From culture to nature and back. A personal journey through the soundscapes of Colombia
(2020)
author(s): Lamberto Coccioli
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies, Birmingham City University
The purpose of this essay is twofold: to celebrate the astonishing richness and diversity of Colombia’s natural and human soundscapes, and to reconstruct the process through which my direct experience of those soundscapes has influenced my own creative work as a composer. Reflecting on a long personal and intellectual journey of discovery that plays out on many levels – musical, anthropological, aesthetical – helps bring to the fore important questions on music composition as the locus of cultural appropriation and reinterpretation. How far can the belief system of a distant culture travel before it loses its meaning? From a post-colonial perspective, can a European composer justify the use and repurposing of ideas, sounds and songs from marginalised indigenous communities? In trying to give an answer to these questions through the lens of my own experience I keep unravelling layer upon layer of complexity, in a fascinating game of mirrors where my own identity as a "Western" composer starts crumbling away.
Catch and Release: Field Recordings as Source for Instrumental Composition
(2016)
author(s): Yvonne Freckmann
published in: KC Research Portal
The richness and variety of sound in field recordings has inspired numerous electro-acoustic and soundscape compositions, but what about the traditional composition realm? Is there a way to translate for and combine soundscapes with another medium? “How can field recordings be used as a source for instrumental compositions?” is the main research question under investigation here, which developed out of my creative pursuits in composing for instruments and field recordings. The first method I personally applied was to transcribe a field recording by ear for a mixed ensemble for Train, which simultaneously played the transcription with the original audio. The process and results of this piece prompted me to think and read more about mimesis in music, and how the two worlds of electro-acoustic/soundscape and instrumental music can combine. This research paper contains a short introduction to the historical context of mimesis in music (vocal/instrumental and electro-acoustic) to provide the connection of current trends to the past. To investigate the main approaches I proceeded to analyze and categorize music of field recordings with instruments. Using these analysis tools and categories, I investigated examples within roughly the past sixty years of pieces that use field recordings as source for instrumental music, be it for transcription, score, background, or for live interaction. The research results are detailed in four chapters, “Analysis Tools”, “Five Categories”, and two chapters on original compositions. The concepts of place and live versus pre-recorded sound were interesting to investigate as well.