Humming : Electroacoustic music (musical CD)
- Submitting institution
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University of Aberdeen
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 115882304
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- October
- Year
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This over 70-minute long composition project is a result of an ongoing research project entitled the Humming Project. Produced between 2015 and 2018, the underpinning research of this composition project had begun in 2009. The main, persistent, objective of this composition project has been to problematise some of the core historical and formalistic methodologies in acousmatic/electroacoustic composition. It does so by identifying peculiar shades of sonic formalism in my compositional decision-making process and (re-)situating, and being truthful to, my listening. It is proposed as an in- depth critical examination of compositional methods.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Humming consists of seven electroacoustic compositions by Suk-Jun Kim between 2016 and 2018, and is a part of his Humming Project (2009-Present), which combines various research methods, including electroacoustic compositions, sound installations, and writing. The ideas for this CD project were further developed while Kim was writing the book of the same name (Kim 2018). Whereas the book focused on various aspects of humming as a sonic concept, these compositions attempted to tackle one key quality that makes humming unique, that is, humming is an act of listening to oneself. And Kim’s method in all these compositions was akin to Bachelard’s advice: ‘Take a weak idea, tighten its focus upon an instant, and it will suddenly illumine the mind.’ (Bachelard 2013) For some time, Kim has wondered what a composer does when he composes, and has gradually come to realise that composing is to share with others how he listens. (Szendy & Nancy 2008) But this realisation did sit rather uncomfortably with most of the composer’s earlier compositions, which were heavily structural in form and sometimes overtly depictive, that is, too much emphasis on so-called sound-images. The reason for the uneasiness with these compositions is because, since then, the composer’s listening has drastically changed, which also means he now identifies and creates different relations with his surroundings. In these compositions in Humming, Kim wanted to explore such changes in his listening. This inevitably meant that his compositional methods needed to change as well, from highly structural, and often narrative form or motivic growth to persistent listening to his kitchen, noises, a hubbub of talking and laughing, voices, beeps and blips, and humming, untrammelled by habitual sound-making. Humming was published in 2019 and was premiered at the Sound Festival on 1 November 2019.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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