The spatiality of sounds. From sound-source localization to musical spaces

Abstract

The proliferation of and interest in concepts of musical space make the question of why composers, philosophers, and musicologists have used spatial concepts for music – which is typically considered a temporal and ephemeral art form – a relevant issue in the multidisciplinary research on music. In this paper, I suggest distinguishing between a literal and a metaphorical meaning of the term “space” when applied to music and sounds. Thereafter, I investigate the reasons that might have lain behind the metaphorical use of spatial concepts for music, focusing on the concept of movement in music and examining relevant studies in the field of audiovisual correspondences which show that listeners consistently match certain acoustic features to spatial features. Finally, I claim that both the metaphorical and the literal uses of spatial concepts for describing music are rooted in the way people perceive the dynamic change of acoustic features in terms of a (pseudo)spatial phenomenology.

Intimità sonore.

“…Il campo metaforico e il legame con l'immaginazione verranno poi presi in considerazione come momenti percettivi inscindibili dall'esperienza del soggetto. Tuttavia questo non deve ridurre l'analisi spaziale sui campi e gli orizzonti di senso di cui il mondo sonoro è impregnato alla metafora nell'analisi musicale (Di Stefano, 2022). Se «il suono si muove ed è proprio per questo che esso attrae, nello stesso modo in cui l'occhio è attratto da ciò che si muove nel campo visuale» (Piana, 2005, p. 328), il dinamismo interno al suono, per cui vi può essere «mobilità interna, di un dinamismo interno alla sostanza sonora» (ivi, p. 222), che definisce una nozione, prima che un dato (ivi, pp.…”

Exploring crossmodal correspondences for future research in human movement augmentation

“…Pitch is consistently associated with spatial locations on the vertical ( Bordeau et al, 2023 ), and to a lesser extent horizontal, axis, such that a low-pitched sound is more likely to be associated with a left/low location whereas a high pitch is associated with a right/high location ( Mudd, 1963 ; Rusconi et al, 2006 ; Spence, 2011 ; Guilbert, 2020 ). At the same time, however, loudness is known to be an effective indicator of distance, such that, when presented with two sounds which differ only in loudness, people tend to associate the louder sound with a closer sound source, and vice versa ( Eitan, 2013 ; Di Stefano, 2022 ).…”

Affordances of musical instruments: Conceptual consideration

“…See Bijsterveld and Peters (2010) for a discussion on interdisciplinary potentials existing between the fields of organology and science and technology studies. either literal or metaphorical (Di Stefano, 2022). The literal meaning refers to the sound source in physical space, while the metaphorical meaning refers to non-physical, imaginery space.…”

“…The notion of space carries a multitude of meanings in relation to music. These shifting meanings can be broadly grouped into either literal or metaphorical ( Di Stefano, 2022 ). The literal meaning refers to the sound source in physical space, while the metaphorical meaning refers to non-physical, imaginery space.…”

“…As this quote exemplifies, spatial networks emerge through multiple perceptual processes, a cross-modal phenomenon which becomes overt when it falls apart. Given that both literal and metaphorical meaning of space ( Di Stefano, 2022 ) are relying on perception, spatial networks can be said to blur the line between them.…”