Category Archives: Space

by | March 12, 2025 · 6:00 am

Electroacoustic sound, multimedia, and digital opera

Digital opera has roots in electroacoustic works that integrate spatial soundscapes into performance, such as Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin (2000, pictured above). Musicologist Anna Schürmer offers a broader view, tracing its history even further, suggesting its origins may precede electroacoustic sound. Schürmer links the evolution of digitally mediated works to the construction of larger 18th century theaters, where sound connected audiences across physical divides. Earlier multimedia-infused productions, like Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die soldaten (1965), Harrison Birtwistle’s The mask of Orpheus (1986), Libby Larsen’s Frankenstein (1990), and Bill Viola’s The Tristan project (2004, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), are significant for their use of electronics. However, they fall short of utilizing digital sound sample processing. Additional antecedents include mid-20th century radio plays and performances where multimedia significantly shaped the auditory experience.

A production of Viola’s The Tristan project.

From Rihm’s Die Hamletmaschine.

The most prominent use of contemporary digital technology in opera lies in sound design, where digital processing techniques shape how audiences perceive sound within the performance space. This innovation builds on earlier milestones, including IRCAM (the French institute of research on music and sound) performances employing electronic or MIDI keyboards and voice, such as Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Hamletmaschine (1987) and various works by Karlheinz Stockhausen. In the 21st century, the digital manipulation of sound samples has become a staple–though often overlooked–in both contemporary and traditional operatic productions, with subtle amplification techniques further extending its reach.

This according to the new entry on digital opera by Megan Steigerwald Ille, in DEUMM Online.

Below is a performance of Die soldaten with music by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, along with an excerpt from Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin sung by the soprano, Susanna Phillips.

Read related Bibliolore posts:

https://bibliolore.org/2024/03/19/kaija-saariahos-avant-garde-sound-worlds/

https://bibliolore.org/2014/04/05/spohr-and-german-opera/

https://bibliolore.org/2011/07/10/italian-opera-manuals/

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by | December 16, 2024 · 6:00 am

The sonic weaponization of Saydnaya prison

The complex intersections of carceral violence and acoustics are particularly evident in the case of Saydnaya, the infamous military prison in Syria, known for its state-run torture practices under Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Often referred to as “the slaughterhouse”, the prison witnessed the hanging of as many as 13,000 individuals between 2011 and 2015. Survivor testimonies, along with the recent digital reconstruction of the prison’s interior, reveal that sound played a pivotal role in shaping the power dynamics within the Syrian prison system. Much of the violence inflicted in Saydnaya was acoustic in nature, intentionally designed around specific elements of the aural experience. The weaponization of sound in Saydnaya suggests that listening itself was manipulated as a mechanism of surveillance and torture, while paradoxically, it also became a means of resistance and survival.

Image credit: https://www.lightwork.org/archive/political-listening-the-forensic-acoustics-of-lawrence-abu-hamdan/

The Syrian prison can be conceptualized as an acoustically surveilled site, marked by intentional sensory deprivation, weaponized silence, extreme listening practices, and acousmatic violence–violence whose sound lacks a visible source. Such practices were not isolated but part of a broader pattern of sonic warfare, which some critical sound theorists have increasingly highlighted in their exploration of the role of sound in incarceration.

This according to “Prisonniers du son: La prison de Saydnaya en Syrie” by Maria Ristani, Lieux de mémoire sonore: Des sons pour survivre, des sons pour tuer, ed. by Luis Velasco-Pufleau and Laëtitia Atlani-Duault (Paris: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 2021, 21–35; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-107654).

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by | November 29, 2024 · 6:00 am

Neapolitan song and identity

With the unification of Italy, Naples lost its status as the capital, and following the devastating 1884 cholera epidemic, authorities launched a massive urban reorganization project similar to that of Paris. This overhaul largely obliterated the port districts, known as the “belly of Naples“, a dense network of alleys, warehouses, and narrow streets, which had been alive with cultural events, processions, collective rituals, and performances by storytellers, street actors, and barkers. The city’s historic urban fabric was replaced by modern, fast-flowing roads primarily designed for commercial purposes, marking what became known as the gutting of Naples—although, it also represented a redevelopment of the city. This transformation ushered in a dramatic shift in the city’s identity, turning it into a modern urban organism while leaving behind the image of the old, vibrant Bourbon capital. The changes also reshaped social dynamics, fostering the rise of a small bourgeoisie that, with a few exceptions, wholeheartedly embraced the national cause and capitalist development, which manifested in the realms of journalism, theater, painting, literature, and art song.

The poet Salvatore Di Giacomo was the driving force behind the emergence of the new Neapolitan art song. His poetry, set to music by composers such as Enrico De Leva, Mario Pasquale Costa, and Francesco Paolo Tosti, signaled a decisive break from previous traditions. This collaboration between respected scholars and accomplished composers established the foundation for what would come to be known as the “Neapolitan song”, marking the beginning of a new era in the genre.

Salvatore Di Giacomo

While Di Giacomo and his collaborators pioneered a new approach to song, the form of the song itself was evolving. It adopted a structure characterized by a verse-and-refrain format, and over time, this structure became more refined and simplified compared to Di Giacomo’s earlier, more elaborate courtly compositions. The new Neapolitan song emerged as a distinct form, better aligned with modern entertainment standards, and in an era of a burgeoning popular culture, this new song form proved to be a more versatile and adaptable genre, suitable for various settings, yet still preserving the lyrical and musical qualities that had defined earlier forms.

Neapolitan song was a key element in a broader, successful effort to redefine the image of a city that, after the unification of Italy, needed to forge a new identity. However, the city was burdened by long-standing issues, including a largely illiterate population with unstable employment. This population had swelled over the centuries due to the unique relationship between the urban elite and the rural peasantry in the Kingdom of Naples. A significant portion of this population consisted of common people, possessing a cohesive and resilient culture deeply rooted in pre-Christian, magical, and irrational traditions. This cultural foundation both influenced and clashed with the emerging new Neapolitan identity.

This according to the article of the week by Giovanni Vacca in DEUMM Online.

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by | September 18, 2024 · 6:00 am

Between kampung and puri in Bali

Indonesian Balinese Muslim communities, or kampung, have developed distinctive performing arts nurtured through their social and cultural interactions with their Hindu rulers and neighbors. Each kampung has its unique history and ancestral roots but generally maintains special and interdependent connections with the regional Balinese nobility, centered around the royal palaces, or puri. The puri provides authentication, social recognition, and financial support to the kampung, while the kampung contribute through their skills, loyalty, and specific knowledge, including labor. These relationships have persisted for centuries, deeply influencing Muslim Balinese cultural practices, particularly their performing arts traditions.

A Balinese dance performance.

Muslim Balinese performing arts have long emphasized the historical, social, and cultural interplay between puri and kampung, with examples from eastern and southern Bali. The puri often offer performance opportunities for Muslim Balinese, allowing them to express their cultural identity and strengthen their community presence. In turn, the puri benefit from showcasing their power and history through these performances. Thus, the performing arts not only sustain these reciprocal relationships but also enhance social cohesion within the neighborhood and foster a unified local community.

This according to “Performing arts as a cultural bridge between Hindu rulers and Muslim communities in Bali” by Ako Mashino, Performing arts and the royal courts of Southeast Asia II: Pusaka as documented heritage, ed. by Mayco Santaella (Leiden: Brill, 2024, 45–68; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2024-3868).

The video below shows a royal wedding ceremony held at a Balinese puri.

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by | August 14, 2024 · 6:00 am

Futurist art and the nonpitched machine

Luigi Russolo’s contributions to art and music extend beyond his well-known manifesto, L’arte dei rumori (The art of noises). While he has been celebrated for his theoretical and practical advancements in noise music, his role as a painter and his impact on futurist art are equally significant. As one of the signatories of the futurist painting manifesto (1910), Russolo was deeply involved in the early development of futurism, an artistic and social movement that celebrated modernity, technology, and the dynamism of contemporary life. His painting Treno in velocità (Speeding train), a pivotal work that reflects the futurist fascination with speed and technological progress, exemplifies this enthusiasm for capturing movement and modern machinery.

House+Light+Sky (1913)

In his paintings from this period, Russolo explored the themes of motion, not just through the depiction of machines like trains and automobiles, but also by capturing the energy of crowds of protesters and other dynamic urban scenes. This exploration extended well beyond visual art into the realm of sound, culminating in his manifesto on noise, where he argued for a broader appreciation of the everyday sounds of industrial and urban life.

Synthèse plastique des mouvements d’une femme (Plastic synthesis of a woman’s movements, 1912)

Russolo’s invention of the intonarumori (noise instruments) was a direct extension of his artistic principles. These instruments were designed to produce a variety of noises, challenging conventional notions of musicality and embracing the sounds of the modern world. His compositions for these instruments anticipated future developments in experimental music and had a lasting influence on composers like George Antheil, Edgard Varèse, and John Cage. Russolo’s work represented an innovative fusion of visual art and sound, reflecting the futurist ideals of embracing the new and the dynamic. His influence extended into music and remains a testament to his innovative spirit in both the visual and auditory domains.

This according to “Pasajes sonoros [y ruidistas] de la ciudad futurista” by Juan Agustín Mancebo Roca (Ausart aldizkaria: Arte ikerkuntzarako aldizkaria/Journal for research in art/Revista para la investigación en arte 9/1 [2021] 127–142; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-16831). Also find the entry on Luigi Russolo in A dictionary of the avant-gardes (2001). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.

The image at the beginning of this post is Russolo’s Dinamismo di un’ automobile (Dynamism of a car, 1913).

Below, the musician Mike Patton and Luciano Chessa test out reconstructed futurist noise machines based on intonarumori for an exhibit.

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by | May 21, 2024 · 6:00 am

Beethoven’s ninth in millennial culture

For nearly two centuries, Beethoven’s ninth symphony, which premiered on 7 May 1824 at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, has held musical audiences captive. Few other musical works hold such a prominent place in the collective imagination, and each subsequent generation has rediscovered the work for itself and made it its own. Understanding the significance of the symphony in contemporary culture requires a dialog between Beethoven’s world and ours, marked by the earth-shattering events of 1789 and of 1989.

What is special about the ninth in contemporary millennial culture is that the music is encoded not only as score but also as digital technology. We encounter Beethoven 9 flashmobs, digitally reconstructed concert halls, globally synchronized performances, and other time-bending procedures. The digital artwork 9 beet stretch by Leif Inge, for instance, presents the ninth at glacial speed over the span of 24 hours, challenging our understanding of the symphony and encouraging us to confront the temporal dimension of Beethoven’s music. In the digital age, the ninth emerges as a musical work that is recomposed and reshaped; robust enough to live up to such treatment, and continually adapting to a changing world with changing media.

A presentation of <9 beet stretch> by Leif Inge.

Learn more in Beethoven’s symphony no. 9 by Alexander Rehding (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2018). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 2018-4097]. In case you missed it, the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven’s ninth symphony was on 7 May 2024.

Below are three videos of Beethoven flash mobs in Hong Kong, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the last in Azerbaijan.

Hong Kong
Minneapolis
Azerbaijan

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by | March 8, 2024 · 6:00 am

Western classical music as sonic weapon

Western classical music has been celebrated for its capacity to enlighten, to move, and as proponents of the Mozart effect suggest, improve listeners’ mental capacity. However, over the past 30 years in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, classical music has also come to function not just as art or entertainment but as a sonic weapon. It has been used as a means of dispelling and deterring so-called “loiterers” by making certain public and privately owned public spaces, including shopping malls, bus stations, shop fronts, and car parks undesirable to occupy.

The origins of such practice began in 1985 when a branch manager of a 7-Eleven convenience store in British Colombia, Canada began broadcasting classical and easy listening music into the store’s parking lot to prevent local teenagers from congregating. Since then, classical music has been used as a deterrent on public transport systems in Portland, Oregon, in library foyers to deter smokers and loiterers in Canada, and in train stations of northeast England, where the broadcasting of music by the composer Frederick Delius targeted what was described as “low level antisocial behavior”.

Ted Crow/Washington Post

In such cases, the weaponization of Western music can be recognized as an audio-affective technology of what Neil Smith (1996,1998) called “the revanchist city”, resonating with the spatial logics of urban revanchism–drawing comparisons with the mixture of militarism and moralism that characterized the bourgeois, reactionary revanchists of late-19th century Paris. In this context, it becomes a means to affectively police the boundaries of public space, guarding against unwanted and threatening populations. There is also, however, an apparent tension in the audio-affective functioning of Western classical music as a deterrent. Although classical music is thought to improve the undesirable behavior attributed to loitering because of its capacity to soothe and calm, it also drives away and inhibits loiterers by generating negative affections (i.e., sensations of irritation, alienation, and annoyance). While affect has been posited as a site of freedom by comparison to the predictability of social determinisms, weaponized classical music exemplifies how musical affect can reproduce social stratification.

Learn more in “To soothe or remove? Affect, revanchism, and the weaponized use of classical music” by Marie Thompson (Communication and the public II/4 [December 2017], 272–283). Find this journal in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature.

Listen to Frederick Delius’ On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring below.

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