Audible Ecosystems and emergent sound structures in Di Scipio's music. Music philosophy enhances musical analysis

Renaud Meric (1) , Makis Solomos (1)

1 MUSIDANSE - Esthétique, musicologie, danse et création musicale

While composing with an ecosystemic approach, Di Scipio creates an audio system that interacts with the environment, i.e. space. This space, in which and from which music emerges, is also the listener's space. The notion of emergence is complex: what emerges is the result of a confrontation between the listener's cognitive system and the audio system used in the musical work. This emergent result can be termed musical "structure" or sound "structure", but it is difficult to define it with precision. Its general outline is unpredictable and unstable. It is dependent on a dynamic musical space, which is constructed by active listening and by active audio system simultaneously. To choose either the first or the second as a starting point for the emergent structures is impossible. "I am interested in composing desirable interactions among available elements or components, such that the music is heard as the empirical epiphenomenon of that network of interactions, not as an abstract discourse written by me and diligently spoken by others", says Di Scipio (2005a: 385). This is why his music is so difficult to analyse. While analysing it, one must focus on the ephemeral moment where music emerges in the interaction between the listener and the product of the audio system, and inside a specific space.

Domaines: Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène

Renaud Meric, Makis Solomos. Audible Ecosystems and emergent sound structures in Di Scipio's music. Music philosophy enhances musical analysis. Fourth Conference for Interdisciplinary Musicology (CIM08), 2008, Greece. pp.57-76. ⟨hal-00770097⟩