ABSTRACT
Sound artists seem to have impact as a specific goal of their creations. Subsequently, the “sound-in-itself” tendency has become the dominant paradigm for the production and reception of sound art. Educational foundations can interpret this as a persistent narrowing of sound into technique, avoiding its pedagogical potential. The duration of each soloist’s turn is determined by the soloist, so that the rhythm is not one of a clock or timer and instead is a series of “moments” or “periods” of varying length appropriate to the performance of the piece. In traditional Western-European ensembles, the individual is submerged into the group. Other than when featured as a soloist, she or he produces sounds that are part of a larger machine of harmonies and countermelodies and accompaniments and contrasts. Sounds are in a sense liberating, providing new forms of knowing and understanding, new ways to be creative and new ways to communicate how we feel and what we care about.
