Creative Research on Pre-Columbian Sonorities

El oído pensante 3 (1)., 2015

Flower world is a new series edited by Arnd Adje Both and Matthias Stöckli which focuses on ancient music and music-related activities in Pre-Columbian Americas. The title Flower World refers to the sacred place and mythological world in ancient Mesoamerica. The main topic of the series is in archaeomusicology and its new methods and theoretical debates as the archaeology of senses and archaeoacoustics. In his preface Adje Both discusses the " ethnoarchaeological problem " when showing the difficulties of searching for analogies and similarities of ancient Pre-Columbian musical praxis in musical activities of recent Amerindian groups. Both's introduction to the series is followed by Matthias Stöckli's preface to the first edition, as he presents the eight articles. He argues, as well as Both, that the unifying aim is to reveal the existence of important cultural aspects of pre-Columbian music making with musical activities of recent Amerindian groups. So the first contribution, entitled " Ancient Pututus Contextualized: Integrative Achaeoacoustics at Chavín de Huántar, Peru " , is written by Miriam A. Kolar, John W. Prick, R. Cook and Jonthan Abel. The " integrative " part here is reflected by the method used. Therefore, the sound possibilities of the pututus (horn shells/strombus galeatus) were measured and related to the landscape as well as to the building complex of the archaeological site (approx.1200-500 BC). The interaction between sound perception and sound production is analysed by interpretations of graphical/iconographical representations, physical and acoustic analyses of the shell horns artefact comparative ethnographic surveys of similar aerophones, observational tests in associated contexts and contextualized psycho-acoustic experimentation with recorded shell horn artefact or replica sound stimuli. The authors point out that the architectural construction of three tubes had been designed to transmit frequencies of 500-1000 Hz, a spectrum which fits perfectly the one of the shell horns.

As something ephemeral that does not leave direct material traces, sound is not often considered in archaeological work. However, sound was an important aspect of ancient life, which can be investigated using a new approach to the archaeological remains and the evidence of sonic aspects in the archaeological record. By analysing the main recent research on these fields, we will discuss in this contribution the relationship between the intangible aspects and the spatial configuration of archaeological spaces. In quanto qualcosa di effimero che non lascia tracce materiali dirette, il suono spesso non viene considerato nel lavoro archeologico. Tuttavia, il suono era un aspetto importante della vita antica, che può essere studiato utilizzando un nuovo approccio ai resti archeologici e alle testimonianze degli aspetti sonori nella documentazione archeologica. Analizzando le principali ricerche recenti su questi ambiti, in questo contributo si discuterà il rapporto tra gli aspetti immateriali e la configurazione spaziale degli spazi archeologici.

Music Archaeology of the Americas, 2020

Site-contextualized, emplaced experimental music archaeology tests and demonstrates the interactive potentials of sound production in archaeological architecture and environmental settings. Our acoustical survey at the Inca site, Huánuco Pampa, Peru situated the performance of archaeologically appropriate sound-producing instruments on and around its large central platform or “ushnu/ushno”. We used a systematic comparison of different sound producers in an archaeoacoustical exploration of Inca sonic communication, administrative architecture, and musical performance. Beyond characterizing interdynamics of instruments and settings that influence performance practice and reception, empirical knowledge can inform interpretation of historical accounts contributing to Inca archaeology. This article details an acoustical analysis of musical performance and platform-top sonic affordances at Huánuco Pampa, drawing into conversation relevant texts from across disciplines, including discourse on soundscape, archaeological entanglement, ethnomusicology, and Inca studies. In addition to contributing acoustical methodologies to ethnoarchaeomusicology, we pose our research as work towards a new form of “performative soundscape science” that explores the multi-relational interdependencies of sonic performance by emplaced sound makers. (https://www.ekho-verlag.com/abstracts-flower-world-v-6/flower-world-vol-6-kolar/) Estudios de arqueomusicología experimental realizados in situ evalúan y demuestran el potencial interactivo de la producción sonora en estructuras arquitectónicas arqueológicas y el medio ambiente. En nuestro estudio acústico en el sitio incaico Huánuco Pampa (Perú) la ejecución de instrumentos sonoros considerados arqueológicamente apropiados se llevó a cabo encima y alrededor de su gran plataforma central (“ushnu/ushno”). Para explorar la arqueoacústica de la comunicación sonora, la arquitectura administrativa y la ejecución musical incaicas hicimos una comparación sistemática entre distintos productores sonoros. Más allá de la caracterización de la dinámica entre los instrumentos y el entorno, que in uye sobre la ejecución y recepción sonoras, los conocimientos empíricos pueden inspirar la interpretación de fuentes históricas y también así contribuir a la arqueología incaica. En el presente artículo pormenorizamos el análisis acústico de la ejecución musical en, y las potenciales acústicas de la parte superior de la plataforma central de Huánuco Pampa, entablando una conversación con textos pertinentes de varias disciplinas, entre ellos discursos sobre el paisaje sonoro, el enlazamiento arqueológico, la etnomusicología y los estudios incaicos. Además de contribuir metodologías acústicas para la etno-arqueomusicología, planteamos nuestro modelo de investigación como un paso hacia una forma novedosa de una “ciencia del paisaje sonoro performativo” que se propone explorar las interdependencias multirelacionales entre los creadores de sonidos y sus entornos.

Interference - A journal of audio culture, 2018

In this article, I discuss the notion of sonority from the perspective of musical composition. I place the notion of sonority, not as a concept circumscribed in analysis and composition theories that take sound as a thing and handle it from its parameterisation, but rather as an idea of a more dynamic and holistic nature. Thus, sonority is repositioned from listening: not a reduced one, but instead an enlarged listening; not purely cochlear, nor tympanic, but sensitive, affective, and imaginative. Sonority is understood, thus, from the notion of experience. To build upon this reflection, I engage, in particular, with the work of three Brazilian researchers/composers: Denise Garcia, Rodolfo Caesar and Silvio Ferraz. Throughout the article, the notion of sonority is reflected upon through comments on my piece for orchestra, A menina que virou chuva [The girl who became rain] (2013).

Audiosfera., 2016

Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Auditory Display - ICAD 2018, 2018

The idea that sound can convey information predates the modern era, and certainly the computational present. Data sonification can be broadly described as the creation, study and use of the non-speech aural representation of information to convey information. As a field of contemporary enquiry and practice, data sonification is young, interdisciplinary and evolving; existing in parallel to the field of data visualization. Drawing on older practices such as auditing, and the use of information messaging in music, this paper provides an historical understanding of how sound and its representational deployment in communicating information has changed. In doing so, it aims to encourage a critical awareness of some of the sociocultural as well as technical assumptions often adopted in sonifying data, especially those that have been developed in the context of Western music of the last half-century or so.

2016

Sound Making: Handcraft of Musical Instruments in Antiquity. Table Ronde organised by EFA, EFR and IFAO, Louvre Museum, IRCAM and UMR Proche Orient Caucase and College de France

2016

2015

The PhD dissertation entitled A Materiality of Sound: Musical Practices of the Moche of Peru examines the role of sonic practice within the Moche culture, a complex polity that flourished on the north coast of Peru between 100 and 900 AD. Music, as a cultural expression of sound, plays an important part in every known human society. Instead of accepting that such a significant aspect of human social life, as sound should remain forever beyond the reach of archaeological inquiry, A Materiality of Sound investigates the durable material traces of sound, such as instrumentation and architecture, using modern recording and acoustic measurement technologies. These techniques permit the exploration of aural experience and sound use in past contexts. The foundation for the archaeological inquiry of sound and music derives from the phenomenology of Merlau-Ponty (1962); a theoretical standpoint stating that humans experience and interact with the world through all our senses simultaneously. Archaeological interpretation tends to focus on the visual aspects of the world, with the implications that past peoples also privileged sight above all other senses. In order to interpret the choices and strategies employed by past societies, one must consider that the visual may not represent the only, or most valued, sense involved.

Revista de História, 2023

The article provides an overview of recent production focused on the historicization of sounds and listening, present in the texts that compose the dossier História e Cultura Sonora. In general, it is possible to indicate that three major currents prevail in these works: the anglophone Sound Studies, the History of Sensibilities of French tradition and Latin American studies, which, although inspired by the previous two, strive not to confine themselves to classical discussions but to reflect on the specificities of sound production and modes of listening within their cultures. The text also evaluates the impact of phonography and the digitization of sound collections on historiographical production in the field of Sound Culture.