sound materials and understanding structural ing of my 'Spectromorphology and structuring processes' in The relationships. So descriptive and conceptual tools Language of Electroacoustic Music (Smalley 1986). The developwhich classify and relate sounds and structures can ment of spectromorphological thinking owes most to Pierre Schaeffer's Traité des objets musicaux (Schaeffer 1966). be valuable compositional aids. Spectromorphological
The analytical discussion of acousmatic music can benefit from being based on spatial concepts, and this article aims to provide a framework for investigation. A personal experience of soundscape listening is the starting point, and uncovers basic ideas relating to the disposition and behaviour of sounding content, and listening strategy. This enables the opening out of the discussion to include source-bonded sounds in general, giving particular consideration to how experience of sense modes other than the aural are implicated in our understanding of space, and in acousmatic listening. Attention then shifts to a source-bonded spatial model based on the production of space by the gestural activity of music performance, prior to focusing in more detail on acousmatic music, initially by delving into spectral space, where ideas about gravitation and diagonal forces are germane. This leads to concepts central to the structuring of perspectival space in relation to the vantage point of the listener. The final section considers a methodology for space-form investigation.
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