Sound Within Sound

1. The Exclusionary Canon: Why we need new histories.

A failure to hear these new sounds constitutes not only a form of sensory deprivation, but also an addiction to exclusion-as-identity that ends up, as addictions often do, in impoverishment of the field, or even its eventual death.

Classical music's narrow narrative. The traditional history of classical music often focuses on a limited group of white, male, European, and American composers, neglecting a vast and diverse world of creative voices. This exclusion isn't accidental but a form of gatekeeping that impoverishes the field.

Beyond the usual suspects. The book argues for a new history that recognizes experimentalism's multicultural base, highlighting composers from different ethnic traditions, geographies, and perspectives. Ignoring these artists leads to sensory deprivation and limits the genre's potential for growth and relevance.

Inclusion strengthens art. Embracing a broader range of sounds and histories doesn't diminish established masters but revitalizes the entire ecosystem. True strength comes from adventurous listening and recognizing that diverse experiences yield diverse, valuable musical expressions.

2. Julián Carrillo: Microtonal wars and challenging the center.

His ‘Theory of the Thirteenth Sound’ would, he declared, uproot and seismically revolutionise the entire musical world.

Microtonal pioneer. Julián Carrillo, a Mexican composer, instrument inventor, and polemicist, sparked a national debate in 1924 with his "Theory of the Thirteenth Sound," proposing a musical future based on intervals smaller than a semitone. He believed the traditional twelve-tone scale had reached its limit.

Awkward innovator. Despite his outlandish claims and self-promotion, Carrillo produced visionary microtonal music that deserves to be heard. He defied the prevailing folk-essentialist nationalism in Mexico, refusing to tap indigenous roots for marketability and instead pursuing his unique scientific-spiritual path.

Beyond state-sanctioned stories. Carrillo's story highlights what is lost when mainstream narratives dominate. His refusal to conform to political fashion or ethnic stereotypes led to his sidelining, but his singular, often mystical, music stands as a testament to the marvels found outside neat historical lines.

3. Ruth Crawford: Dissonance, identity, and the cost of compromise.

Ruth Crawford (the ‘Seeger’ came later; I shall stick with her maiden name) was a sensationally skilled composer who fell in love with her teacher, got married, had children and near enough stopped writing music altogether.

American modernist. Ruth Crawford was a pioneer of hard-hitting, dissonant American modernism in the 1920s and 30s, creating intense piano pieces, songs, and the groundbreaking String Quartet 1931. Her music was unapologetic and ahead of its time.

Career vs. family. After marrying her teacher, Charles Seeger, and having children, Crawford largely ceased composing, dedicating herself to family and folk music transcription during the Great Depression. This highlights the historical "career vs love and children battle" faced by women artists.

Lost potential. Despite her later success in folk education, her early compositional voice was silenced. Her story represents the lost potential of unsupported working mothers and raises questions about the compromises artists, particularly women, make when faced with societal and domestic expectations.

4. Walter Smetak: Sound plastics, spirituality, and tropical chaos.

What Smetak called ‘deep Brazil’ was, for him, ‘the land of possible impossibilities’.

Bahian alchemist. Walter Smetak, a Swiss immigrant cellist in Brazil, became an inventor of over 150 cosmic, carnal instruments called plásticas sonoras. Made from everyday materials, these instruments embodied the vibrant, multicultural energy of Salvador da Bahia.

Caossonance and Eubiose. Influenced by Theosophy (Eubiose), musique concrète, and the city's sounds, Smetak sought a meta-sensory state he called "caossonance," transcending boundaries between light, sound, and senses. His instruments were tools to instruct the mind and glimpse existence.

Godfather of Tropicália. Smetak's anarchic creativity and sonic bricolage resonated with the Tropicália movement, who nicknamed him "Tak-Tak." His work, like his unrealized "Egg Studio," represents a unique Brazilian contribution, fusing local materials, spirituality, and experimental sound outside Western norms.

5. José Maceda: Orchestrating cities and preserving ancient sounds.

He also asked what classical music has to do with coconuts and rice.

Ethnomusicologist composer. José Maceda, a Filipino pianist turned ethnomusicologist, questioned how Western classical music could articulate global lived experience. He dedicated his life to researching and preserving indigenous Asian musical traditions.

Mass participation rituals. Maceda created large-scale works like Ugnayan (1974), broadcast simultaneously across Manila via 37 radio stations, involving millions of listeners as performers. His music aimed to blur lines between audience and performer, village and city, past and present.

Drone time and cultural resistance. Rooted in Asian pentatonicism and drone concepts, Maceda's music defies Western notions of time and hierarchy. His work, though sometimes co-opted by the Marcos regime, was an act of resistance against cultural hegemony, translocating ancient sounds into modern contexts.

6. Galina Ustvolskaya: Holy terror and uncompromising truth.

Her music of astounding strength and determination, as well as wilful and often inexorable cruelty.

Sound poet of St. Petersburg. Galina Ustvolskaya, a student of Shostakovich, composed music of fierce intellect, exacting demands, and profound emotional depth. Her work is characterized by its uncompromising directness, dissonance, and often brutal physicality.

Trauma and spirituality. Living through the cruelties of the Soviet era, Ustvolskaya channeled her experiences into music that confronts fear, isolation, and spiritual anguish. Her later works are explicitly sacred, seeking truth and mercy through guttural repetitions and stark textures.

An island of her own. Despite brief periods of writing state-sanctioned works, Ustvolskaya largely isolated herself, refusing to conform to stylistic or political expectations. Her self-imposed peripheral state became her strength, allowing her to create music that is both deeply personal and universally unsettling.

7. Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Guèbru: Piano royalty and spiritual resilience.

Her melodies weave around those pentatonic contours, but the music of one particular artist never quite fitted with the rest of the series.

Ethiopia's piano nun. Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Guèbru, born into Ethiopian aristocracy, became a nun and a unique composer whose piano music blends classical training, Ethiopian pentatonicism, and spiritual depth. Her style is characterized by its languid lyricism and fluid sense of time.

Resilience through music. After her dream of becoming a concert pianist was shattered by a visa rejection, Emahoy spiraled into depression but found solace and a new direction in church music and eventually, her own compositions. Her music became a channel for her feelings and spirituality.

Beyond labels. While her music shares modal elements with Ethio-jazz, Emahoy insists on her classical influences. Her work defies easy categorization, standing as a testament to her unique journey and her ability to find beauty and resilience through sound, even in exile.

8. Else Marie Pade: Trauma, fairy tales, and electronic pioneers.

Sound was Pade’s first and last, her sharpest sense.

Danish resistance fighter and composer. Else Marie Pade, imprisoned as a teenager for her work in the Danish resistance, experienced the world intensely through sound due to childhood illness. This sensitivity later fueled her pioneering electronic music.

Musique concrète and electronics. Pade was Denmark's first electronic music composer, blending musique concrète (manipulated recordings) and pure electronic sounds. Her works, like En dag på Dyrehavsbakken and Symphonie magnétophonique, create darkly impish, psychologically penetrating soundscapes of urban life and fairy tales.

Truth and trauma. Pade's music confronts personal trauma and societal issues, such as the lingering effects of war (Face It). Despite facing gender bias and cultural conservatism, she used new technologies to manifest her vivid inner world, creating music that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

9. Muhal Richard Abrams: Tradition wide as all outdoors and collective empowerment.

Tradition in African-American music is wide as all outdoors.

AACM founder. Muhal Richard Abrams was a pivotal figure in American music, co-founding the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in Chicago in 1965. The AACM challenged racial stereotypes and genre boundaries, asserting black musicians' right to define their own creative expression.

Radical traditionalist. Abrams blended diverse influences, from ragtime and bebop to classical and electronic music. He saw composition as a radical act, using methodologies like the Schillinger System to prove that creative expression was accessible to anyone willing to learn and explore.

Enabling individuality. More than a guru, Abrams fostered a community where individual voices could flourish. His legacy lies not just in his own extensive body of work but in empowering generations of musicians to pursue their unique paths, embodying a philosophy of continuous learning and collective growth.

10. Éliane Radigue: Sound within sound and the power of slowness.

She says she is always on the hunt for sound within sound – a realm of partials, harmonics and subharmonics.

Master of transition. Éliane Radigue is renowned for her awesomely gradual music, characterized by subtle, slow modulations and a focus on the inner life of sound (harmonics and subharmonics). Her work exists in a state of quiet, perpetual flux.

Electronic and acoustic exploration. Radigue transitioned from early musique concrète and tape experiments to a three-decade love affair with the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer. Since the 2000s, she has created the Occam series, collaborative acoustic works based on water imagery and intuitive "living scores."

Patience and presence. Radigue's music demands deep listening and patience, offering listeners a sense of expanded time and immersive experience. Her approach, guided by Occam's Razor and Buddhist philosophy, seeks to reveal the subtle riches within sound and foster a profound connection between listener, performer, and the sonic environment.

11. Annea Lockwood: River crossings and listening to the natural world.

Sound is a transfer of energy, she says.

Experimental sound artist. Annea Lockwood, a New Zealander based in the US, creates playful, meticulous works that explore the relationship between sound, nature, and the body. Her "Piano Transplants" involve instruments decaying in natural environments.

Deep listening and environment. Lockwood's work encourages profound attentiveness, often focusing on environmental sounds like rivers (A Sound Map of the Hudson River). She believes that listening deeply to the natural world can foster a sense of connection and care.

Anti-composition and activism. Describing her glass concerts and other works as "anti-composition," Lockwood prioritizes discovery over imposing design. While avoiding didacticism, her music serves as a form of activism, urging listeners to reconnect with themselves and the planet through sound.

Last updated: May 10, 2025