durch den Komponisten oder einen Interpreten, indem er die räumliche Verteilung und Lautstärke der Musik während der Wiedergabe steuert und anpasst.

NEST

Inspired by Homer’s Odyssey
Loosely based on Homer’s The Odyssey, Marshmallow Laser Feast’s light installation lit the primary performance space within the chapel’s hazy internal dome. Grid-like projections crossed with mobile structures (designed by the architectural practice Studio Weave) as agile bodies crept over, in and through the many lit towers and surfaces. This first act was seen by the audience from the left and right balconies above. The second act, down flights of rope-lined staircases in the concrete basement, was more disorienting, lit only with triangular neon tubing and an eerie glow that seeped from an open door. The style of dance, in keeping with the more rapid and percussive score, by Canadian composer Christopher Mayo and electronic music composer / performer Anna Meredith, confronted the audience and was staged without boundaries dividing the dancers (some of whom were in street clothes) and viewers.

Anomy, for U.S.and Mexican News
Anomy, for U.S.and Mexican News uses news media RSS feeds in real time in combination with data sanitization and sound synthesis algorithms in order to create visual displacement and generate a non-linear musical score. Through immersion, adjacency, perpetuity, uncertainty, and content in real time, it offers a contemplative experience with mass media, censorship, and language in contemporary society. Information containing the letter “e” in news briefs from eleven different sources in English and Spanish will be redacted—each triggering a musical note. Inspired by lipogrammatic literature and concrete poetry, this piece uses the lipogram to call attention to subjectivity and control in mainstream news media. The result is both a rhythmically diverse sound piece and a visual document that continuously evolves along with the flow of information published by Mexican and American news outlets.

Terretektorh
Terretektorh shows more concern for harmonic organization than the earlier, iconoclastic Pithoprakta, with its scatterings of knocking sounds and massed effects. Still, the concentration is decidedly on texture and movement, with narrow lines being bundled with a number of others in the same register to create a rawer sonic intensity that still has some basis in melody. Xenakis concentrates on the high and low registers, as did Varèse before him, and adds some unusual sound effects into the mix as well.

In Terretektorh and Persephassa, Xenakis creates the impression of movement by transferring musical material between groups of musicians using techniques developed from musique concrète. These works are further innovative because of the unique seating arrangements in which the space for the performers and audience are superimposed.
In this thesis,  demonstrating Xenakis’s early approach to spatial composition. The thesis builds on the work of other scholars and provides more insight as to how these fascinating pieces work.