ABSTRACT
In the fourth and fifth chapters we move forward from aural awareness and what we can achieve regarding the choice and subsequent sculpting of materials towards combining those materials at a small scale (this chapter) and at a larger scale (Chapter 5). The reader will discover that no tailor-made sound examples are being offered to illustrate the chapters' activities. The reason for this choice is quite important. Like many others, I was trained musically using an approach whereby I learned about and analysed the compositional methods of other musicians. If this had been a goal in itself, I would not have minded. However, I was subsequently asked to compose in the style of those composers too. I may have learned something by taking on someone else's style, but do not feel that my own music was furthered by such exercises. What I propose for this book's readers is to offer a large selection of carefully chosen works that can be found online to become acquainted with repertoire. This repertoire is intended to act as an inspiration, not to have readers make pieces that sound like others. These works will be categorised in a manner that corresponds with our overview of genres and categories in Chapter 1 as well as with some of the activities proposed in Chapters 4 and 5, that is, by approach or theme. The fact is that there exist very few commonly followed structures in sound-based music, but there are loads of types of musical gestures that one hears. It is for this reason that the approach is to allow a maximum of freedom for individuals to discover their own influences, techniques and, thus, their own personal sound.
