Acousmatic sound

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Acousmatic sound is sound one hears without seeing an originating cause. It is thought that the word acousmatic, from the French acousmatique, is derived from akousmatikoi, a term used to refer probationary pupils of the philospher Pythagoras who, so that they might better concentrate on his teachings, were required to sit in absolute silence while listening to their teacher deliver his lecture from behind a veil or screen. The term acousmatique was first used by the French composer, and pioneer of musique concrete, Pierre Schaeffer[1]. In acousmatic art one hears sound from behind a 'veil' of loudspeakers, the source cause remaining unseen. The term has also been used by the French writer and composer Michel Chion in reference to the use of off screen sound in film[2]. More recently, in the article Space-form and the acousmatic image (2007), composer and academic Prof. Denis Smalley has expanded on some of Schaefers' acousmatic concepts [3].

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[edit] Origins

In 1955, Jérôme Peignot and Pierre Schaeffer were the first to use the term acousmatic to define the listening experience of musique concrète[4]. In his 1966 publication Traite´ des objets musicaux French composer and theorist Pierre Schaeffer defined the acousmatic as: Acousmatic, adjective: referring to a sound that one hears without seeing the causes behind it (Schaeffer 1966: 91). Schaeffer held that the acousmatic listening experience was one that reduced sounds to the field of hearing alone. The concept of reduction (epoché), as used in the Husserlian phenomenological tradition, underpinned Schaeffers conceptualization of the acousmatic experience. In this sense, a subject moves their attention away from the physical object responsible for auditory perception and toward the content of this perception. The purpose of this activity is to become aware of what it is in the field of perception that can be thought of as a certainty. This reductive procedure redirects awareness to hearing alone [5]. Schaeffer remarked that: Often surprised, often uncertain, we discover that much of what we thought we were hearing, was in reality only seen, and explained, by the context (Schaeffer 1966: 93).

Schaeffer is thought to have derived the term acousmatique from akousmatikoi (hearers), a term used in the time of Pythagoras to refer to his uninitiated students. According to historical records followers of Pythagoras underwent a three-year probationary period, directly followed by a five-year period of "silence", before being admitted to Pythagoras' inner circle as mathêmatikoi (learned). It is thought that the use of silence related to the protocols of rituals connected with the mystery-like instruction and religious ceremonies of the Pythagorean order. These ceremonies took place behind a veil or curtain with only those who had passed the five year test being allowed to see their teacher face to face; the remaining students partaking acousmatically.[6][7][8]

[edit] Musique concrete

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[edit] Film sound

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Chion refers to off-screen sound sources as acousmatic, relative to what is shown in the shot. In a film an acousmatic situation can develop along two different scenarios: either a sound is visualised first, and subsequently acousmatized, or it is an acousmatic to start with, and is visualized only afterward (usually through the use of an L-cut).

The first case associates a sound with a precise image from the outset. This image can the reappear in the audience's mind each time the sound is heard off screen. The second case, common to moody mystery films, keeps the sound's cause a secret before revealing all. (De-acousmatization)

Opposite of Acousmatic sound is Visualized sound - a sound accompanied by the sight of its source or cause. In film an onscreen sound whose source appears in the image, and belongs to the reality represented therein. (Edited excerpt: Michel Chion, Audio-Vision)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schaeffer, P. (1966), Traité des objets musicaux, Le Seuil, Paris.
  2. ^ Chion, M. (1994), Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, Columbia University Press.
  3. ^ Smalley, D. (2007), Space-form and the acousmatic image, Organised Sound: Vol. 12, No. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 35-58.
  4. ^ Peignot, J. (1960), De la musique concrète à l'acousmatique, Esprit, No. 280. Paris: Esprit: 111-123.
  5. ^ Kane, B. (2007), L’Objet Sonore Maintenant: Pierre Schaeffer, sound objects and the phenomenological reduction, Organised Sound 12(1): 15-24, Cambridge University Press.
  6. ^ Boas, G. (1953), Ancient Testimony to Secret Doctrines, The Philosophical Review, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jan.), Duke University Press, pp. 79-92 (p90).
  7. ^ Minar, E.L. (1944), Pythagorean Communism,Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 75, pp. 34-46 (p39).
  8. ^ Kahn, C.H. (2001), Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History, Hackett Publishing Co., Indianapolis.

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