Listening to Signs in Post-Schaefferian Electroacoustic Music
Joanna Demers · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2010
Chapter 1 begins with electroacoustic music inspired by Pierre Schaeffer and its efforts to control the listening process. Much electroacoustic music employs sounds that are not conventionally musical. Some such sounds are abstract and nonreferential, while others are representational and seemingly taken directly from the outside world. Post-Schaefferians are conflicted in their expectations for how listeners should hear such works. Some attempt to dictate to listeners how they should hear, while others insist that composers are responsible for adapting their work to listeners. In all cases, post-Schaefferians treat sound as a sign, a relationship between sound and a concept external to it. The chapter concludes by considering post-Schaefferian anxieties over abandoning the conventions of music.