Description
Book SynopsisSound Unseen explores the phenomenon of acousmatic sound -- a sound that one hears without seeing its source-and presents a powerful argument for the central yet overlooked role of acousmatic sound in music aesthetics, sound studies, literature, philosophy and the history of the senses.
Trade ReviewMuch in this substantive book will resonate with the reader after the concluding page is turned. Recommended. * Choice *
The driving force behind Sound Unseen is Kane's argument for a historical, subject-centered theory of acousmatic sound-one that doesn't privilege a particular musical aesthetic, one that doesn't essentialize technologies, and one that admits a consideration of sounds emanating from the interiority of the subjective consciousness...Kane's traversal of the transdisciplinary landscape is graceful and his approach offers a healthy perspective for the field of music research more generally. * Landon Morrison, Society for Music Theory *
Kane uncovers a history of acousmatic sound independent of the legacy of Schaeffer and Pythagoras in order to articulate a rather distinct approach to the study of sound that transcends the divisions between musicology and sound studies...[Sound Unseen] is an essential text for scholars of the philosophy of music, electronic music, sound studies, and phenomenology. * Journal of Sonic Studies *
Kane's methodology is multi-disciplinary, analysing a variety of cases. * Neural *
Brian Kane...has in Sound Unseen written the definitive explanatory tract on the acousmatic. * The Wire *
Sound Unseen is both successful and provocative precisely because of these constructive dissonances. It is a rare book that can put thinkers as diverse as P. F. Strawson or Bertrand Russell on the same page with Derrida or Heidegger, especially with Kane's unassuming clarity. Furthermore, Kane shows how music studies and philosophy can speak to each other when they are conceived as mutually supplemental * questions about sound infect philosophical questions, and thus a musical answer becomes a philosophical answer. Finally, Kane's tone deserves special mention, as it untangles knotty philosophical questions with remarkably accessible language: despite the density of his topics, his prose treads lightly and patiently, requiring little philosophical acumen yet rewarding those who may have it.Music Theory Spectrum *
Sound Unseen represents a significant contribution to the field of voice studies...Brian Kane succeeds in developing a cogent and flexible explanatory paradigm for acousmatic sound that is clear without being reductive. Kane's account of acousmatic sound allows one to situate the practices of listening within their historical and cultural contexts...Scrupulously researched and conceptually virtuosic, Sound Unseen asks us to rethink the way we listen. * Journal of Musicological Research *
Kane effectively decenters the privileged position of Schaefferian accounts in present discourse and opens the door to a broader survey of acousmatic listening practices spanning a variety of sociohistorical situations...Without doubt, Kane's book makes a significant contribution to existing literature on acousmatic sound, and it is necessary reading for anyone interested in exploring the fertile intersection of music, sound, and philosophy. * Music Theory Online *
Table of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction PART I. The Acousmatic Situation CHAPTER 1. Pierre Schaeffer, the sound object and the acousmatic reduction PART II. Interruptions CHAPTER 2. Myth and the origin of the Pythagorean veil CHAPTER 3. The baptism of the acousmate PART III. Conditions CHAPTER 4. Acousmatic phantasmagoria and the problem of technê INTERLUDE. Must musique concrète be phantasmagoric? CHAPTER 5. Kafka and the ontology of acousmatic sound PART IV. Cases CHAPTER 6. The acousmatic voice CHAPTER 7. Acousmatic fabrications: Les Paul and the
