ABSTRACT
Transformation now becomes the gradual changing of one sound-image into another with its associated metaphorical implications, and a landscape can be seen as a particular kind of timbre-field applying to the space of sound-images. In looking at Stockhausen's Gesang people have already noted that sound-images may be used metaphorically, although in this particular case this use may not strike people immediately as other features of the sonic architecture are more strongly articulated and apparent to our perceptions. The transformations between the sounds of different instruments playing the same note are very convincing as sonic transformations but unfortunately totally uninteresting as metaphors. In social and political terms a closed view sees human society as a functional totality in which each person has, or should have, an assigned role. Society can be entirely rationally organised and ultimately the control of human affairs is to be left to experts.
