Washington D.C.

, USA
June 9–15, 2010

Proceedings
of the 16th International Conference
on Auditory Display

ICAD-10 was organized by

the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, VRSonic and
the University of Maryland.

ICAD-10 was supported by

The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

THE SONIFICATION METAPHOR IN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

AND SONIFICATION’S ROMANTIC IMPLICATIONS

Volker Straebel

Technische Universität Berlin

Fachgebiet Audiokommunikation
Sekr. EN8, Einsteinufer 17c, 10758 Berlin, Germany
ǀŽůŬĞƌ͘ƐƚƌĂĞďĞůΛƚƵͲďĞƌůŝŶ͘ĚĞ

ABSTRACT Natursprache, a poetic language in which one could
directly experience nature as the embodiment of a divine
The sonification metaphor is not limited to electronic being, is prominently expressed in the writings of
sound synthesis and computer music, but can be applied Novalis [5] 2 , [6]. While there is no proof that those
to instrumental music as well. The relation of involved in sonification research read the late 18th
sonification to program and experimental music is century German philosophers, the proximity of their
discussed and works by Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz ideas might suggest a connection through common
Stockhausen, John Cage and Alvin Lucier are briefly cultural knowledge.
introduced. The paper leads to a discussion of the
connection between sonification and romanticism, where 2. PROGRAM MUSIC AND THE SONIFICATION
the desire is to directly evoke an understanding of natural METAPHOR
phenomena.
To claim that absolute music, that is, instrumental music
1. INTRODUCTION without reference to extra-musical entities, is the
paradigm of music per se, is an assertion of early 19th
When, after initial explorations in the 1870s [1], the century music aesthetics. Vocal music obviously refers to
concept of data sonification was established in the 1980s the themes expressed in the lyrics, and instrumental
and further developed in the following decade [2], [3], music had always served social or ritual purposes. By
two assumptions came to be taken for granted: First, means of tone painting, instrumental music can imitate
sonification is considered a human/computer interface the sounds around us, like birds, water or thunderstorms.
and hence the means of sound production are electro- Beethoven’s statement that his Sixth Symphony, the
acoustic, and second, sonification reveals some Pastoral Symphony, was “mehr Ausdruck der
information about the matter represented by the sonified Empfindung als Malerey” – “more the expression of
data. Weinberg and Thatcher even describe the latter feeling than painting” – marks the beginning of a
aspect of data exploration as “immersive” and claim “a conception of program music where the music does not
direct and intimate connection to the information” [4]1. merely convey a literary narrative through musical
From a musicologist’s point of view, the concept of data imitation of characteristic acoustic objects (think of
sonification appeals for two reasons. First, sonification as Smetana’s Moldau, for instance), but instead creates an
an idea released from its ties to computer applications imaginary drama or represents a poetic idea. That the
can act as a metaphor for non-electronic compositions extra-musical program does not need to be known to the
that are strictly representational in nature. I am referring listener is shown by Tschaikowsky’s Sixth Symphony,
here not so much to instances of program music that Pathetiqué, where the composer preferred to keep the
communicate a narrative, but to works in the tradition of program to himself. This establishes an interesting
experimental music that map extra-musical data to double bind, since the listener knows s/he is not meant to
musical parameters. Second, the basic assumption of take the work for absolute music, yet the program
sonification researchers, that their technique provides a remains a secret. The listener is supposed to experience a
means to gain an immediate understanding of the matter meaning beyond the music, just as someone listening to
represented in sound, seems to be derived from certain sonification signals is supposed to interpret information
concepts suggested by Early Romanticism. The idea of a communicated through sound.

1 2
p. 9 p. 147, n30

ICAD-287
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

Starting in the 1950s, composers began to refer to minute) a measure. The three tempi superimposed create
extra-musical entities, particularly scientific data, on a a rather complex resulting rhythm [7]2.
different level. They no longer imitated sounds or Since the durations of the glissandi of each
expressed certain feelings or poetic ideas, but instrument remain constant, the change of speed needs to
incorporated algorithmic or conceptual procedures in be expressed by the change of interval that gets spanned
their compositional process. The sonification metaphor within the constant duration (fig. 2). The sonified speed
was used, before its concept was established, to map the of the gas particles is musically represented by the
shapes of stones or the panorama of the Alps to melodic glissando’s differential. (The use of pizzicato, however,
lines or sound spectrums. This way, the representational makes it rather difficult to actually hear the glissandi,
aspect was internalized into the composition itself. since the attack emphasizes the pitches from which the
sliding tones start).
2.1. Iannis Xenakis: Pithoprakta

In 1955/56, Iannis Xenakis used stochastic calculations

in the composition of his orchestra piece Pithoprakta.
The speeds of the glissandi of 46 separately scored string
instruments were determined by a formula describing the
Brownian motion of gas particles. For a section of 18.5
sec. duration (measures 52-60), Xenakis calculated 1148
speeds, which he distributed into 58 values according to
Gauss’s law. A graph illustrates the movements of the
pitches (fig. 1).

Figure 2: Iannis Xenakis, Pithoprakta. Violins I,

measures 51-54 [8]. Copyright © 1967 by Boosey &
Hawkes Music Publishers Limited. Used by kind
permission.

In Pithoprakta, Xenakis did not actually sonify

measured or otherwise observed data, but merely
illustrated the mathematical description of the physical
phenomenon. He called his approach “one of those
‘logical poems’ which the human intelligence creates in
order to trap the superficial incoherencies of physical
phenomena, and which can serve, on the rebound, as a
point of departure for building abstract entities, and then
incarnations of these entities in sound or light” [7]3. Here,
the composer limits the role of sonification to a point of
departure for his inspiration. He is not so much interested
in the concept of translating scientific data into musical
parameters, but rather in emphasizing the connection
between the arts of music and mathematics, as
established by Ancient Greek philosophers and the
theorists of the Middle Ages.
Figure 1: Iannis Xenakis, sketch for Pithoprakta
[7] 1 . Copyright © 1967 by Boosey & Hawkes Music
Publishers Limited. Used by kind permission. 2.2. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gruppen

In each part, the durations of the glissandi remain In a similarly abstract way, Karlheinz Stockhausen made
constant, occasionally skipping one beat. The durations reference to the mountains around Paspels, Switzerland
are 3, 4 or 5 beats per measure with 26MM (beats per in his Gruppen for three orchestras. Begun in the little
village in the summer of 1955 and completed two years

2
p. 15
1 3
p. 18 p. 13

ICAD-288
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

later, Gruppen demonstrates Stockhausen’s serial 3. SONIFICATION AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC

conception of translating rhythm into timbre and vice
versa by increasing and decreasing speed – an idea John Cage, one of the most prominent exponents of
obviously derived from Stockhausen’s experiments with American experimental music, described his aesthetic
tape manipulation in the electronic music studio. concept of composition, performance and listening as
In his seminal essay …wie die Zeit vergeht… (“how being fundamentally experimental in nature, i.e. open to
time passes” [9]), Stockhausen discussed his approach to an unpredictable outcome or experience: “New music:
achieving aesthetic unity by subjugating micro- and new listening. Not an attempt to understand something
macro-time, that is timbre and rhythm, to the same that is being said, for, if something were being said, the
compositional principles. Here, he presents a graph of a sounds would be given the shapes of words” [12]4. Here
so-called group spectrum, i.e. the relation of is no place for an author who expresses emotions or
superimposed tempi, in a very distinct shape (fig. 3). In attitudes in music with the intention of communicating
an interview, Stockhausen revealed (almost 20 years later) them to the listener. Instead, the composer “may give up
that many envelopes of structural sections of Gruppen the desire to control sound, clear his mind of music, and
are precise representations of the mountain panorama he set about discovering means to let the sounds be
viewed from his window in Paspels [10]1. themselves rather than vehicles for man-made theories or
expressions of human sentiments” [12]5.
That these means are to be discovered is
characteristic for Cage’s understanding of the creative act.
Discovery and experiment are scientific procedures
which Cage unhesitatingly employed in the realm of
composition. To remove personal preferences, he utilized
various chance techniques, most notably the Chinese
oracle I-Ching, but also the observation of imperfections
in music paper (in his Music for Piano, 1952-56) or the
“placing of transparent templates on the pages of an
astronomical atlas and transcribing the positions of stars”
[13] 6 (in Atlas Eclipticalis, 86 instrumental parts to be
played in whole or part, 1961/62). What was already
obvious in the use of stars in Atlas Eclipticalis, the notion
Figure 3: Karlheinz Stockhausen, sketch for Gruppen of translating meaningful data into music and thereby
[9]2. Copyright © Archiv der Stockhausen-Stiftung für establishing a programmatic subtext, became more
Musik, Kürten (www.stockhausen.org). Used by kind prominent in Cage’s open music theater piece Song
permission. Books (1970). Here, the performers are asked to map the
lines of a portrait of Henry David Thoreau (Solo for
Obviously, these shapes cannot be perceived by the Voice 5), the profile of Marcel Duchamp (Solo for
listener. The graph controls the music on a highly Voice 65) or a certain route on the map of Concord, Mass.
abstract level and was certainly never meant to be (Solo for Voice 3) to a melodic line.
directly experienced. Nevertheless, considering Cage also used electronic means to translate physical
Stockhausen’s metaphysical yearning for unity, and data derived from light sensors and capacitance antennas
given the humor of the 27-year-old who had acted into musical parameters that would influence a complex
against his serial principle when he inserted a live-electronic sound system, as in Variations V (1965).
metaphorical “thunderclap” in his tape piece Study I There, Cage finally had available the facilities to
(1953) on the occasion of the birth of his daughter [11]3, “transform our contemporary awareness of nature’s
we witness the well-known setting of a composer manner of operation into art” [12] 7 . That same year,
establishing a hidden subtext. We might have pushed the Alvin Lucier premiered his Music for Solo Performer,
sonification metaphor to an extreme by connecting it where enormously amplified brain waves stimulate
with a parameter mapping that resists decoding. But the percussion instruments, and ten years later the idea of
composer’s interest might lie not so much in using biofeedback in the arts was prominent enough to
communicating what s/he already knows as in creating an establish a project at the Aesthetic Research Center of
aesthetic situation that is open to the unknown. Canada [14]. The rise of live-electronic music and more
4
p. 10
1 5
p. 141 p. 10
2 6
p. 123 p. 62
3 7
p. 94 p. 9

ICAD-289
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

easily available sensor technology in the 1960s, as well music with stones, because when you draw around a
as the improvement of computer performance for stone you don’t necessarily draw the same way each
algorithmic composition and sound synthesis, led to a time” [20]2.)
considerable increase in the number of electronic music An important aspect in data mapping is the question
compositions influenced by the sonification metaphor of scale. The horizontal axis of the Ryoanji score equals
[15], [16]. To supplement research undertaken in the time, but only the part for voice contains a tempo
field of electro-acoustic music, I will here discuss two indication, two minutes per double page that constitute
works of instrumental music that are inspired by the one section (or “garden”). From what we know about
sonification metaphor. Cage’s practice when scoring and rehearsing the first
performances, we can assume the same tempo was
3.1. John Cage: Ryoanji requested for all the parts. In contrast, the scaling of the
vertical axis is indicated in the scores since it changes
In 1983-85, John Cage composed Ryoanji in five parts chance-determined for every section, varying from one
for flute, oboe, trombone, voice, and double bass, to be semitone (in the flute, pp. 6/7) to one octave and a fourth
performed solo or in any combination, but always (in the voice, pp. 18/19). Obviously, the scaling factor of
together with a part for percussion (or orchestra in the pitch axis greatly impacts the sounding result. It
unison). The scores are graphic, consisting of curved determines whether the changes in pitch are microtonal
lines that indicate glissandi with time equaling space on and subtle, or large intervals are spanned in high tempo.
the horizontal and pitch equaling space on the vertical So it comes as no surprise that Cage used this factor as a
axis (fig. 4). The title Ryoanji refers to the Ryoanji Zen dimension of composition. By the way, musically this
garden in Kyoto, Japan, where 15 large stones are placed situation is very similar to Xenakis’s transformation of
in 5 groups (of 5, 2, 3, 2, and 3 stones from east to west) particle speeds into glissandi by controlling the intervals
on a slim rectangle of raked sand. Cage created the spanned by these glissandi.
graphs in the score by placing stones from a collection of According to Cage’s performance instructions, “[t]he
15 at chance-determined positions on paper and tracing glissandi are to be played smoothly and as much as is
parts of their perimeters. Per double page, 15 to 30 stones possible like sound events in nature rather than sounds in
were used, and sometimes up to four lines overlap in one music” [21]. In other words, the sonification of natural
instrument, so that parts need to be pre-recorded and objects is supposed to sound like nature, not music. But
played back during live performance [17]1, [19]. Cage’s composition is not so much representational of
stones he traced but of the Ryoanji garden as a whole. In
his comments, Cage claims “the staves are actually the
area of the garden” [20]3 , and “for the accompaniment
[i.e. the percussion part] I turned my attention to the
raked sand” [17]4. In summary, it may be argued that the
composition Ryoanji is a conceptual artistic
representation of the garden, incorporating elements of
sonification.
Inspired by his work with magnetic tape, Cage had
begun utilizing propositional notation where time equals
space in the early 1950s. As he explained, “with
propositional notation, you automatically produce a
picture of what you hear” [20]5. This connection of music
music and visual representation can easily be turned
around, so that the music follows what you see (e.g. the
aforementioned music from star maps and drawings).
Figure 4: John Cage, Ryoanji. Flute [21]. Copyright Basically, this means nothing other than the
© 1984 by Henmar Press Inc. Used by kind permission. interchangeability of visual and auditive representation,
All rights reserved. which is one of the fundamental assumptions of
(To be precise: in preparing the score, Cage actually sonification research.
did not draw around stones; he used paper templates that
resembled the shapes of the 15 stones. This was not so
much to facilitate the composition process, but to ensure
2
that repetitions would occur: “I obviously couldn’t write p. 280
3
p. 242
4
p. 135
1 5
pp. 134-136; also, with illustrations: [18] p. 243

ICAD-290
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

3.2. Alvin Lucier: Panorama works, you find out about it, and you also connect to it in
a beautiful way” [23]1. And disclosing the metaphysical
In his composition Panorama for Trombone and Piano implications of his aesthetic approach, Lucier stated that
(1993), Alvin Lucier mapped the panorama of the Swiss his works were “perhaps closer in spirit to alchemy,
Alps to the pitches of a slide trombone. He worked from whose purpose was to transform base metals into pure
a reproduction of a panorama drawing by Fritz Morach gold” [24]2.
after a landscape photo by Hermann Vögeli [22]. The
print (98 x 11.5 cm) indicates the mountain peaks with
4. SONIFICATION’S ROMANTIC IMPLICATIONS
vertical lines that label their name and height (fig. 5).
John Cage and many experimental music composers after
him are known to have been influenced by the writings of
the American Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. In
Walden, an essay that reflects his experience of living
alone in the woods from 1845 to 1847, Thoreau interprets
the quality of sounds heard from a long distance and
echoed in the valleys as “a vibration of the universal
lyre” [25]3. In 1851 Thoreau witnessed a telegraph line
being erected [26] 4 . Despite his doubts about the
usefulness of this invention (“We are in great haste to
construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but
Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to
communicate.” [25] 5 ) Thoreau enjoyed and attached
importance to the sound of the “telegraph wire vibrating
like an Æolian Harp” [26]6 . To Thoreau, the telegraph
became “[t]he first strain of the American lyre” [27]7 and
and “the divine humming of the telegraph” [27]8 revealed
Figure 5: Alvin Lucier, Panorama. Excerpt from revealed the “spirit [that] sweeps the string of the
drawing [22] and score. Copyright © Alvin Lucier. Used
telegraph harp – and strains of music are drawn out
by kind permission.
endlessly like the wire itself. We have no need to refer
music and poetry to Greece for an origin now. […] The
In his composition, Lucier kept the scaling of both
world is young & music is its infant voice” [26]9. Finally,
dimensions fixed: The mountain height in meters divided
Thoreau states, the “wire […] always brings a special &
by 8 results in the frequency in Hz, and the distance
general message to me from the highest” [28]10 – “the
between two mountain peaks in mm is interpreted as time
wind which was conveying a message to me from heaven
in seconds, leading to a total duration of 16 minutes.
dropt it on the wire of the telegraph which it vibrated as it
Since Lucier did not use a longitudinal section of the
past [sic]” [28] 11 . This phrasing is indeed close to the
mountain range but worked from a panorama view, the
often quoted definition of sonification as the “use of non-
distances he sonifies do not correspond to the actual
speech audio to convey information” [29]12.
distances between the peaks, a fact that is reflected in the
Thoreau, however, favors the language metaphor,
work’s title.
when he records in his journal the way he sees himself:
The piano part indicates the moments when the
“A writer a man writing is the scribe of all nature – he is
trombone reaches a mountain peak with a single tone or a
the corn & the grass & the atmosphere writing” [26]13.
two-tone chord of adjacent pitch classes. Since the
trombone freely slides through the continuum of
frequencies, while the piano is bound to pitches in equal 1
p. 348
2
temperament, beatings and difference tones occur. This is p. 11
3
a typical technique Lucier has incorporated in his p. 123 (chapter Sounds)
4
compositions since the 1980s. p. 16 (Aug. 28, 1851)
5
Besides his affinity for translation processes in music p. 52 (chapter Economy)
6
and sound art, Alvin Lucier often draws his inspiration p. 75 (Sept. 12, 1851)
7
p. 3 (Feb. 13, 1854)
from scientific experiments. His reference to sonification 8
p. 4 (Feb. 13, 1854)
satisfies both interests. It also stands for the composer’s 9
p. 238 (Jan. 3, 1852)
belief that his aesthetic research may reveal the beauty 10
p. 437 (Jan. 9, 1853)
and charm of the world around us. He once explained 11
p. 76 (Sept. 12, 1851)
12
that “in imitating the natural, the way the natural world chapter 1, Executive Summary
13
p. 28 (Sept. 2, 1851)

ICAD-291
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

He also claims we were “in danger of forgetting the [association of ideas] [32] 4 . In his notes toward
language which all things and events speak without encyclopedism, Novalis finally asked himself whether all
metaphor” [25]1. sculptural form, from crystal to man, could not be
The idea that nature implies a language that, if only described acoustically, as inhibited movement. As
understood, could reveal metaphysical entities otherwise chemical acoustics [32]5.
inaccessible to mankind is prominent in German Early In their research on sonification, scholars and artists
Romanticism of the late 18th century. Novalis, in his Die alike borrow from the romanticists’ yearning to break the
Lehrlinge zu Saïs (“The Novices of Sais”), compares the spell and make the world understandable by translating
routes men take to wondrous figures, which seem to natural phenomena to our senses for immediate
belong to the script of ciphers that one can behold perception. Gregory Kramer opens his essential
everywhere, on wings and egg shells, in clouds, in snow, Introduction to Auditory Display [3] with a quote by Sufi
in crystals and geological formations, in filings drawn to teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927) from his
a magnet, finally in figures created by sand on vibrating Mysticism of Sound and Music: “[I]n the realm of music
sheets [30] 2 . The latter obviously refers to the the wise can interpret the secret and nature of the
experiments of Ernst Chladni, who covered metal sheets working of the whole universe” [33]6 . In his epigraph,
with a thin layer of sand before he made them vibrate by however, Kramer changed “music” to “sound” and
means of a violin bow. Depending on the vibrations the thereby extended the source of inspiration from a man-
sand would move on the surface and establish made art to a physical quality as such. Similarly, Andrea
geometrical figures (fig. 6). Polli quotes Walt Whitman’s nature poem Proud music
of the storm when introducing her works that sonify
meteorological data [34], and Chris Hayward titled a
paper on the sonification of seismological data poetically
– and somewhat euphemistically – Listening to the Earth
Sing [35].
Without typecasting these and many other authors as
hidden romanticists, I would like to emphasize the
unspoken implication of metaphysical assumptions and
romantic motives in sonification research. The
recognition of these implications may not only further an
understanding of the intellectual fascination with which
sonification projects are received, but may also facilitate
exchange between scientists and composers. The latter
seems to me of prime importance if we are to improve
the aesthetic and artistic quality of sonification
applications and artworks.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Alvin Lucier for most generously

providing me access to the sketches of his Panorama.
Thanks are also due to one of the reviewers for much
appreciated detailed and constructive criticism.

Figure 6: Chladni-Figures [31]3

Just as Thoreau would half a century later, Novalis

likened nature to an “Æolian harp, a musical instrument
whose sounds are again keys to higher strings in
ourselves” – a setting he calls Ideenassociation
4
p. 212 (966) – “Die Natur ist eine Aeolsharfe – Sie ist ein
musikal[isches] Instrument – dessen Töne wieder Tasten
höherer Sayten in uns sind.“
5
p. 68 (376) – “Sollte alle plastische Bildung, vom Krystall bis
1
p. 110 (chapter Sounds) auf den Menschen, nicht acustisch, durch gehemte Beweg[ung]
2
p. 79 (the very beginning) zu erklären seyn. Chemische Acustik.”
3 6
appendix, table VIII p. 16

ICAD-292
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

[9] K. Stockhausen, “...wie die Zeit vergeht...” [1956].

6. DISCOGRAPHY In Texte zur elektronischen und instrumentalen
Musik. Aufsätze 1952-1962 zur Theorie des
J. Cage, Ryoanji. Therwil: hatART, CD6183, 1996. CD Komponierens, ed. D. Schnebel, Texte 1, pp. 99-
(Robert Black, doublebass; Eberhard Blum, flute; Iven 139. Köln: DuMont, 1963.
Hausmann, trombone; Gudrun Reschke, oboe; John [10] J. Cott, Stockhausen. Conversations with the
Patrick Thomas, voice; Jan Williams, percussion). composer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973.
A. Lucier, “Panorama”. Alvin Lucier - Panorama. New [11] M. Kurtz, Stockhausen. Eine Biographie. Kassel -
York: Lovely Music LCD1012, 1997. CD (Roland Basel: Bärenreiter, 1988.
Dahinden, trombone and Hildegard Kleeb, piano). [12] J. Cage, “Experimental Music” [1957]. In Silence.
I. Xenakis, “Pithoprakta” [p1965]. Xenakis - Eonta, Lectures and Writings, pp. 7-12. Hanover, NH:
Metastasis, Pithoprakta. [France]: Le Chant du Monde, Wesleyan University Press, 1961.
LDC 278 368, [1986]. CD (Maurice Le Roux, conductor; [13] J. Cage, “Notes on Compositions II.” In Writer.
Orchestre National de l’ORTF). Previously uncollected pieces, ed. R. Kostelanetz,
pp. 51-62. New York: Limelight Editions, 1993.
7. REFERENCES [14] D. Rosenboom (ed.), Biofeedback and the Arts:
Results of Early Experiments. Vancouver: Aesthetic
[1] F. Dombois, “The ‘Muscle Telephone’: The Research Center of Canada, 1976.
Undiscovered Start of Audification in the 1870s.” In [15] A. Schoon, and F. Dombois, “Sonification in
Sounds of Science - Schall im Labor (1800 - 1930), Music.” 15th International Conference on Auditory
ed. J. Kursell, Workshop Sounds of Science, Max- Display, Copenhagen, May 18-22, 2009,
Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Berlin, Copenhagen 2009. www.ICAD.org (accessed Jan. 6,
2006, pp. 41-45. Berlin: Max-Planck-Institut für 2010).
Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 2008.
[16] D. Minciacchi, “Translation from neurobiological
[2] S. Bly, “Presenting Information in Sound.” data to music parameters.” In The Neurosciences
Conference on Human Factors in Computing and Music, ed. G. Avanzini, Annals of the New
Systems, Gaithersburg, Maryland March 15-17, York Academy of Sciences 999, pp. 282-301. New
1982. York: New York Academy of Sciences, 2003.
[3] G. Kramer, “An Introduction to Auditory Display.” [17] J. Cage, “Notes on Compositions IV.” In Writer.
In Auditory Display. Sonification, Audification, and Previously uncollected pieces, ed. R. Kostelanetz,
Auditory Interfaces, ed. G. Kramer, Sante Fe pp. 133-142. New York: Limelight Editions, 1993.
Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity.
Proceedings 18, pp. 1-77. Reading, MA: Addison- [18] J. Cage, “Ryoanji: Solos for Oboe, Flute,
Wesley, 1994. Contrabass, Voice, Trombone with Percussion or
Orchestral Obbligato (1983–85).” PAJ: A Journal of
[4] G. Weinberg and T. Thatcher, “Interactive Performance and Art, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 57-64, Sept.
Sonification: Aesthetics, Functionality and 2009.
Performance.” Leonardo Music Journal, vol. 16,
pp. 9-12, 2006. [19] C. Thierolf, “Plötzliche Bilder. Die Ryoanji-
Zeichnungen von John Cage.” In Hanne Darboven /
[5] A. Stone, “Being, Knowledge, and Nature in John Cage. Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, ed.
Novalis.” Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München,
46, no. 1, pp. 141-163, Jan. 2008. Kunstwerke 4, pp. 42-76. Ostfildern: Gerd Hatje,
[6] A. Goodbody, Natursprache. Ein 1997.
dichtungstheoretisches Konzept der Romantik und [20] J. Cage, Musicage. Cage muses on words, art,
seine Wiederaufnahme in der modernen Naturlyrik music. Ed. J. Retallack. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan
(Novalis - Eichendorff - Lehmann - Erich), Kieler University Press, 1996.
Studien zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte 17; Ph.D.
Univ. Kiel 1983. Neumünster: Wachholtz, 1983. [21] J. Cage, Ryoanji for Flute with percussion or
orchestral obbligato and ad libitum with other
[7] I. Xenakis, Formalized Music. Thought and pieces of the same title. Score. New York: Henmar
Mathematics in Music. Ed. S. Kanach. Stuyvesant, Press, 1984.
NY: Pendragon, 1992.
[22] H. Vögeli and F. Morach, Waldspitzpanorama. Zug,
[8] I. Xenakis, Pithoprakta [1956]. Score. [Bonn]: Schweiz: Zuger Kantonalbank [promotional print],
Boosey & Hawkes rental library, no year. no year.

ICAD-293
The 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2010) June 9-15, 2010, Washington, D.C, USA

[23] A. Lucier and W. Zimmermann, “[Conversation].”

In Zimmermann, Insel Musik, pp. 347-350. Köln:
Beginner Press, 1981. Originally published
Zimmermann, Desert Plants, Vancouver: A.R.C.
(Aesthetic Research Centre), 1976.
[24] A. Lucier, “Origins of a Form. Acoustical
Exploration, Science, and Incessancy.” Leonardo
Music Journal, vol. 8, pp. 5-44, 2005.
[25] H. D. Thoreau, Walden [1854]. Ed. J. L. Shanley,
The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1971.
[26] H. D. Thoreau, Journal. Volume 4: 1851-52. Ed. L.
N. Neufeldt and N. C. Simmons, The Writings of
Henry D. Thoreau. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1992.
[27] H. D. Thoreau, Journal. Volume 8: 1854. Ed. S. H.
Petrulionis, The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
[28] H. D. Thoreau, Journal. Volume 5: 1852-53. Ed. P.
F. O'Connell, The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
[29] Kramer, Gregory, B. Walker, T. Bonebright, P.
Cook, J. Flowers, N. Miner, and J. Neuhoff,
Sonification Report: Status of the Field and
Research Agenda. Prepared for the National
Science Foundation by members of the International
Community for Auditory Display: International
Community for Auditory Display, 1997.
http://www.icad.org/websiteV2.0/References/nsf.ht
ml (accessed Aug 31, 2008).
[30] Novalis, Schriften. Vol. 1: Das Dichterische Werk.
Ed. P. Kluckhohn and R. Samuel. Stuttgart:
Kohlhammer, 3rd ed. 1977.
[31] E. F. F. Chladni, Entdeckungen über die Theorie des
Klanges. Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich,
1787.
[32] Novalis, Das Allgemeine Brouillon. Materialien zur
Enyzyklopädistik 1798/99. Ed. H.-J. Mähl.
Hamburg: Meiner, 1993.
[33] H. I. Khan, The Mysticism of Sound and Music.
Boston: Shambhala, 1996.
[34] A. Polli, “Atmospheric/Weather Works: Artistic
Sonification of Meteorological Data.” In Ylem.
Artists Using Science & Technology, vol. 24, no. 8,
pp. 9-13, July/Aug. 2004. www.ylem.org (accessed
Jan 16, 2010).
[35] C. Hayward, “Listening to the Earth Sing.” In
Auditory Display. Sonification, Audification, and
Auditory Interfaces, ed. G. Kramer, Sante Fe
Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity.
Proceedings 18, pp. 369-404. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1994.

ICAD-294
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference
on Auditory Display Washington D.C., USA

E. Brazil, Irish Centre for High End Computing

June 9–15, 2010

Published by:
International Community for Auditory Display
http://www.icad.org/icad2010/

ISBN: 0-9670904-3-1
c 2010 by the ICAD contributors.
Copyright

All rights reserved. Copyright remains with the individual authors. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without prior written permission of the individual authors.

Credits: LATEX’s ‘confproc’ class by V. Verfaille

Conference Co-Chairs:
Derek Brock, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory & Hesham Fouad, VRSonic & Ramani Duraiswami, University of Maryland
Papers/Posters Chair:
Eoin Brazil, Irish Centre for High End Computing
Demonstrations/Compositions Chair:
Evan Rogers, VRSonic
Sonification Chair:
Kelly Snook, NASA
Concert Co-Chairs:
Douglas Boyce, The George Washington University & Katharina Rosenberger, University of California, San Diego
Web Chair:
Brian McClimens, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Technical Chair:
Paul Oehlers, American University
Steering Committee:
Stephen Barrass, University of Canberra & Veronique Larcher, Sennheiser & David Worrall, worrall.avatar.com.au

Reviewers:
Alvaro Barbosa, CITAR - Portugal Douglas Boyce, The George Washington University
Soren Bech, Bang and Olufsen Eoin Brazil, Irish Centre for High Performance Computing
Derek Brock, Naval Research Laboratory Milena Droumeva, Simon Fraser University
Samuel Ferguson, University of Technology, Sydney Federico Fontana, University of Udine
Christopher Frauenberger, University of Sussex Fabien Gouyon, INESC Porto
Matti Gröhn, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health Florian Grond, Bielefeld University, CITEC
Brian Gygi, VANCHCS Thomas Hermann, Bielefeld University
Daniel Hug, Zurich University of the Arts Andy Hunt, University of York, UK
Trond Lossius, BEK - Bergen Center for Electronic Arts David McGookin, University of Glasgow
Roderick Murray-Smith, University of Glasgow Michael Nees, Georgia Institute of Technology
Flaithri Neff, Limerick Institute of Technology Evan Rogers, VRSonic
Markus Noisternig, IRCAM Sandra Pauletto, The University of York
Michael Qin, Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory Stefania Serafin, Aalborg University
Tony Stockman, Queen Mary, University of London Yon Visell, McGill University
Katharina Vogt, University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz Hesham Fouad, VRSonic
Katharina Rosenberger, University of California, San Diego Kelly Snook, NASA
Washington D.C — June 2010