Sound as Score

In the 1950s Schaeffer assembled the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) to create a catalog of sound objects and their specifications, the so-called solfège. The outcome of this groundbreaking research, gives rise to new thinking about compositional methods with a focus on the medium of sound and listening. Continuing technological progress allows electronic music composers to use the medium sound, as opposed to writing, as a process-oriented score for musicians.

As a composer and musician of electronic music since the 1980s my medium is sound. When I was asked in 2009 to compose a piece for RSO (Radio-Symphonieorchester) Vienna I had to think about how to communicate with this sound body. I opted for what I do best - sound and listening. Since that year I have developed two different methods of communication with musicians - the live generated audio score, where the performers have to imitate the live generated electronic sounds they hear through a loudspeaker, and the audio score based on acoustic memory, where the musicians are given a set of sound samples for interpretation on their instruments and then in the performance this interpretation has to be played from memory. This lecture examines the method, scoring, practice and rehearsal, as well as the artistic results using examples from The Virus series and the music theater piece Pricked and Away.