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Acousmatic sound is sound that is heard without an originating cause being seen. The word ''acousmatic'', from the French ''acousmatique'', is derived from the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
word ''akousmatikoi'' (ἀκουσματικοί), which referred to probationary pupils of the philosopher
Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His poli ...
who were required to sit in absolute silence while they listened to him deliver his lecture from behind a
veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent ...
or screen to make them better concentrate on his teachings. The term ''acousmatique'' was first used by the French composer and pioneer of
musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, wit ...
Pierre Schaeffer Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His inno ...
. In acousmatic art one hears sound from behind a "veil" of loudspeakers, the source cause remaining unseen. More generally, any sound, whether it is natural or manipulated, may be described as acousmatic if the cause of the sound remains unseen. The term has also been used by the French writer and composer
Michel Chion Michel Chion (born 1947) is a French film theorist and composer of experimental music. Life Born in Creil, France, Chion teaches at several institutions in France and currently holds the post of Associate Professor at the University of Paris II ...
in reference to the use of off-screen sound in film. More recently, in the article ''Space-form and the acousmatic image'' (2007),
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...
and
academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
Prof. Denis Smalley has expanded on some of Schaeffers' acousmatic concepts. Since the 2000s, the term acousmatic has been used, notably in North America to refer to fixed media composition and pieces.


Origins

In 1955,
Jérôme Peignot Jérôme Peignot (born 1926) is a French novelist, poet, pamphleteer, and an expert in typography. The author of some thirty books, he was awarded the Prix Sainte-Beuve, took part in publishing the writings of ''Laure'' (his aunt Colette Peignot ...
and Pierre Schaeffer were the first to use the term acousmatic to define the listening experience of musique concrète. In his 1966
publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...
''Traité des objets musicaux'' Schaeffer defined the ''acousmatic'' as: ''Acousmatic,
adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...
: referring to a sound that one hears without seeing the causes behind it'' (Schaeffer 1966: 91). Schaeffer held that the acousmatic listening experience was one that reduced sounds to the field of hearing alone. The concept of reduction (
epoché Epoché ( ἐποχή ''epokhē'', "cessation") is an ancient Greek term. In Hellenistic philosophy it is a technical term typically translated as "suspension of judgment" but also as "withholding of assent". In the modern philosophy of Phenomeno ...
), as used in the Husserlian phenomenological tradition, underpinned Schaeffer's
conceptualization In information science a conceptualization is an abstract simplified view of some selected part of the world, containing the objects, concepts, and other entities that are presumed of interest for some particular purpose and the relationships betw ...
of the acousmatic experience. In this sense, a subject moves their attention away from the physical object responsible for
auditory perception Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is auditory ...
and toward the content of this
perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...
. The purpose of this activity is to become aware of what it is in the field of perception that can be thought of as a certainty. This reductive procedure redirects awareness to hearing alone. Schaeffer remarked that: ''Often surprised, often uncertain, we discover that much of what we thought we were hearing, was in reality only seen, and explained, by the context'' (Schaeffer 1966: 93). Schaeffer derived the word ''acousmatique'' from ''akousmatikoi'' (hearers), a term used in the time of Pythagoras to refer to his uninitiated students. According to historical records followers of Pythagoras underwent a three-year probationary period, directly followed by a five-year period of "silence", before being admitted to Pythagoras' inner circle as ''mathêmatikoi'' (learned). The use of silence related to the
protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...
of rituals connected with the mystery-like instruction and religious ceremonies of the Pythagorean order. These ceremonies took place behind a veil or curtain with only those who had passed the five-year test being allowed to see their teacher face to face; the remaining students partaking acousmatically. More recent research suggests that the Pythagorean "veil" itself was a euphemism for the figurative language with which Pythagoras taught, and the actual practice of speaking occluded by either a veil or the dark likely never occurred.


Musique concrète


Film sound

According to the French film sound theorist Michel Chion (1994), in cinema, the acousmatic situation can arise in two different ways: the source of a sound is seen first and is then "acousmatized", or the sound is initially acousmatic with the source being revealed subsequently. The first scenario allows association of a sound with a specific image from the outset, Chion calls this ''visualised'' sound (what Schaeffer referred to as ''direct'' sound). In this case it becomes an "embodied" sound, "identified with an image, demythologized, classified". In the second instance the sound source remains veiled for some time, to heighten tension, and is only later revealed, a dramatic feature that is commonly used in mystery and suspense based cinema; this has the effect of "de-acousmatizing" the initially hidden source of the sound (Chion 1994, 72). Chion states that "the opposition between visualised and acousmatic provides a basis for the fundamental audiovisual notion of offscreen space" (Chion 1994, 73).


See also

* Diegesis *
Schizophonia Schizophonia is a term coined by R. Murray Schafer to describe the splitting of an original sound and its electroacoustic reproduction. This concept comes from the invention of electroacoustic equipment for the transmission of sound, which meant t ...


References


External links

*Chion, Michel. �
Acousmatic Sound
” ''FilmSound''. Excerpted from Chion's ''Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen''. *Dhomont, Francis. �

” ''eContact! 12.4 — Perspectives on the Electroacoustic Work / Perspectives sur l'œuvre électroacoustique'' (August 2010). Montréal: CEC. *McFarlane, Matthew. �
The Development of Acousmatics in Montréal
''eContact! 6.2 — Activités électroacoustiques au Québec / Electroacoustic Activities in Quebec'' (Fall 2003). Montréal: CEC. *Windsor, W. Luke. �
A Perceptual Approach to the Description and Analysis of Acousmatic Music
” Unpublished doctoral thesis. London: City University, 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:Acousmatic Sound Cinematic techniques Electronic music Music technology de:Akusmatik et:Akusmaatiline heli fr:Acousmatique it:Acusmatico