Personal Examples of Sounds and Spectra as Symbols
Jacob David Sudol · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2022
Abstract This chapter discusses how Jacob Sudol’s compositional practice has primarily relied on sounds and spectra to convey extra-musical meaning. In particular it describes how the composer created a personal musical language in which specific sonic and musical materials function as complex symbols that progressively reveal themselves and interact with each other throughout time. This chapter also describes the extra-musical inspirations for a number of these symbols, as well as how they have developed across multiple works. The chapter concludes with a suggestion that using spectral techniques as symbols or hierophanies can potentially be an efficacious approach to imbue compositions with greater spiritual, transcendental, or just experiential depth.