WYH ≠ WYG - WHAT YOU HEAR IS NOT WHAT YOU GET
Impossible Mimesis as Creative Misreading in Elaborate Audio Scores

Just as it is impossible to imitate another person completely, it is impossible to replicate a sound exactly. Our hearing affords us considerable latitude in interpreting similarity: to be accepted as mimetic, sounds often only need to seem alike in some respect (mostly their dynamic & pitch envelope or their noisiness). But what if, as a musician tasked with imitating a specific sound on your instrument, you have an instrument that does not fit in any way - if you must imitate a birdsong on your harp, or a deep machine growl on your piccolo? Players who want to fulfil their given task must thus become inventive - and composers can thus reckon with their inventivity in devising the audio score. In his talk, Bhagwati will draw on examples from his work over several to illustrate how such creative misreading offers new aesthetic possibilities - and fosters an elastic, non-hierarchic approach to basic parameters of musicking (time, pitch, rhythm).