The displacement of agency and sound source in electroacoustic music as compositional approach in works including live performers

Music facilitated by technology has led to an unprecedented development in performancepractice: 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.