Reflections on sound Created by Brett Oppegaard for

Reflections on sound Created by Brett Oppegaard for Washington State University's DTC 375 class, fall 2009

“Ambient music” by Brian Eno “there was still an assumption (in the late 1970 s) that playing with sound itself was a 'merely' technical job – something engineers and producers did – as opposed to the serious creative work of writing songs and playing instruments. With 'Ambient Music, ' I wanted to suggest that this activity was actually one of the distinguishing characteristics of new music, and could in fact become the main focus of compositional attention. ” - (course pack, pg 164) In what ways could remediation and transformation through modern technology, including remixing, splicing, image manipulation, etc. , be considered “serious creative work”?

Pythagoras of Samos From Pierre Schaeffer's “Acousmatics” For five years, around 500 B. C. , Pythagoras taught from behind a curtain to students who observed a strict code of silence. This separated the perceptive reality of sound from its modes of production and transmission. (pg 161) Courtesy of: www. mlahanas. de Why is that valuable to do?

What does your character sound like? How old? Distinguishing verbal and nonverbal characteristics? Where from (accent)? Why is your character in this story? How did the person get involved in this? What relationships exist with other characters? How does your character grow in the scene? How can you communicate such important information through sound?

Other fine tuning: What time period are you in? What is the setting of your scene? What props are being manipulated? Where are your characters in relation to each other? In what ways are they moving around? How is this piece special because of its aural nature? How does it use that as a strength? How can you communicate such important information through sound?