Spatial music composition
Natasha E. Barrett · 2021
Spatial information carries meaning for composers, sound designers and listeners. It can shape ideas, be used to define musical structure, or simply add an essence of reality to artistic expression. It is hardly surprising that spatial ideas have become a primary concern for many audio artists. This chapter focuses on realising spatial ideas in composition. It begins by first engaging in listening and our understanding of the complex world of sound around us, and then explores the legacy of spatialisation performance and its influence on compositional ideas. The core of the chapter embraces Ambisonics as spatialisation technology, and the notion that it is possible to artistically consider the complete dimensionality of space without being tethered to the loudspeaker. Some of the topics discussed include the application of object-based and scene-based approaches to 3-D sound-fields, the musical implications of different flavours of Ambisonics technology, strategies that explore the full extent of distance and proximity, the notion of tangible sound and constructing images in space contrasted to envelopment and immersion, spatial motion as sound identity, and how listeners are positioned within the spatial scene.