1. Introduction
2. The Musical Environment
3. Loudness and Dynamics
4. Crescendo and Diminuendo
5. Sound Envelopes
6. Foreground - Background
7. Listening Structures
8. Notating Sounds
9. The Listening Space
10. Radio Composition
11. The Design Team

1. Introduction

The texts presented on this website are designed to develop your listening strategies. Each text deals with a specific theme about listening. In this way you will begin to understand the different listening strategies used in order to understand a sound structure.

A musical or sound environment is full of events, some of which are more perceptible than others. Some events may not even be perceived consciously. When we do become aware of these sounds we are often amazed that we actually didn't hear them before. Other sounds will recede or become more prominant while others are continually changing. In the design of musical environments, roles are attributed to certain sounds or instruments. The concepts of foreground, middleground and background are used to understand how sounds move in a texture. The varying degrees of interplay between foreground, middleground and background layers enable our listening focus to change from one part or strand to another. Sometimes the interplay of these layers is more stable while at other times the layers were highly mobile or changing. Just as the weather environment can quickly change, so too can texture shapes quickly change. In most musical works, we hear many textures in sequence. These changing texture shapes create a sense of meaning and musical expression. A sound structure in which the role of each sound is fixed with little change in the foreground, middleground and background is called a stable structure. A sound structure cointinually changing in its organisation is called a mobile structure.

The Notation of the Environment exercise requires you to listen to a sound analytically. It makes you aware of the intricate details involved in the construction of a sound event. Using only loudness and the pre-recorded audio samples, the CDROM interactive composition exercise enables you to design your own musical environment. This interactive exercise has been modelled on a composition assignment using radios which was given to students at Macquarie University, Sydney. The radio exercise can be done in a group using only AM/FM radios.

Victory above all will be
to see clearly afar
And all things
Up close
So that all, all bear a new name

Guillaume Apollinaire