A Story of Emergence and Dissolution: Analytical Sketches of Jean-Claude Risset's Contours

Di Scipio, Agostino

2002

Electroacoustic Music: Analytical Perspectives. Westport: Greenwood, 151-186.

Language: English

In this chapter, the author re-visits his 1987 analysis of Jean-Claude Risset's Contours (1982). He continues his analysis of the production of the work, only this time avoiding extensive reference to the Music V software code listings that Risset wrote for the work (several of these are listed in the appendix). He concentrates on compositional strategy through a detailed structural analysis of the work and the specific musical results of the Music V program sequences. Through this approach the author seeks to decompose, rebuild and ultimately interpret the sound structuring strategies adopted by Risset within the particular sound representation domain and in doing so, understand how electroacoustic composition transforms sound into music.