Formalism and intuition in electroacoustic music
Editor: Rodney DuPlessis
Music is comprised of patterns of sound, but composers differ in their approaches to deriving these patterns. A composer inspired by the weather could deploy generative algorithms, meticulous plans, and mathematical models to simulate the flow of weather patterns in the flow of her music and generate sound from real weather data. Alternatively, if she takes a more intuitive approach to composition, she could play with knobs on a synthesizer to create sounds that feel like thunder, process field recordings of rain and wind, and arrange sounds by ear.
Questions about formal and intuitive approaches to composition reveal what composers externalize and internalize in their compositional process. This can be divisive in some circles, but composers often employ a mix of both formal and intuitive methods.
The issue “Formalism and intuition in electroacoustic music” of Nuove Musiche invites composers, musicologists, and theorists to propose articles that explore the particularities of working in both paradigms as well as the spaces in between. Articles may include personal case studies, interviews, analyses, philosophical inquiry, and others.
Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
- the implementation of scientific models in composition;
- impressionist, realist, and algorithmic representation of natural phenomena in sonic art;
- perspectives on the balance between formal and intuitive modes of composition;
- studies of listener experiences of electroacoustic music;
- systems of arranging sounds in acousmatic music;
- analyses or frameworks for analysis of electroacoustic music;
- new software for the creation of electroacoustic music;
- embodied paradigms of composition or listening;
- non-western perspectives on formalism and intuition in music;
- challenges and solutions to addressing compositional formalisms and intuition in musicology and musical philology;
- pedagogical methods for developing compositional intuition and formalisms.
The editorial board entrusts to Rodney DuPlessis (rodney@rodneyduplessis.com) with coordination and editing of the issue.
Timeline:
- submission of abstracts (200-250 words) and short author’s bio (100 words) by March 31, 2025;
- evaluation of abstracts by the guest editor and the scientific committee of the journal by April 30, 2025;
- submission of articles (4000-8000 words) by September 30, 2025;
- peer review (double blind), by November 30, 2025;
- final drafts required by December 31, 2025;
- final editing and publication by March 2026.
