Defragmenting Beethoven: Sound appropriation as bridge between classical tradition and electroacoustic music

Abstract

This thesis serves as a written companion for two artistic-based research products built upon the concept of appropriation as connecting bridge between music technology and the classical tradition of music composition. The first artistic work is a set of 9 pieces called "Collages Vol 2", a continuation of a first release meant to be an exploratory work for the present research. The second work is the sound interaction design, and the creation of two compositions for the Network of Intelligent Sound Agents, or "NOISA", built at the Sound and Physical Interaction Research Group from the Department of Media, Aalto University. After providing context and a short survey of influences on music appropriation, I made a comprehensive documentation of each of the pieces created for this thesis, describing form, content, compositional approach and sound processing in a systematic way. I investigated on the diverse forms of appropriation as a technique for electroacoustic music composition. The most influential references for my work are documented in this written work: From the historical approach of appropriation to borrowing in music of the XX century and recent times; including a description of the first volume of my original Collages. Later on, I described my second collection of Collages and the utilisation of appropriation theories in the context of NOISA, a music interface for live performance. Finally, there is a section dedicated to a discussion featuring a commentary of a number of reviews of "Collages” preceding a closing segment with conclusions and further plans to expand this research in the future