A system of contexts for the analysis of electroacoustic music is introduced. Four different types of context are considered and taken as the basic components of a theoretical system for musical analysis. On the one hand, there is the context defined ...
A system of contexts for the analysis of electroacoustic music is introduced. Four different types of context are considered and taken as the basic components of a theoretical system for musical analysis. On the one hand, there is the context defined by the work itself, made up of all the sounds, structures, events and sound objects that are part of the piece and whose organization allows the work to be identified as such, as a unit. On the other hand, there is the context formed by all the baggage of knowledge, experiences, expectations, beliefs and assessment criteria that the listener has built or acquired prior to listening to the piece of music. Two types of sub-contexts within the piece are also taken into consideration, the one defined by isolated sounds and that defined by musical segments encompassing several sounds. To explore the interactions between these contexts eight types of relationships between them are defined and examples of how they operate in real musical pieces are given. A multitude of usual terms and concepts in musical analysis such as reduced listening, fractality, sound, musical piece, musical style, etc. are reviewed in light of these interactions.