ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the modalities in which space can be employed for settling philosophical issues on the nature of sound, and the way in which the auditory system operates when segregating and ascribing sound streams which evolve over time to the right sound source. It provides the role of space in audition and its possible uses without exhausting all its possible applications. The chapter discusses the available options in the metaphysics of sound which are construed taking into account the different spatial regions of the surrounding space where sound is claimed to be located. There are at least three aesthetic uses of space—minimal, weighty, and prominent—that have been employed within the music of the Western tradition. The positions of musicians with regard to their relative placement and to the audience are included within the weighty aesthetic role of space; nevertheless composers use space with this specific aesthetic intent when explicitly focusing on reverberation and resonance.
