Brandon LaBelle: Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (2006)

The rise of a prominent auditory culture, as seen in the recent plethora of art exhibitions on sound art, in conjunction with academic programs dedicated to “aural culture”, sonic art, and auditory issues now emerging, reveals the degree to which sound art is lending definition to the 21st Century. And yet sound art still lacks related literature to compliment, and expand, the realm of practice.

Background Noise sets out an historical overview, while at the same time shaping that history according to what sound art reveals – the dynamics of art to operate spatially, through media of reproduction and broadcast, and in relation to the intensities of communication and its contextual framework.

Publisher Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006
ISBN 0826418457, 9780826418456
316 pages

publisher
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PDF (no OCR; some pages missing; updated on 2012-11-4)

Trevor Wishart: On Sonic Art, 2nd ed (1985/1996)

“In this newly revised book On Sonic Art, Trevor Wishart takes a wide-ranging look at the new developments in music-making and musical aesthetics made possible by the advent of the computer and digital information processing. His emphasis is on musical rather than technical matters. Beginning with a critical analysis of the assumptions underlying the Western musical tradition and the traditional acoustic theories of Pythagoras and Helmholtz, he goes on to look in detail at such topics as the musical organization of complex sound-objects, using and manipulating representational sounds and the various dimensions of human and non-human utterance. In so doing, he seeks to learn lessons from areas (poetry and sound-poetry, film, sound effects and animal communication) not traditionally associated with the field of music.”

A new and revised edition edited by Simon Emmerson
Publisher Routledge, 1996
ISBN 371865847X, 9783718658473
357 pages

Publisher

PDF (7 MB, updated on 2015-12-3)

Gareth Loy: Musimathics: The Mathematical Foundations of Music, Vols. 1-2 (2006)

“Mathematics can be as effortless as humming a tune, if you know the tune,” writes Gareth Loy. In Musimathics, Loy teaches us the tune, providing a friendly and spirited tour of the mathematics of music—a commonsense, self-contained introduction for the nonspecialist reader. It is designed for musicians who find their art increasingly mediated by technology, and for anyone who is interested in the intersection of art and science.

In volume 1, Loy presents the materials of music (notes, intervals, and scales); the physical properties of music (frequency, amplitude, duration, and timbre); the perception of music and sound (how we hear); and music composition. Musimathics is carefully structured so that new topics depend strictly on topics already presented, carrying the reader progressively from basic subjects to more advanced ones. Cross-references point to related topics and an extensive glossary defines commonly used terms. The book explains the mathematics and physics of music for the reader whose mathematics may not have gone beyond the early undergraduate level. Calling himself “a composer seduced into mathematics,” Loy provides answers to foundational questions about the mathematics of music accessibly yet rigorously.

Volume 2 of Musimathics continues the story of music engineering begun in volume 1, focusing on the digital and computational domain. Loy goes deeper into the mathematics of music and sound, beginning with digital audio, sampling, and binary numbers, as well as complex numbers and how they simplify representation of musical signals. Chapters cover the Fourier transform, convolution, filtering, resonance, the wave equation, acoustical systems, sound synthesis, the short-time Fourier transform, and the wavelet transform. These subjects provide the theoretical underpinnings of today’s music technology. The material in volume 1 is all preparatory to the subjects presented in this volume, although either volume can be read independently. Cross-references to volume 1 are provided for concepts introduced in the earlier volume, and additional mathematical orientation is offered where necessary. The topics are all subjects that contemporary composers, musicians, and music engineers have found to be important. The examples given are all practical problems in music and audio. The level of scholarship and the pedagogical approach also make Musimathics ideal for classroom use.

Foreword by John Chowning
Publisher MIT Press, 2006, 2007
ISBN 0262122820, 9780262122825 (Vol 1)
ISBN 0262122855, 9780262122856 (Vol 2)

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Publisher (Vol 1)
Publisher (Vol 2)

PDF (removed on 2016-1-4 upon request of the publisher)