Over the centuries, for many artists, space has become a dimension in its own right, occupying a central role in the creative process. If the notion of space in music can often refer to abstract concepts, it is approached here as a sound dimension that is worked on by composers and perceived by listeners. From a historical perspective, we are interested in the emergence of the spatial paradigm in the music of the "learned" tradition since the Renaissance but this research project aims above all to better formalize the notion of space by taking an interest in the theoretical writings produced on this subject during the 20th and 21st centuries and by analyzing a varied corpus of musical works. The localization, the displacement, the radiation of sound sources, the construction of imaginary perspectives, the exploration of the physical properties of the places of diffusion are the seat of auditory experiences which were the object of only embryonic research in musicology and psychoacoustics. The aim here is to cross these two disciplines in order to better understand how the spatial dimension is imagined, verbalized and integrated by composers, implemented by sound engineers, computer music producers and performers, and perceived by listeners.
IRCAM Team : Analysis of Musical Practices
