(15) Le rôle de l’espace dans les quatre conduites d’écoute
(21) Les attributs structurels
(22) Pour comprendre l’omniprésence de la structure dans l’espace, on peut d’abord revenir au point de vue proposé: l’énergie et la matière ‘revendiquent’ l’espace pour définir leur identité, et rendent l’espace « tangible » et vivant en retour. Aussi si l’énergie et la matière animent l’espace, on peut déduire que la structure devient tangible quand l’énergie et la matière sont perçues. L’être humain perçoit l’énergie et la matière, ainsi que leur organisation formelle dans l’espace à travers plusieurs sens.
To understand the omnipresence of structure in space, we may return, initially, to a previously discussed perspective: energy and matter ‘claim’ space as part of their identity, thus rendering space ‘tangible’ and alive. This perspective is shared, in part, by Henri Levebvre who notes, “[…] physical space ‘has no ‘reality’ without the energy that is deployed in it’ […]” (Levebvre in Smalley, 2007: 38). If energy and matter render space alive, we may infer that structure becomes tangible when energy and matter are perceived. The human being perceives energy and matter and, therefore, their formal organisation in space through a variety of senses (22) that include the faculty of sight, which utilises part of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to the naked eye (light) to discern spatial form and topology. Through touch, the human explores the surface and form of matter, where through thermoception (the perception of temperature by the skin), the human can demarcate spatial volume in substances such as air.[1] However, since the physiology of human hearing best suits the morphology of space and, therefore, spatial perception, humans create the most nuanced perceptions of spatial dimensions through hearing. For example, although the human ear is conceived to distinguish sounds most accurately within the field of vision, unlike sight, hearing is a spherical phenomenon since it operates in a 360° range. This might help to explain why human investigation of space has always been built through sound. Barry Blesser elaborates on the apprenticeship of spatial location and organisation in early man, the aptitude of which can be seen as the prototype for acousmatic listening:
“Had you grown up in an aural ‘tribe’, you would have become an expert at recognizing acoustic cues, and interpreting their relationship to those spatial ‘animals’ that created them. As an adolescent, […] you would have been taken through thousands of spaces in the ‘forest’ of soundscape niches. Many years of such training would have refined your auditory spatial awareness to a high art form. Because each ecological niche offers unique patterns, your ability to learn to recognize those important patterns would have contributed to your survival and to your tribe’s survival” (Blesser, 2007: 320).
(23) Outre le besoin vital, pour les premiers humains, de développer un sens de situation spatiale et d’organisation, on a aussi montré, grâce à des textes théologiques très anciens, le besoin chez l’humain d’organiser et de structurer l’espace. La Bible, par exemple, dont la première partie concerne la création et la structuration de l’espace, peut être considérée comme un témoignage de la pensée humaine primaire et fondamentale. En fait, l’organisation spatiale et la souveraineté se sont avérées centrales à l’existence humaine, étant donné que, tout au long de l’histoire, les combats fondamentaux de l’espèce humaine (qu’ils soient sociaux, politiques ou militaires) ont concerné l’espace.
(24) Pour parler du rôle de l’espace dans la musique acousmatique, on pourrait d’abord étudier son rôle dans l’art en général. Souvent, l’art sert à imiter et expliquer la réalité. Les différentes formes d’art s’appuient sur différents types d’organisation et de structuration spatiale pour transmettre divers messages réalistes.
(25) Bien que l’espace ait toujours fait partie de la musique, la théorisation de la dimension spatiale en musique a été sous-développé. Avec l’avènement des genres électroacoustiques et acousmatiques, l’architecture spatiale et l’exploitation de l’espace constituent un processus structurant en soi, un paramètre compositionnel pouvant dominer d’autres processus structurels tels que le spectre et le temps.
Further to early man’s need to develop spatial location and organisation as a survival skill, there is additional, documented evidence of the human need to organise and structure space, which can be found in early theological texts. The Bible, for example, can be seen as a testimony of early and fundamental human thinking, the first part of which concerns the creation and structuring of space.[2] Indeed, spatial organization and sovereignty have proven to be central to human existence because, as is evidenced through history, the fundamental battles of humankind (e.g. social, political, and military) have taken place over space. (23)
In order to address the role of space in acousmatic music, we may, initially, regard the role of space in the broader context of art. Often, art is intended to rehearse and explain reality. Different art forms rely on different types of spatial organisation and structure to convey diverse messages of reality. (24) For example, the characters and situations expressed through poetry or the narrative of prose occupy a psychological space, while a theatre play is conceived to render characters and situations expressed initially by text into three-dimensional space. Traditional tribal dance reveres and empowers social issues in three-dimensional space. Such dances are often choreographed for celebrations, and they may also be choreographed to invoke rain, fertility and trance, or prepare for war and death.[3] Music has often been thought of as addressing primarily the soul, and therefore as an art form that does not unfold in space, since the soul is not, traditionally, seen to unfold in space. Although space has always been an integral part of music, the theorization of the spatial dimension in music has been underdeveloped. With the advent of the electroacoustic and acousmatic genres, the architecture and deployment of space has become a structuring process in its own right, a compositional parameter that can lead other structuring processes such as spectra and time. (25)
Space in traditional versus acousmatic music
As noted, sound spectra may imply a vertical spatial axis. A traditional musical score represents the outcome of the evolution of organised sound spectra in vertical space over time, while respecting acoustic boundaries and interstices between spectra as well as unoccupied spectral space.[4] During performance, this process is most often mapped onto a static, three-dimensional spatial frame, in the sense that the sources are fixed in position. By contrast, in an acousmatic piece the evolution of sound spectra in vertical space is more variable and is, additionally, simultaneously titrated and mapped out onto a three-dimensional spatial frame during composition, the totality of which is recorded onto a supporting medium. This process allows the acousmatic composer to decide what part of spectral space is situated where in three-dimensional space at any instant during the piece.[5]
Structuring sound and space: a question of primacy or symbiosis
(26) Quand les compositeurs posent des sons dans un contexte acousmatique, essaient-ils de structurer les sons dans l’espace, ou bien l’espace grâce au son ? Les deux. Ainsi quand on demande de quelle manière l’espace contribue aux processus structurants, il ne faut pas oublier que ces processus répondent à notre besoin de structurer l’espace.
Within a musical work, because space becomes integrated and identified with acoustic energy, it becomes integrated and identified with structure and changes as structure is changed over time by the composer. However, viewed from another perspective, structure can be seen as organised space, the parameters of which evolve in time. This begets the following question. When composers place sounds in an acousmatic context, are they attempting to structure sounds through space, or space through sound? The answer is both. Therefore, when we ask how space contributes to structuring processes, we may keep in mind that structuring processes contribute to our need to structure space. (26)
[1] Aristotle classified the traditional five senses as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. However, science has since established that humans possess six additional senses, nocioception (pain), equilibrioception (balance), proprioception (sense of position and orientation of parts of the body), and kinesthesia (joint motion and acceleration), sense of time, thermoception (temperature differences), and magnetoception (direction) (Absolute Astronomy, 2010).
[3] This is not an exhaustive list.
[5] The stereophonic acousmatic idiom offers ample flexibility for spatial design within a stereo field. However, in the multichannel acousmatic idiom, the conception of space is at the prow of the poietic processes.