IPLAI Artefacts of Memory seminar meeting: The Inseparable Dimensions of Space, Time and Sound

Convenors: Hans Bernhard (MMus Candidate, Schulich School of Music) and Prof. Sara Laimon (Schulich School of Music)

Observe the artistic world frozen in a single moment: the vivid painting framed on the wall, the audience’s tense expression at the climactic moment of the film, the dancer’s body held in its graceful pose. But what of the musician? His art form not only ceases to exist but cannot even be represented without the continuum of time. Since the introduction of recorded sound, this natural relationship between sound and time has become grossly distorted and has resulted in an ongoing debate between philosophers, scientists, and artists as to the true nature of sound. But in focusing on this temporal foundation, most arguments completely ignore the importance of the spatial dimensions in sound: whether referring to the physical space, a wider geographic location, or cultural environment in which a sound is created or reproduced. In this session, we will compare a few artists recorded performances of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto (Concerto no.5), discussing how their spatial and temporal qualities are uniquely intertwined and codependent.