Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference The Art of Electroacoustic Music, Sheffield, June 2015 www.ems-network.org 1 Alyssa Aska The displacement of agency and sound source in electroacoustic music as compositional approach in works including live performers The displacement of agency and sound source in electroacoustic music as compositional approach in works including live performers Alyssa Aska University of Calgary 1106-3600 Brenner Dr NW Calgary, AB T2L 1Y2, Canada alyssa.aska@ucalgary.ca Abstract Music facilitated by technology has led to an unprecedented development in performance- practice: the ability to generate sound without the physical gesture required when performing on an acoustic instrument. Response to this development has resulted in divergent performance aesthetic preferences, ranging from the emphasis of acousmatically– based listening practices to the development of electronic instruments that replicate the type of human gestural interaction present when using acoustic instruments. This paper examines the incorporation of both previously described aesthetics on a continuum as compositional devices that provide dramatic and narrative elements to electroacoustic works with live performers. Two recent electroacoustic works composed by the author are discussed: Memento Mori (2014) for saxophone and live electronics, and Ecclesiastical Echoes (2015) for piano trio. Analytical focus is placed on how the geographical displacement, or lack thereof, between the agent creating the sound and the sound itself affects the narrative of the composition. Future directions of these compositional methods and analysis strategies to examine them are explored. Introduction The discussion of embodied and anthropomorphic musical performance can be traced as early as ancient Greece. The creation of the aulos, an ancient Greek wind instrument, is described in Greek legend as arising from Athena’s intent to replicate the beauty of the human voice. According to myth, Athena herself played the instrument until she was informed her face contorted while doing so. This myth can be related to modern musical instruments, many of which involve expressive and embodied performer engagement, just like the aulos. Acousmatic music could be considered the converse of embodied performance as the intent is to remove the visual body from performance. This concept was also addressed in ancient Greece; a separate Greek legend tells of Pythagoras choosing to lecture behind a screen, removing the embodiment of the sound altogether and encouraging the audience to listen deeper to obtain his message. Electroacoustic music in the present encompasses a large collection of musics of varying degrees of embodiment or acousmatic components. Electroacoustic music that involves live instruments, which I will refer to as mixed work, as per Leigh Landy’s definition (Landy, 2007), frequently includes both embodied performance