Acousmatic music is a type of electroacoustic music created specifically to be played through speakers, not performed live. It began with the tradition of musique concrète in the late 1940s. Unlike music played from written scores, acousmatic music is usually only available as fixed audio recordings.

This style of music focuses on sound that is heard but not seen. While elements like melody, harmony, and rhythm may appear, the music often emphasizes characteristics like timbre (the quality of sound) and spectrum (the range of frequencies). Sounds used in acousmatic music can come from musical instruments, voices, electronic devices, or audio effects.

Musicians use tools such as digital recorders, computers, and analog equipment like tape recorders to create and mix sounds. These technologies allow artists to combine, rearrange, and change sounds in many ways. This process is similar to what composer Edgard Varèse called "sound organisation."

Origins

According to some historical stories, the word "acousmatic" comes from Pythagoras. He taught his students from behind a screen so they wouldn't be distracted by his presence. This helped them focus on the sounds he made, making hearing more important. In 1955, Jérôme Peignot and Pierre Schaeffer first used the term "acousmatique" to describe the way people listen to musique concrète. The term is believed to come from "akousmatikoi," the outer group of Pythagoras' students who only heard their teacher speak through a veil. In a similar way, people listen to acousmatic music through loudspeakers, without seeing where the sound comes from.

Developments

In schools and universities, the terms acousmatic music and acousmatic art are often used, especially when discussing modern musique concrète. However, some people disagree about whether acousmatic practice describes a type of musical composition or a method of listening to sound. Scruton believes that experiencing sound is naturally acousmatic, as Lydia Goehr explains: "the sound world is not a space we can enter; it is a world we experience from a distance."

Style

Acousmatic music can include sounds that are clearly from musical instruments or voices. It can also use sounds that come from sources not typically used in traditional music, like electronic devices or natural sounds. The technology used goes beyond just playing back recorded sounds. These techniques create sounds that might be unfamiliar and hard to identify where they came from. These compositions can include familiar musical elements like chords, melodies, and rhythms that are similar to other types of music. However, they can also include sounds that don't fit into traditional categories.

Performance practice

Acousmatic compositions are sometimes performed in concerts that look like regular acoustic recitals. However, there are no live performers in these concerts. The sound is created using pre-recorded music or made as the concert happens using a computer. The sound is then spread out through many loudspeakers using a method called "sound diffusion." The composer usually handles the sound diffusion, but sometimes another person does it. To guide the interpreter in placing sounds correctly, composers often provide a "diffusion score." This can be a simple drawing showing where sounds should be placed over time.

The acousmatic experience

In acousmatic music, listeners are asked to focus on the characteristics of sounds, not on what or where the sounds come from. As Pierre Schaeffer explains in his book Treatise on Musical Objects, hiding the source of sounds is not a mistake or a random choice. Instead, it is a purposeful way to guide the listener. The question becomes: "What am I hearing?" and "What exactly are you hearing?" This asks the listener to describe the sound itself, not what the sound might remind them of.

Whether music is acousmatic depends more on how it is listened to than on whether it is played through speakers. To understand the term "acousmatic" correctly, it is important to separate the idea of where a sound comes from and what the sound actually sounds like.

Acousmatic music focuses on helping listeners pay attention to the qualities of sound, rather than trying to identify what the sound might be. The way people listen to this type of music is more focused on the sound's texture and tone than on trying to recognize familiar sounds. Pierre Schaeffer called this kind of listening écoute réduite, or "reduced listening." When sounds are played through speakers, the listener cannot see the source, which can make it harder to recognize the sound. This lack of visual clues helps the listener focus more on the sound's characteristics.