There are many excellent works for piano and tape; however, there have been an insufficient number of pianists widely performing these works. The purpose of this article is to critically analyse the rhythmic relationships between piano and tape, serving a pedagogical function for both composers and pianists in technical and aesthetic terms. Hopefully these techniques will encourage pianists to include music for piano and tape as part of their repertoire.

This paper presents a three-stage model (analysis, reconstruction and performance) for the conservation of interactive electroacoustic works for which the original technology is now obsolete or otherwise unavailable. The first stage, analysis, is a detailed documentation of the electronic processes and effects required for each work in a format that is independent of any specific device or system. The analysis provides a blueprint for future realisations using available technology. The second stage, reconstruction, provides a working performance resource, as well as a test case for the validity of the analysis. Reconstructed systems are then tested and refined through the third stage, performance. With repeated performances, compositions gain wider exposure and may be evaluated by listeners on their musical merits. To date, the author has analysed, reconstructed and performed several works for clarinet and interactive electronics. Each performance has informed the continued development of the newly reconstructed system, and has in some cases led to corrections to the underlying analysis. As a classically trained clarinettist and computer musician, the author's approach to the conservation of electroacoustic repertoire comes from a desire to find performable works and to keep them viable and accessible for as long as possible. Four works for clarinet and interactive electronics (by Musgrave, Pennycook, Kramer, and Lippe) are presented as test cases for this model.

This paper has two main objectives: (i) to discuss essential concepts of the ecological approach to composition, proposing the term eco-composition as a common reference for theoretical perspectives and compositional techniques; and (ii) to present the multimedia piece Vivir sin después, realised within the context of the Paititi Project.

Following the Introduction, the paper is divided into two main sections. In section 2 we discuss issues raised by the application of the ecological approach to composition. Regarding the data-gathering procedures, eco-composition provides two effective methods: re-enaction and anchoring. Organisation of sonic materials is done through accumulation of heterarchical layers, giving rise to emergent musical phenomena. Section 3 dwells on the compositional strategies applied in the multimedia installation Vivir sin después. We describe the process of re-enacting the first Spanish trip through the Amazon River Basin, carried out by Francisco de Orellana and fifty-nine Spaniards in 1541. Then we address technical aspects of the piece, such as the application of multiple views of single entities, the development of non-hierarchical forms and the manipulation of sonic fields.

This paper seeks to address some of the problems faced by those archiving an area of musical practice – electroacoustic music and the sonic arts – which is, by definition, involved with technologies which change and develop, and which unsurprisingly is itself in a state of flux and transformation. Drawing on the experience gained from two linked research projects – one looking at the development of the practice, the other seeking to archive it – it is suggested that the two apparently disparate areas of activity can be fruitfully regarded as overlapping in many respects. Both activities involve selection and aesthetic judgement, both strive for an elusive ‘completeness’ while acknowledging its impossibility, and at a technical level the strategies now emerging for searching and collating information from ‘separate’ archives look increasingly like the strategies used in some areas of ‘real-time’ composition and performance practice. It is argued that archivists of material from such a disparate and rapidly developing practice, rather than aiming for spurious ‘coverage’ of the field, should acknowledge and celebrate their difference from each other, while conforming to simple principles which will allow their archived content to be searched and collated dynamically by individual users, each querying and configuring the material optimally for their own purposes.

In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework for the design of tangible interfaces for musical expression. The main insight for the proposed approach is the importance and utility of familiar sensorimotor experiences for the creation of engaging and playable new musical instruments. In particular, we suggest exploiting the commonalities between different natural interactions by varying the auditory response or tactile details of the instrument within certain limits. Using this principle, devices for classes of sounds such as coarse grain collision interactions or friction interactions can be designed. The designs we propose retain the familiar tactile aspect of the interaction so that the performer can take advantage of tacit knowledge gained through experiences with such phenomena in the real world.

One of the most remarkable achievements of Pierre Schaeffer's musical thought is his proposal of the sonorous object as the focus of research. The sonorous object is a fragment of sound, typically in the range of a few seconds (often even less), perceived as a unit. Sonorous objects are constituted, studied, and evaluated according to various criteria, and sonorous objects that are found suitable are regarded as musical objects that may be used in musical composition. In the selection and qualification of these sonorous objects, we are encouraged to practise what Schaeffer called ‘reduced listening’, meaning disregarding the original context of the sound, including its source and signification, and instead focus our listening on the sonorous features.

However, it can be argued that this principle of ‘reduced listening’ is not in conflict with more fundamental principles of embodied cognition, and that the criteria for the constitution, and the various feature qualifications, of sonorous objects can be linked to gestural images. Also, there are several similarities between studying sound and gestures from a phenomenological perspective, and it is suggested that Schaeffer's theoretical concepts may be extended to what is called gestural-sonorous objects.

The Video Archive of Electroacoustic Music, an oral history project begun in 1996 by the author and sociologist, Barbara Cassidy, captures a first-person history of many pioneering electroacoustic music composers, scientists and engineers from 1950 to present. Transcript excerpts from The Archive are presented. Simultaneous with the founding of The Video Archive, the author began composing a series of pieces that draw on archival materials (from within and without The Video Archive) in a number of ways. Some possible compositional opportunities and approaches are mentioned and explored as embodied in the author's Left To His Own Devices (1996), and Crossing Boundaries (2000).

My research at the London College of Communication is concerned with archives of recorded speech, what new tools need to be devised for its manipulation and how to go about this process of invention. Research into available forms of analysis of speech is discussed below with regard to two specific areas, feature vectors from linear predictive coding (LPC) analysis and hidden Markov-model-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. These are discussed in order to demonstrate that whilst aspects of each may be useful in devising a system of speech-archive manipulation for artistic use. Their drawbacks and deficiencies for use in art – consequent of the reasons for their invention – necessitate the creation of tools with artistic, rather than engineering agendas in mind.

It is through the initial process of devising conceptual tools for understanding speech as sound objects that I have been confronted with issues of semiotics and semantics of the voice and of the relationship between sound and meaning in speech, and of the role of analysis in mediating existing methods of communication. This is discussed with reference to Jean-Jacques Nattiez's Music and Discourse: Towards a Semiology of Music (Nattiez 1987). The ‘trace’ – a neutral level of semiotic analysis proposed by Nattiez, far from being hypothetical as suggested by Hatten (1992: 88–98) and others, is present by analogy to many forms of mediation in modern spoken communication and the reproduction of music, and it is precisely this neutrality with regards to meaning that tools for manipulation of speech must possess, since the relationships between the sound of speech and its meaning are ‘intense’ (after Deleuze 1968).

The significant role of visual communication in modern computer applications is indisputable. In the case of music, various attempts have been made from time to time to translate non-visual ideas into visual codes (see Walters 1997 for a collection of graphic scores from the late computer music pioneer Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others). In computer music research, most current sound design tools allow the direct manipulation of visual representations of sound such as time-domain and frequency-domain representations, with the most notable examples being the UPIC system (Xenakis 1992), Phonogramme (Lesbros 1996), Lemur (Fitz and Haken 1997), and MetaSynth (Wenger 1998), among others. Associations between auditory and visual dimensions have also been extensively studied in other scientific domains such as visual perception and cognitive psychology, as well as inspired new forms of artistic expression (see, for example, Wells 1980; Goldberg and Schrack 1986; Whitney 1991).

Edgard Varèse's Poème électronique can be viewed as a bridge between early twentieth-century modernism and electroacoustic music. This connection to early modernism is most clearly seen in its use of musical juxtaposition, a favoured technique of early modernist composers, especially those active in Paris. Juxtaposition and non-motion are considered here, particularly in relationship to Smalley's exposition of spectromorphology (Smalley 1986), which in its preoccupation with motion omits any significant consideration of non-motion. Juxtaposition and non-motion have an important history within twentieth-century music, and as an early classic of electroacoustic music, Poème électronique is a particularly striking example of a composition that is rich in juxtapositions similar to those found in passages of early modernist music. Examining Poème électronique through the lens of juxtaposition and non-motion reveals how the organisation of its juxtaposed sounds encourages the experience of sound structure suspended time.

The word ‘noise’ has taken on various meanings throughout the course of twentieth-century music. Technology has had direct influence on the presence of noise, as phenomenon and as concept, both through its newfound ubiquity in modernity and through its use directly in music production – in electroacoustics. The creative use of technologies has lead to new representation systems for music, and noise – considered as that outside of a given representation – was brought into meaning. This paper examines several moments in which a change in representation brought noise into musical consideration – leading to a ‘noise music’ for its time before simply becoming understood as music.

The birth of electroacoustic music is associated with an era of creativity which is now firmly embedded in the past. As the years advance so the opportunities for evaluating the pioneering years of the medium become increasingly remote. Few can now claim first-hand experience of working with the technologies that shaped and influenced the evolution of the early repertory, and many commentators are content to see them consigned to the museum. Others are less sure, having become aware of a number of features that appear to have no parallels in the modern all-digital domain. This article is predicated on the proposition that the functional characteristics of the equipment available during the formative years materially influenced the ways in which composers developed their compositional aesthetic. By studying the characteristics of the resulting interactions, important clues emerge as to the true nature of this engagement. Central to this study is the nature of the techné involved in these processes of creativity, and the significance of this is evaluated in the context of establishing a case for further research in this area. Particular attention is paid to the role of the tape recorder in this context, in particular its influence on the development of spatialisation techniques.

A casual listener may not have the relevant cognitive tools to relate to electroacoustic music as an independent art form. Even music students who have had several years' formal training may not know how to listen purposefully to it. The authors investigate the hypothesis that by engaging in the composition of musique concrète, students will become more informed listeners to electroacoustic music in general. This study describes a teacher and ten 16-year-old high school students who use a digital audio editor (Cool Edit Pro) to manipulate sound and to structure sound events. A variety of teaching approaches are tested. Having experienced the creative process, the participants display a growing ability to engage in higher-order critical thinking skills in relation to electroacoustic music.

The Intention/Reception (I/R) project concerns an investigation of the relationship between composer intention and listener response in electroacoustic (E/A) compositions. Phase one of the project focuses on E/A compositions that contain or are perceived to contain real-world sound references (RWE/A). The methodology involves introducing works that are unknown to the listening subjects and then evaluating their listening experience. Through repeated listening and the introduction of the composers' articulation of intent (through a work's title, inspiration, elements that the composer intends to be communicated, eventually elements of the compositional process itself – in short, the ‘dramaturgy’ of the work) listening responses are monitored. The purpose here is to investigate to what extent familiarity contributes to access and appreciation and to what extent intention and reception are meeting in this particular corpus of E/A art music.

This paper offers an introduction to the I/R project outlining its background, its context and presenting pertinent points concerning the design and operation of its methodology. Following this, some of the key results discovered thus far, including the first presentation of test data that formed the basis of the conclusions of a recently completed doctoral thesis, will be shared.