Following Edgard Varèse’s influential lectures –
translated and documented in ‘The Liberation of Sound’
– electroacoustic music has spawned many different styles and genres.
His argument was for composers to follow their imagination and not be bound to
the constraints of musical notation. This, arguably, was one of the catalysts
for the emergence of electroacoustic musical works. With past and recent
technological advancement, the varieties of genres and styles within
electroacoustic music have only expanded, challenging the notion of how one
could analyse such works. It is therefore unsurprising that there is no general
consensus on analytical methodologies. But for an art form that celebrates all
musical possibilities should the analysis of such musics be constraint to a set
number of formalised analytical methodologies?
Rather than propose a new all-encompassing methodology, this article will argue
for a universal approach to electroacoustic music analysis and the liberation of
sound analysis. The concept of an analytical community (a community that accepts
multiple analyses whilst encouraging practitioners to find new and innovative
ways to analyse such works) will be raised as a means to address the issues
facing electroacoustic music analysis, using the OREMA (Online Repository for
Electroacoustic Music Analysis) project as an example of such an initiative.