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20 José Manuel Berenguer Music-Space
A space exists in function to its its limits and is is therefore definable fin in virtue of the the variables that determine the the conditions of the the exist­ ence of the objects in in its interior In an almost recursive way the the existence of the the space also conditions its its limits as the the objects of the the inte­ rior of of a a a space are in themselves limits of of the the space in question They place restrictions on on on the the the possibilities of of the the the existence of of other ob­ jects in the proximity I would say that any space space is a a a a a mind space space where the possibility of of the existence of of an object is is equivalent to its significance in the context of a a a a a mind In this way there is is is a a a a a space that is is is called music and within this space the possi­ ble objects the meanings are musical If mu­ sic is is a a a a space space it is is therefore a a a a whole space space In fact it is a a a subset of the world contained in in the the mind which in in turn is another space de­ finable fin in function of the limits that condition the the possibility of of the the existence of of objects in its interior Music can also be seen as a a a a possi­ ble object a subset of the conscious or un­ conscious mind In any case it is always linked to a a a a a cerebral activity and if it’s true that music exists in virtue of sound it doesn’t have anything to do directly with its physical prop­ erties Music should properly be considered as sound sound images­ the sound sound objects of Pierre Schaeffer­ but not all sound images are musi­ cal cal objects objects nor can all musical objects objects be considered as sound images In this way al­ though not all sensations are necessarily mu­ sical I think nearly all of them could be in in one context or another another In another another way given any sensation typically related to the musical ex­ perience it shouldn’t be impossible to find a musical context which doesn’t exist or where the musicality is nothing more than a a a a mean­ ingless collateral effect Therefore an approximation to musical limits could be determined in in the the first place by the the limits of the the associative integration of the the sensations those generated in the cerebral zones of pri­ mary projection especially sounds and also those coming from areas in in in in the brain dealing with the more abstract and sophisticated as­ pects related to the the aesthetic experience At the the same time the the neurological perspective is is not at at the moment sufficiently satisfacto­ ry If it were were or were were not and to which point is beyond my understanding Although music is a a a a a a mental activity that is generally manifested through the presence of sound musicality is not found in in in sounds or in in in the feelings that come directly from sounds Neither is it it found in space or spatial time where samples of of this form of of energy are found It has to be placed in in a a a a more hidden part of the brain where feelings are made interpreted and take place of not having any other meaning than information about the the state of the the world or even the mind and becoming complex ex­ periences Music the space where only cer­
tain information that we call musical has meaning is limited by the perception of sound in time and and subjective space and and also by the perception perception of its own perception perception It goes on successively in an apparently end­ less spiral who who knows if its infinite who who knows if it is equivalent to the points of a a sys­ tem iterated in hyperbolic functions that are generators of spaces with well­known geo­ metric qualities: closed and limited compact hermetic one could say these spaces are fractions as their dimensions are not whole like those of Euclidian space This graphic representation has been extensively used in the the practice of art In the the same way as the the other dimensions musical time is mental mental and subjective The mental mental presence varies in function to the attention that is paid as as much in in in music as as in in in any other reality in in in the the human adult mind where the sensations of si­ multaneity sequencing speed relative place closeness and inclusion don’t corre­ spond in in a a a a a linear way to their quantifiable equivalent in physical time­space No direct relationship can be be established between the musical experience and physical coordinates in time­space Music doesn’t exist as an ob­ ject in time­space There is no reason why sound sound or the perception of sound sound channels of different levels through which music is transmitted should be adjusted to a a a prede­ termined structure be it temporary dynamic melodic tonal or or any other physical or or psy­ chophysical nature For example nothing can be said about the musicality of sound in func­ tion to the frequency frequency or infrequency that characterizes the signals That a a a a a a a sound has a a a a a a a random low sound with significant informa­ tion in the the order of frequency or or the the width succession doesn’t mean that its presence in the the music couldn’t be the the result at a a different level and above all far away from the physical reality of an independent determined order more or or less sophisticated with a a high degree of musical significance Popular music music in all cultures as as as well as as as contemporary music has tried to supply this fact in practice Here there is another reason of many that justifies the the definitive separation of of the concept of of sound from the the the words used to explain the the the aesthetic particles of sound and music a a a ground where from my point of view everything de­ pends on on arbitrary definitions of cultural functions assigned to sounds — and the se­ quence of sounds — and if these functions are possible that is if they have a a a a a meaning in in some corner of musical space Musical signs like linguistic ones are arbitrary to a a a a high de­ gree and music only exists in the cultural space where it is projected The musical mental space transcends individualities and becomes much more than an an object or or end in itself the symptom of a a process I like to to call metabolism of information and which seems to be particularly well developed in the hu­ man species Nowadays more than ever when in in the the domain of of the the recognition of of shapes we talk about the technological dis­ tance between two images in terms of the number of operations that a a a a programme in­ vests in fin the definition of one image from an­ other maybe questions are still valid in re­ spect to geometry and the difference or dis­ tance of of an an element of of a a a a a musical nature to another that is not not Here we can give mean­ ing to a a definition of of the elements of of a a subset belonging to musical discourse in in function of the the the distance between them the the the occupation of of a a a certain region of of the space determined by a a a a ball surrounding a a a a certain point of musi­ cal space With these considerations in in mind John Cage’s question about if a a a a truck passing in front of a a a a a factory is more musical than a a a a a truck passing in in front of a a music school is made more understandable and and meaningful whilst still being amusing That mu­ sic can be considered a a a a mental space is not contradictory to to the the fact that the the musical ex­ perience is highly influenced by the physical space that are generated by the spectral characteristics of sounds in in its interior From the point of of view of of sound experience two sound signals are different even if if they come from the the same source if they are generated in spaces with different reflexive properties In the same way as a a a a a sound box of an instru­ ment profoundly modifies the sounds pro­ duced by the vibratory mechanism physical spaces because of their limits and physical properties contribute to the internal nature of the sound signals that reach our ears That is is how our hearing is is able to detect the di­ mension and the the register of the the spaces And that is how our hearing has become a a a a a partic­ ularly useful instrument for the the survival of the the species that possess it The justifica­ tion tion of musical discourse over specialization can be seen here — in its current accepta­ tion­ as metaphors for the parallel existence of a a a mental space the only one one but one one we have come to know intimately because the knowledge of a a a a physical space like other as­ pects of reality has become hidden as as Ber­ nard Despagnat would say In fact musical poetry is susceptible to being interpreted form this point of view with a loose connec­ tion to the ideas of cognitive science without taking into account the kind of sound it is dealing with Gregorian chant sounds partic­ ularly good in churches the polyphonic sounds of the the Pygmies need the the reverbera­ tion of of sounds on on the trunks of of palm trees The music of Andrea and Giovani Gabrielli al­ so polyphonic was especially composed for St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice The music for the volta which Sonora wanted to build in Os­ aka completely filled with loud speakers The music especially composed for the politops of Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis or or the domes of Léo Kupper The electronic music that Luigi Nono wrote for the Halaphone by Hans Peter Haller or or the contemporary elec­ tro tro acustic music born in in the introspective solitude of a studio to be projected in the world through sophisticated and complex sound systems that fill the physical space with loudspeakers of differentiated sound sources like the the Cybernéphone of the the IMEB or the Acousmounium of INA GRM
With the appearance of telecommu­ nications into artistic creation the mental im­ age of space has been burst apart Maybe this is is closer to the interpretation of real space that some physicists have given in terms of a a a a hologram generated from a a a a piece of of information devoid of of dimensions Artistic happenings based on on telecommunications have contributed to the appearance of frag­ mentation of space justifying a a a a a mental image of a a a not very compact space subject to geo­ metric variables There are many background reasons for this One is is is the discrete nature of