Consideration of Musical Texture as a Perceptual Phenomenon; Implementation of visual texture analysis methods, on the phenomenon of musical texture.

Texture as a distinct theoretical term appeared in musicians' discourse only towards the second part of the 20th century, and research of musical texture is in its early stage. A limited number of studies were published on this topic, and researchers differ in their approaches to analyzing musical texture. What most scholars do agree upon is that musical texture is a meta-parameter, that stem from the interrelations of all sonic events. In this research I examine the phenomenon of musical texture in regard to the research of visual texture, a distinct research field in cognitive science. Doing this I reexamine musical texture as a perceptual phenomenon, and present a theoretical model to analyze features in the music that contribute to the formation of musical texture. This model is continuously tested and refined through analyzing a wide variety of musical works, with an emphasis on contemporary music, where texture is especially evident On the artistic level of my research, I explore texture possibilities in music, through composing pieces and shorter musical fragments ('textural etudes') in which I use texture as a starting point of the creative process. The synergy between the artistic and theoretical aspects of the research is evident: I use composition as a testing field to explore issues I encounter in the theoretic research, and through a systematic study of texture I adopt new ways of expression and enrich my compositional language.

Keywords:TEXTURE ANALYSIS, PERCEPTION, MUSIC

Disciplines:Musicology and ethnomusicology

Project type:Collaboration project