Sound mass

In contrast to more traditional musical textures, sound mass composition "minimizes the importance of individual pitches in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact." Developed from the modernist tone clusters and spread to orchestral writing by the late 1950s and 1960s, sound-mass "obscures the boundary between sound and noise." (Edwards 2001, p.326–327)

Techniques which may create or be used with sound mass include extended techniques such as muted brass or strings, flutter tonguing, wide vibrato, extreme ranges, and glissandos. Composers and works include Barbar Kolb, Pauline Oliveros' Sound Patterns for chorus (1961), Norma Beecroft's From Dreams of Brass for chorus (1963–1964), and Nancy Van de Vate. Beecroft "blurs individual pitches in favor of a collective timbre through the use of vocal and instrumental clusters, choral speech, narrator, and a wash of sounds from an electronic tape." (ibid)

An earlier example is the third movement of Ruth Crawford-Seeger's String Quarter 1931 (Nonesuch H-71280) while more recently Phill Niblock's multiple drone based music serves as an example.

Other examples include European "textural" composers of the sixties such as Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1959) and György Ligeti's works featuring micropolyphony such as Atmosphères (1961), and works by composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, Karel Husa, Kazimierz Serocki, Tadeusz Baird, Henryk Gorecki, Martin Bresnick, Steven Stucky. Sound mass techniques also appear in the music of George Crumb. ([1])

Sources

• Edwards, J. Michele (2001). "North America since 1920" in Pendle, Karin, ed. (1991/2001). Women & Music: A History second edition. Indiana University Press. ISBN 025321422.
• Nonesuch H-71280.
• http://usonia.unco.edu/music/theory/pdf/202stylesynopsis.pdf