Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:17:40.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Counterpoint and quotation in Ussachevsky's Wireless Fantasy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2007

Richard Beaudoin
Affiliation:
Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002-5000, USA email: rabeaudoin@amherst.edu

Abstract

Wireless Fantasy, Vladimir Ussachevsky's 4½-minute tribute to the birth of wireless radio, utilises a rich collection of sound materials, from antique spark generators and shortwave radio sounds to a recorded segment of Wagner's Parsifal. Wireless Fantasy is here examined not as much for the cultural meaning of its sources but for insight into Ussachevsky's dramatic counterpointing of those sources in real time. The analytical methodology focuses on pitch, rhythm, and timbre equally, using both standard music notation and spectral analysis to examine the contrapuntal elements in this classic electroacoustic composition. Special attention is paid to the coincidence of accent between the source materials that generates the work's climax and to the involvement of all the sources in articulating its final cadence. The larger issue of quotation within electroacoustic composition is discussed with regard to an abstract reference in the work's coda.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)