An original composition, Diamundo, and a historical survey of music spatialization

This dissertation is divided in two parts. Part one is an original composition, Diamundo, for percussion, winds, strings, and loudspeakers, based on the poem of the same name by the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade. It is scored for a chamber orchestra with a main ensemble formed by strings, piano, percussion, and guitar, plus electroacoustic sounds, and four solo wind instruments: flute, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. The ensemble and the eight-channel loudspeakers are spatialized. The piece is divided in six movements without interruption. The first five movements are separated by 4 cadenzas for the solo instruments. Most of the motives, rhythms, and harmonies were generated having the all-interval tetrachords (0146) and (0137) as the background structure. For the first and sixth movements, pre-recorded electroacoustic sounds are synchronized with the ensemble. During the second and fifth movements, a granular synthesis is used as background for the chamber orchestra. During the third and fourth movements, sounds of the instrument soloists are recorded and processed in real-time. Tools for the electroacoustic techniques include the Kyma system, Csound, and sound editing software. Part two is an historical survey of music spatialization, divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is an introduction. The second chapter is concerned with musical space in antiquity and the medieval ages. The third chapter deals with the polychoral music, at the time of Gabrieli in Venice, and its legacy. The fourth chapter focuses on the dramatic space effects in opera and in orchestral music of the 18th and 19th centuries. The fifth chapter explores spatialization from the beginning of the 20th century through the end of World War II. The sixth chapter discusses music spatialization from the middle through the end of the last century. The final chapter outlines some conclusions based on the preceding chapters