Timbre versus spectralism
Livia Teodorescu-Ciocănea · Contemporary Music Review · 2003
The impact of timbre on musical structure is studied through several aspects of tonality and spectralism. The impact of spectro-morphology on musical composition is discussed. Sound spectra data are connected with two aspects of musical language: structure and timbre. Music structuring process and the quality of sonorities are organically linked by spectral phenomenon. Musical systems, such as tonality or spectralism, derive their origin from these sound structures and highlight the relationship between sonic material and its structure. A classification of various tendencies in French and Romanian spectral music is presented. The density of musical information influences the perception of timbre. The concept of “aperceptive modulations” (i.e. the transformations of sonic perception, according to the density of the musical texture) is proposed. This study concludes with a presentation of my own compositional responses to these matters.