Property of recorded sounds which expose, suggest or at least do not hide the source to which they belong. A vector pointing in the opposite direction to interiority, it refers to the ’non-abstractness’ of sounds, i.e.: to their context away from intrinsic criteria of perception. By referential sounds I should like to designate only those which point towards a more macroscopic setting, referring to natural scenes and phenomena, human or mechanical activity. It is not their real origin that matters, but their power of evoking extrinsic settings. A referential sound can even be of synthetic origin: e.g.: a filter sweep in a band of white noise could refer to ’wind’. (Source - Rodolfo Caesar (1992). The Composition of Electroacoustic Music. PhD Thesis, University of East Anglia.)
See also:
Abstract Sound, Anecdotal Composition, Diapositive Sonore (Sound Slide), Interiority, Mimesis, Narrative, Phonography, Schaefferian Theory, Soundscape Composition, SpectromorphologyBibliography: Adkins, Matthew (1999). Acoustic Chains in Acousmatic Music
Barret, Natasha (1999). Little Animals: Compositional Structuring Processes
Dack, John (2002b). Abstract and Concrete
Emmerson, Simon (1996). {Sentences} for Soprano and Electronics: Towards a Poetics of Live Electronic Music
Keller, Damián (2000). Compositional Processes from an Ecological Perspective
Riddell, Alistair M. (1996). Music in the Chords of Eternity
Rimbaud, Robin (a.k.a. Scanner) (2001). Remembering How to Forget: An Artist’s Exploration of Sound
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