Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
10-2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Music
Advisor
David Olan
Subject Categories
History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology | Music
Keywords
collage, electonic music, electroacoustic music, found sounds
Abstract
This dissertation contains a historical analysis of the emergence of found sounds or everyday noises as a compositional strategy in Western art music through the first half of the 20th century. Pioneering works are examined to determine the motives and aesthetic goals that first led composers to bring noise to the musical surface, including the avant-garde collaboration Parade, Futurist noise experiments, and Pierre Schaeffer's early work with musique concrète. These early works are used to create two analytical spectra with which to analyze contemporary pieces that incorporate founds sounds with instrumental music: one spectrum that considers the level of integration of a noise with the instrumental or pitched material, and another that measures the degree to which the everyday noises have been defamiliarized from their original context. This mechanism for analysis is employed in four case studies: Steve Reich's Different Trains, Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes II, DJ Spooky's Zeta Reticulli/If I Told Him a Complete Portrait of Picasso, and The Books' The Lemon of Pink I.
Recommended Citation
Stock, Jennifer, "The Art of the Commonplace: Found Sounds in Compositional Practice" (2014). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/390
Shivelights_I.mov (236620 kB)
Shivelights_II.mov (127235 kB)
Shivelights_Thre.mov (99948 kB)