Hindsight : an electro-acoustic composition for 5.1 surround sound

Hindsight is an electro-acoustic composition for 5.1 surround sound. It is a threecredit-hour creative project completed during the summer semester of 2005 at Ball State University. I wanted to compose a new piece of music that was a collection of ideas gathered during my studies at Ball State University. Looking back, I choose elements or events that I could understand or judge from this point in time: percussion; a trip to Chidumbram, India and Middle Eastern musical aesthetics; and electro-acoustic music, both art and popular. Hindsight fuses these different elements into an electro-acoustic composition. This paper will discuss the importance of the elements and events used in Hindsight. First, there is a discussion and descriptions of this creative project. Secondly, there is a discussion about why percussion was chosen and what instruments are used in this composition. Next, I discuss the elements inspired by a trip to India, Middle Eastern aesthetics, and how they are apparent in the music. Lastly there is a short history of electro-acoustic music, and a discussion of my choice to incorporate techniques from both the art and popular genres heard currently.School of MusicThesis (M.M.