The Sound is the Music - From Shamanism to Quantum Sound

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University of Canterbury
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2021
Authors
Kokoras, Panayiotis
Abstract

If music is organized Sound and sounds are just thoughts, then do we need Sound to make music? Renown avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse (1883-1965), in his text The Liberation of Sound popularized the notion that music is organized Sound;1 and Andrea Moro a distinguished linguist and neuroscientist, in his book Impossible Languages, suggested that language can also be present in the absence of Sound, like “when we read or when we use words while thinking.”2 That assumes that we have already learned a language before we can “internalize” the sounds. Similarly, composers and conductors are trained to “hear” the orchestra’s sound inside their heads with great accuracy. This training is to prepare for the moment the premiere is performed live on stage in front of the audience. Hearing the sounds in our heads from the manuscript doesn’t seem to give the same kind of listening experience. Seating in the concert hall watching the orchestra perform may not be music either. Nina Sun Eidsheim wrote, singing or playing an instrument is an action not the sound.3 So, when does sound become Sound?

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.