Can Sound Function in Music
Brian D. Bridges · 2010
This paper will discuss issues in the integration of an expanded vocabulary of sonic materials in music (for the sake of brevity termed ‘sound’ in the title). It will examine this issue from three perspectives: (1) contextual and referential aspects of the use of such materials in composition, (2) timbral organisation in music, and (3) organisational influences in music derived from structures to be found in environmental sounds. It will largely focus on music rather than sound art (which I take to be the version of the sonic art-form which owes much to conceptual art), though it will touch on issues relating to how differences between the two art forms may be articulated. Indeed, it may be that the central question of this paper could be reframed as ‘can sound function in music without it becoming indistinguishable from sound art?’, or, more bluntly, ‘is music which uses a wider range of sound materials actually music?’