somewhat off-topic perhaps, but i wanted to see if any of you have recommendations for books on electronic/electroacoustic music composition.

i’m looking not so much for max tutorials or synthesis techniques, but more for texts on how to construct & compose with electronic sound.

i’ve been reading “on sonic art” and “sound composition” by trevor wishart, and highly recommend these for composition/structuring ideas.

many thanks in advance for any other tips!

Besides that, Dennis Smalley’s article on ‘spectromorphology’ presents some interesting ways to think about structure, motion, contour, etc.

You might also find James Tenney’s “Meta-Hodos and META Meta-Hodos: A Phenomenology of 20th Century Musical Materials and an Approach to the Study of Form” to be insightful, though it’s not focused on electronic/electroacoustic sound/music.

“in search of a concrete music” has just recently been translated into english actually.

something i haven’t read yet, but might also be interesting, is “music 109: notes on experimental music” by alvin lucier.

if anyone has other suggestions, please keep ‘m coming..

I have compiled a listing for resources that have been useful to me in the past. Including resources that others have recommended that I have yet to get to.

Aesthetics:
Smalley’s seminal articles on spectromorphology are a must, if you haven’t read them already…
* Smalley, Denis. “Spectromorphology: explaining sound-shapes” Organized Sound 2(2). Cambridge University Press, 1997.
* Smalley, Denis. “The Listening Imagination: Listening in the Electroacoustic Era.” Contemporary Music Review 13(2), 1996.

Barry Truax’s book on soundscape composition is, perhaps, aesthetically opposite of Smalley’s work:
* Truax, Barry. Acoustic Communication. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing, 2001.

Analysis:
* Battier, Marc. “A Constructivist Approach to the Analysis of Electronic Music and Audio Art -between instruments and faktura.” Organized Sound 8(3). Cambridge University Press, 2003.

* Kendall, Gary. “Meaning in Electroacoustic Music and the Everyday Mind.” Organized Sound 15(1). Cambridge University Press, 2010.
* Licata, Thomas. Electro-Acoustic Music: Analytical Perspectives. Westport, CT: GreenwoodPress, 2002.

The Licata is a big book full of analytical approaches. I highly recommend reading through Andrew May’s analysis of Philippe Manoury’s Jupiter, though it is all pretty good.

Techniques:

* Barrett, Natasha. “Spatio-musical Composition Strategies.” Organized Sound 7(3). Cambridge University Press, 2002.
* Sandred, Örjan. “Approaches to Using Rules as a Composition Method.” Contemporary Music Review, 28(2), 2009.
* Smalley, Denis. “Space-form and the Acousmatic Image.” Organized Sound 12(1). Cambridge University Press, 2007.
* Wishart, Trevor “On Sonic Art” and “Audible Design”

Of course electroacoustic studies can not be done with out experiencing electroacoustic music itself.
Here are some suggested pieces to listen to (in no particular order)…

* Erik Mikael Karlsson – Un et Deux
* Luigi Ceccarrelli – Cadenza Esplosa
* Natasha Barrett – Red Snow
* Palle Dahlstedt – Gummi (Rubber)
* Ake Parmerud – Les Object Obscurs, also Jeux Imaginaiers
* Gilles Gobeil – Le Vertige Inconnu
* Adrian Moore – A Study in Ink

Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Music, edited by Mary Simoni. New York: Routledge. 2006.

A couple that I’m currently reading:

Understanding the Art of Sound Organization, Leigh Landy

The Language of Electroacoustic Music, Simon Emmerson

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/nc81/modules/cm2/reading.html

@stringtapper: I found Landy’s book crucial for comprehending (what he calls) sound-based music from a broader perspective.

I’m struggling to recall which text I recently read, maybe either the Holmes or Manning, that discusses how the term “electroacoustic” in many ways has come to signify “high art” music, generally that produced at the academy, that in some way contains electronic elements, whether acoustic instruments are present or not. So in that sense the term has a more cultural meaning than a strictly technical one.

Of course, cultural (and sub-cultural) politics will always enter into it at some point, it seems…

Electroacoustic music are compositions which incorporate human performers playing instruments and live electronics.

I’ve got to disagree with you. Historically, this term was coined to talk about music that incorporated the Paris-based ‘musique concrète’ made of recorded acoustic sounds, and synthesis sounds for the Köln-based ‘elektronische Musik’. ‘Gesang der Jünglinge’ by our friend from Sirius was a very early example of it… and Varèse’s ‘poème électronique’

What you talk about is mixed music (musique mixte) and there is a very good book that offers a good historical overview of all the challenges of such music: Simon Emmerson’s Living Electronic Music.

my 2 cents

p