Real-World Music as Composed Listening

Abstract The paper considers the aesthetic implications of employing sounds from the real world as musical material. It takes the view that music composed from, and about, real-world sounds shares concerns already explored by writers and practitioners in film, poetry and other non-sonic arts. The preoccupations of, among others, film-makers Eisenstein and Vertov, philosophers Bachelard and Casey and composers themselves are investigated to support the contention that real-world tape music is enriched and, to some extent formed, through the listener's imaginative response: real-world sounds-their meaning, being and sonic implications-encourage an internalized listening montage; a composed listening constructed in order to make imaginative sense from non-narrative sonic journeys.