Despite its importance as a central feature of musical sounds,
timbre has rarely stood in the limelight. First defined in the
eighteenth century, denigrated during the nineteenth, the concept
of timbre came into its own during the twentieth century and its
fascination with synthesizers and electronic music-or so the story
goes. But in fact, timbre cuts across all the boundaries that make
up musical thought-combining scientific and artistic approaches to
music, material and philosophical aspects, and historical and
theoretical perspectives. Timbre challenges us to fundamentally
reorganize the way we think about music. The twenty-five essays
that make up this collection offer a variety of engagements with
music from the perspective of timbre. The boundaries are set as
broad as possible: from ancient Homeric sounds to contemporary
sound installations, from birdsong to cochlear implants, from Tuvan
overtone singing to the tv show The Voice, from violin mutes to
Moog synthesizers. What unifies the essays across this vast
diversity is the material starting point of the sounding object.
This focus on the listening experience is radical departure from
the musical work that has traditionally dominated musical discourse
since its academic inception in late-nineteenth-century Europe.
Timbre remains a slippery concept that has continuously demanded
more, be it more precise vocabulary, a more systematic theory, or
more rigorous analysis. Rooted in the psychology of listening,
timbre consistently resists pinning complete down. This collection
of essays provides an invitation for further engagement with the
range of fascinating questions that timbre opens up.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
