The poetics of rock composition: Multitrack recording as compositional practice.
Item
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Title
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The poetics of rock composition: Multitrack recording as compositional practice.
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Identifier
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AAI9732990
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identifier
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9732990
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Creator
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Zak, Albin Joseph, III.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Leo Treitler
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music
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Abstract
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In the rock idiom, musical works are represented by recordings. From rock's earliest days, recordists have sought to use the recording medium to create artifacts that deliver unique sonic experiences, rather than faithful representations of live performances. The rock recording process, then, is a process of making, or composing. This dissertation is an account, based upon the testimony of recordists and their works, of the record making process. The study includes historical, technical, aesthetic, and musical stylistic components.;The dissertation is organized in a cumulative way. That is, each chapter builds upon the concepts, principles, terminology, and so forth presented in preceding chapters. Chapter 1 is an historical introduction to the idea and practice of using musical performance as a tool of inscription. Chapter 2 defines the compositional project as the creation of a sounding work of music. While the work contains a song and a musical arrangement, its essential identity lies in a specific sonic rendering of these, which involves compositional concerns that are specific to the recorded work. Taking up the issue of content, Chapter 3 sets forth five categories of sound phenomena that account for what we hear on a record: musical performances, timbre, echo, ambience, and texture. Each of these elements contributes in some significant way to the identity of the work, and each is examined separately in terms of its part in the overall compositional concern. In Chapter 4, the roles of the various participants in the recording project--songwriters, arrangers, musicians, engineers, and producers--are outlined in terms of the collaborative dynamics that shape most recording projects. Chapter 5 examines the functions of recording places and technology in the compositional process and the nature of their presence in the finished work. Finally, Chapter 6 utilizes the ideas developed in discussion of the foregoing topics in a general account of the multitrack process as a multifaceted and collaborative compositional method.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
