Acusmacia

Abstract

Abstract of the DissertationAcusmacia is a spanish word of Greek origin that denotes an auditory hallucination. A hallucination is the apparent perception of something not present. In the case of sound, what is perceived and what is present can differ tremendously.The perception of pitch is already the result of an extreme filtering of what is present.Acusmacia, the piece, begins with a roll on two snare drums.This sound is perceived as noise: an erratic, intermittent or statistically random oscillation. However, the actual method of production, the roll, is a periodic beating of drumsticks on a drum head.This paradox is the starting point for the piece and, through oftentimes hallucinatory procedures, it describes a journey from noise to pitch and from the acoustic to the acousmatic.duration: ca. 18 minutes