A Choristers Attempt at Musique Concrète

I am currently taking an electronic music course (my first composition course ever!) and apart from learning essential skills such as microphone placement and recording procedures we get to use software to create our own electronic music.

I can't quite describe the creative process, since I don't know if I have developed a refined enough strategy to share, but in order to not overwhelm myself, I start by fiddling with the sound program and then if I produce something interesting, I save it. I just go where the music takes me I suppose, as cliche as that sounds.

I remember working on my short musique concrète piece and absolutely despising it after an hour of detailed listening I stopped working on it and promptly forgot about it until the next week. Thus, when I was called upon to present it to my class, I didn't know what to say since I didn't remember what it sounded like. Maybe I was blocking out bad memories? The only word I recalled that was at the back of my mind during my sessions of musical genesis was: resonance. When I heard it played aloud in class, I suddenly remembered what I was trying to do: play with the different resonating sounds produced from a class recording session. The sounds range from a box chime-like instrument, a bowed guitar string, or thunder sounds from a toy. In addition to using the resonating sounds I inserted them into the software program since you can play the sounds within difference spaces. I chose various locations with differing resonant frequencies to further change the sounds. The final effect is fragmented but I hope you will appreciate my attempts to branch out in the world of music.

The definition of music is continuously changing and electronic music is only one of the branches of the dense musical network. I'm thinking of incorporating choir recordings for my final project but nothing has inspired me yet. If you have any ideas post them in the comments!