Microsound, Spectra, and ObjectivityTracing Memetics in Organized Sound

This dissertation proposes a novel memetic framework and creative methodology to probe the mechanism underpinning the transmission of a composer’s intention to an audience, contending that cultural replicators—memes—drive our understanding of a composer’s intention. The author hypothesizes that memes catalyze the creation of artifacts, which, in turn, act as instigators for memetic replication in the brain, and that microsound—sound at the edge of perception—may play a key role in instigation.

Thinking about these hypotheses yields creative deployment of microsound in primarily scored works. The creative process allows the researcher to arrive at a deeper understanding of memetics and formalize the conceptual memetic framework and hypotheses described herein. Thus theory and practice become interlocked in the search for evidence of memes in the creation of works of organized sound and the role that memes play in an audience’s ability to (re)construct the intention of a composer.

Four notated/semi-notated musical compositions and one piece of software (made in MaxMSP) are included as support for the framework: Mozart Variations, silver as a catalyst in organic reactions, End to Reattain, It needs a big ‘ow’ sound; ow-nd . . . ground! and the Spectral Domain Microsound Amplification Software (SDMAS), along with a significant number of other works and projects not discussed in-text. Each of these works/projects contributed significant shifts in understanding the role that memes may play in intention/reception and are reflected upon in-text.

Vincent Giles, excerpt from It needs a big ‘ow’ sound; ow-nd . . . ground! music score, 2017.

(© Vincent Giles)