Online Resources

• One of many performances of Ligeti’s Poeme Symphonique. This one uses an automated mechanism to start the metronomes. Video on YouTube.
• Website dedicated to Harry's Partch's music and instruments. harrypartch.com.
• Short clip about Hans Zimmer's Inception sound track and its use of a slowed down sample of Édith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien." Video on YouTube.
• Ligeti's Continuum. Recording and piano roll score. Video on YouTube.
• Xenakis's Mycenae Alpha. Score and recording. Video on YouTube.
• HighC, a graphical music creation tool based on Xenakis's computer music system. highc.org.
• Leif Inge's 9 Beet Stretch. Leif Inge's website.
• Conlon Nancarrow’s Study No. 3 for player piano. Video available here.
• Steve Reich Percussion App. Create your own Steve Reich piece with this free app from Third Coast Percussion. thirdcoastpercussion.com.
• Looping app. Inexpensive app that allows you to play and record multiple loops. loopyapp.com

Other textural composers to explore

• Beat Furrer (b. 1954) beatfurrer.com
• Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977). From her webpage: "Anna Thorvaldsdottir is a composer who frequently works with large sonic structures that tend to reveal the presence of a vast variety of sustained sound materials, reflecting her sense of imaginative listening to landscapes and nature. Her music tends to portray a flowing world of sounds with an enigmatic lyrical atmosphere." annathorvalds.com
• Andrew Norman (b. 1979). andrewnormanmusic.com. Listen to the orchestral work Play. bmop.org/audio-recordings/andrew-norman-play
• Mica Levi, stage name Micachu (b. 1987) soundtrack for the film, Under the Skin (2013). Video on vimeo.

Additional Readings

• Fales, Cornelia. “Short-Circuiting Perceptual Systems: Timbre in Ambient and Techno Music,” in Wired for Sound: Engineering and Sonic Cultures, Paul D. Greene and Thomas Porcello, eds. (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005), 156-180.
• Trower, Shelley. Senses of Vibration: A History of the Pleasure and Pain of Sound (New York: Continuum, 2012).

Study Guide