Leonardo Music Journal
LMJ 26 - Stuart Marshall's Idiophonics
Artist, educator and film- and video-maker Stuart Marshall (1949–1993) was an important link between the American experimental music of the 1970s and the British visual arts scene of the same epoch. The author looks at one of Marshall's works,Idiophonics (a.k.a. Heterophonics), and offers thoughts on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of its presentation in London and Newcastle in 1976.
LMJ 26 - Skirmish at the Oasis: On Sonic Disobedience
In this article the author theorizes how the idea of a sonic avant-garde resounds today. Focused on technics of noise and site specificity, the author describes the sounds and sites of the Idle No More round dance interventions of the winter of 2012–2013 and hears these protests via the dissonant transmission of the sonic practices and geographical-racial theories of the historical avant-garde.
LMJ 26 - Wolf Listeners: An Introduction to the Acoustemological Politics and Poetics of Isle Royale National Park
Listening to wolf howls as both material object and socially constructed metaphor highlights the contested relationship between nature and culture. The author conducted field research on Isle Royale National Park from 2011 to 2015, from which data he offers a narrative wherein citizen-scientists who listen for the howl literally "lend their ears" to a wolf biologist who has led the longest continuous predator-prey study in the world. The theoretical framework of this essay extends acoustic ecology, first theorized by R.
LMJ 26 - Listening in the Rose Garden
As sound art finds its presence in public space, sound art in outdoor space is analyzed for potential modalities of new listening experience. In this paper the author proposes an energy map for understanding trajectory of experience and musical form. The author references theories of garden motility, temporality and site from landscape design, with ideas of how introduced sound shapes experience.
LMJ 26 - Soundmaps as iDocs? Modes of Interactivity for Storytelling with Sound
Soundmaps derive an undeniable, often originary, importance from cartographical representation. However, this article proposes to consider soundmaps through a narrative perspective, drawing on the field of interactive documentaries. Like soundmaps, interactive documentaries deal with issues of engagement, participation and interaction. In this sense, and according to Sandra Gaudenzi's concepts, this article presents an analysis of more than 40 soundmaps focused on their modes of interaction.
LMJ 26 - Teaching Cage's "Silent Piece"
This brief article summarizes the results not only of several years' worth of classroom performances and follow-up discussions of Cage's "silent piece"—commonly known as 4'33"—but also of students' usually frustrated efforts to perform the piece in private.
LMJ 26 - The Happy Valley Band: Creative (Mis)Transcription
In the author's work as a composer, he explores how state-of-the-art digital sound analysis can change how we listen to music. The Happy Valley Band (HVB) is a product of this exploration and encompasses a repertoire of microtonal deconstructions of pop songs, an open-source software suite and a dedicated performing ensemble.
LMJ 26 - From You to Me and Back Again: Interdependent Listening and the Relational Aesthetics of Sound
This article outlines a mode of contemporary performance based on "interdependent listening." Interdependent listening involves creating performative feedback loops in which players respond directly to the sounds they hear others make. Most ensembles deploy such listening to some extent; however, the distinction between general ensemble playing and interdependent listening is structural, describing situations in which the interdependence generates the content.
LMJ 26 - Wiring the Ear: Instrumentality and Aural Primacy in and after David Tudor's Unstable Circuits
The author discusses how the live electronics of David Tudor destabilize notions of instrumental learning and mastery, with a shift from physical to aural skills.