Sounds as They Are: The unwritten music in classical recordings

by Richard Beaudoin

Overview

In a recording, what sounds count as music? Sounds made by a musician's body--including inhales, finger taps, and grunts--have for decades been dismissed as extraneous noises. In Sounds as They Are: The unwritten music in classical recordings, author Richard Beaudoin pioneers a field of inquiry into non-notated sounds in recordings of classical music, recognizing often-overlooked sounds made by the bodies of performers and their recording equipment as music. Beaudoin classifies such sounds via inclusive track analysis (ITA), a bold new theory based on a comprehensive census of audible events on a given recording, and then codifies their musical function. He builds a typology across four large categories: sounds of breath (inhaling and exhaling), sounds of touch (guitar squeaks, piano pedals), sounds of effort (grunting and moaning), and surface noise (on early recording formats). Breaths are shown to be as complex and diverse as chords. Touch sounds create empathy with listeners. Effortful vocalizations reveal connections between music-making and sex. The measurement of surface noise reveals moments of synchronization with the meter of the recorded piece. He draws analogies between unwritten music and painting, photography, poetry, psychology, and government. The book's methodology is intertwined with the aesthetics and ethics of non-notated sounds: who is allowed to make them, and how they are received by listeners, critics, and scholars. Beaudoin uncovers insidious inequalities across music studies and the recording industry, including the silencing of body and breath sounds along lines of gender and race. Sounds as They Are demonstrates the expressive, interpretive, and embodied possibilities that emerge when all sounds are valued coequally and asks music theory to face a simple truth: that all sounds deserve recognition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197659304
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/22/2023
Series:	Oxford Studies in Music Theory
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard Beaudoin analyses audio recordings and uses his research to create scholarship and compose new music. He has held posts as Preceptor in Music at Harvard University, The Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Dartmouth College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION Four octaves and one breath Defining unwritten music Why classical recordings? Categorizing unwritten music Five notes CHAPTER 1. The Aesthetics and Ethics of Unwritten Music Sound recordings as documents Questioning "intelligent suppression" Everything that sounds simultaneously An unwritten note A series of enigmatic clicks A decisive inhale Five analogies The reception of unwritten music The empathetic dimension CHAPTER 2. Sounds of Breath Breath sounds as music Breath as rhetoric Breath as anacrusis Breath as expectation Breath within motive Breath as climax Breath as phrase marker Breath as narration CHAPTER 3. Sounds of Touch Touch sounds as music Fingernails and motive Foreshadowing fingertips Dancing fingerfalls Squeaking shifts Percussive valve clacks Chair creaks Podium stamps Timbral damper pedals CHAPTER 4. Sounds of Effort Sounded effort as music Sound, sex, and somaesthetics Climactic exertions 1: The exultant holler Climactic exertions 2: The tense moan Climactic exertions 3: Grunt lead Intimate exertions 1: Subtle vocalizing Intimate exertions 2: Emphatic panting Intimate exertions 3: Stifled grunting A thoroughgoing growl Moans as indicators of phrase Grunts unheard CHAPTER 5. Surface Noise Surface noise as music Listening with Recordings as carta Six modes of interaction Performance-centricity Narrative asynchrony Ekphrastic (non)coincidence Expressive synchronicity Metaphoric development Surface noise-centricity CHAPTER 6. Inclusive Track Analysis Attentional flexibility Reading what was never written Inclusive track analysis: A pragmatic framework Beyond classical tracks Les sons tels qu'ils sont Discography Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"Sounds As They Are is a beautiful-looking hardback of 240 dense pages with musical examples, an extended discography, a list of works cited, and an index... Beaudoin's intensive research is impressive and exhaustive." — Janet Horvath , The Interlude

"This book not only changes the way you think about music; it changes the way you hear. Spellbinding, ear-opening, and impossible to put down, Sounds as They Are is a groundbreaking exploration of our capacity to listen unconditionally. In a field dominated by extraction and exclusion, Beaudoin compels us to imagine an expansive musical ecosystem in which composers, interpreters, sound engineers, and listeners are all cocreators in a radically transformed experience of hearing and appreciating music. Every musician should read this book." — Claire Chase, Professor of the Practice, Harvard University

"Sounds as They Are helped me remember how I used to listen to music, how to apply that same child-like joy to my performances, and how to (rather literally!) breathe life into my listening. Fearlessly written, a new mode of deep listening emerges from this book, which addresses performers, audio engineers, theorists, musicologists, and everyone who loves recordings." — Dashon Burton, Assistant Professor of Voice, Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University

"Groundbreaking in its pursuit of equal recognition for all recorded sounds, Sounds as They Are unlocks the latent potential of 'unwritten music.' Beaudoin exposes biases in our perception of classical music recordings, enriching our auditory experience and inspiring innovative scholarly contemplation. His lucid mapping and inventive typology will become standard tools for analyzing sounds that have long been overlooked." — Yves Balmer, Professor of Music Analysis, Paris Conservatoire

"Through its flexible methodology, clear but open-ended categories, and sensitive analyses, Beaudoin's Sounds as They Are offers much to music scholars." — Christa Cole, Theory and Practice

"Through its flexible methodology, clear but open-ended categories, and sensitive analyses, Beaudoin's Sounds as They Are offers much to music scholars. Readers will likely encounter composers, performers, pieces, and recordings previously unknown to them. Even the most attentive of listeners will learn new ways of engaging with familiar recordings. Perhaps most importantly, analysts will leave the book encouraged to explore the multitudinous expressive possibilities of unwritten music and, in Beaudoin's own words, "to savor the rich thicket of sounded intricacies that greet them each time they press play"." — Christa Cole, Theory and Practice

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