Lasse Thoresen



	Lasse Thoresen (2006) The AURAL SONOLOGY PROJECT The Aural Sonology Project is a research into a novel approach to aural analysis, and attempting to analyse music as represented on a phonogram, rather than on a score. The approach is particularly useful for dealing with music for which no score is available (e.g. electroacoustic music) or music in which there is no simple one-to-one correspondence between score and the aural phenomenon (which is often the case with late romantic and impressionist music as well as contemporary music), although music in which such a correspondence is evident (e.g. classical Western music) is by no means excluded, as long as the piece is represented on a phonogram. Aural Sonology shifts the focus of musical analysis from applying analytical concepts to what the analyst sees in a score, towards what she hears. The musical object is not entirely an objective fact but is partly constituted by the listener’s intentions. Accordingly, in order to achieve a systematic analytical approach with a degree of intersubjective consensus, the analytical methods are backed up by a theory of listening intentions, and these are not only to be identified but to be practiced by the analyst: she must learn to observe, discern and select a specific listening intention of her own mind, as well as be able to set and maintain a consistent focus on selected strands of the multidimensional reality of music as heard. The Aural Sonology Project began in the 1970s. The two main influences were Sonology as taught at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht Netherlands (today moved to the Royal Conservatory at the Hague) and the phenomenologically oriented, spectromorphological point of view articulated by Pierre Schaeffer’s “Traité des objets musicaux”, and further expanded at INA/GRM, Paris, France. The ideas gathered were subsequently refined at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, through collaboration between professor Olav Anton Thommessen and Lasse Thoresen. The development of the methods of analysis took place within the context of a circle comprising performers and composers, which accounts for the general orientation towards an applied branch of music theory designed to enhance artistic sensibilities and cognition. Aural Sonology has been regularly taught at the Academy since the beginning of the 1980s, and has continued to evolve interactively in the dialogue between students and teachers. It has been the aim of the project to develop a conceptual structure of analysis and theory that is not uniquely reserved for a particular compositional style or expression, but addresses music appreciation in Western art music – including contemporary music - on a general basis. Aural Sonology has consistently been concerned with aural consciousness during a period of music history in which creative musical thinking has largely been concentrated on the development of novel compositional techniques and technology. The serial composition technique depended on the written medium as its extra-temporal support; algorithmic approaches to music tended to substitute the sonic representation of music with a model. The motivation for launching the Aural Sonology Project was a strong impression that the aural aspect of contemporary music was being neglected by contemporary composers to the detriment of its ability to communicate with a non-specialized audience. The Aural Sonology Project therefore seeks to enhance the listeners’ ability to encounter and evaluate the sonic results of any technical procedure, by an explication and conceptualisation of its perceived, aural syntax. Moreover, Aural Sonology intends to benefit from the study of the aural syntaxes and principles of form in music that have already proven to make sense in a greater community of listeners. This will be done through an effort to formulate observations in an abstract way such as to facilitate its eventual transfer to new sonic materials. Therefore, Aural Sonology seeks to conceptualise and represent graphically that which makes syntactical sense in music as heard. That music – even new music - ought to make sense to the average listener, not only to the composer or the intellectual elite, was a position occasionally attacked by the most fervent adherents of the avant garde, for whom alienation, negation and fragmentation were the highest ideals for contemporary music. The methodological approach chosen combines a phenomenological perspective with a pragmatic use of selected structuralist techniques. Phenomenology provides the global outlook, with its emphasis on the life world (hence music as heard), its explication of intentionalities, and its emphasis on describing and reflecting on an experienced object, rather than on its explanation. Although a number of books and essays have been written on the subject of musical phenomenology, as well as on music from a phenomenological perspective, all seem to overlook the need to develop a terminology suitable for describing the phenomenon of music in experiential terms, falling back either on philosophical jargon, everyday language, or a terminology of traditional musicology or acoustics. Aural Sonology has taken the step to construct a new and consistent terminology based on aural experience and correlated through specified structural relationships. While structuralist techniques provide helpful schemata for organizing a conceptual world, structuralism as such lacks the concept of a conscious, perceiving subject, and has a tendency to overlook the particular in favour of a postulated universality. The phenomenological perspective counterbalances this deficiency of structuralism. All the structural concepts developed are condensed into a set of graphic symbols, so that the concepts can be used in practical analysis. The structural models devised in Aural Sonology are all related to a consistent selection of features in the perceived music. Music as heard is a concretum, and is therefore a composite of several attributes, containing an almost infinite amount of information, given the number of listener intentions by which it can be heard. In our analytical context, the analyst will have to select and focus consistently on one strand of aural order; one that seems to be of importance to the organization of the music as a whole. Such a consistent focus on organizing features within the musical context could be termed an isotopy with a term adopted from structural semantics. An isotopy in our context is a consistent strand of aural gestalts perceived to contain features essential for the organization of long stretches of the musical discourse. An isotopy may be said to be the underlying problem space of a piece of music, thus the overarching aspect of complementary opposites. For each particular musical isotopy there is a corresponding particular selective listening intention. The Aural Sonology Project has thus far focused on the level of musical form in creating methodical approaches to isotopic structures. The general isotopies relevant to form building that we at present have managed to develop are: Time-fields (the temporal segmentation of the musical discourse) Layers (the synchronous segmentation of the musical discourse) Dynamic form (time directions and energetic shape) Thematic form (recurrence, variation, and contrast) Form-building transformations (looser and firmer gestalts, transformations between them). Although most of the Aural Sonology research has focused questions of musical form, we have also developed an approach to the notation of sonic objects, based on a revision of Pierre Schaeffer’s typomorphology. Published articles on Aural Sonology: Thoresen, L. (1985). “Un model d'analyse auditive.” Analyse Musicale No. 1. Thoresen, L. (1987) “Auditive Analysis of Musical Structures. A summary of analytical terms, graphical signs and definitions.” Proceedings from ICEM Conference on Electroacoustic Music Stockholm, Sweden, 25 –27 September 1985. Thoresen, L. (1987). “An auditive analysis of Schubert’s Piano Sonata Op. 42.” In Semiotica 66-1/3, Mouton de Gruyter, Amsterdam. Thoresen, L. (1996). ”Flerskiktighet i Olav Anton Thommessens orkestermusikk.” In Olav Anton Thommessen, Inspirator, Tradisjonsbærer, Rabulist. Norsk Musikkforlag, Oslo. Thoresen, L. (2002) Spectromorphologic Analysis of Sound Objects. An adaption of Pierre Schaeffer’s Typomorphology. Paper presented at GRM , Paris June 2002. Under publication: Thoresen, L., with Andreas Hedman: Spectromorphological Analysis of Sound Objects. An Adaption of Pierre Schaeffers Typomorphology. Thoresen, L., with Andreas Hedman: Form-building elements, processes and transformations.