Sound Diffusion in Composition and Performance: An Interview with Denis Smalley

have been conducting with leading composer-practitioners of electroacoustic and computer music whose contributions to the art and technology of sound diffusion have been key to its development and growing acceptance through the last four decades. These discussions cover the aesthetics of, compositional approaches to, and technological realizations of sound diffusion. Topics include the dynamics of sound diffusion; stereo and multitrack solo-tape diffusion with multispeaker configurations in composition and performance; spatial composing; the diffusion of "tape-plus" pieces; diffusion as drama or "aural cinema"; present and future developments in sound diffusion in loudspeaker orchestras and multispeaker diffusion systems such as the Acousmonium (Desantos 1997), the Gmebaphone (Clozier 1997), and BEAST (Harrison 1998); the Spatialisateur (Jot 1997); advances in the field of ambisonics and Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) multichannel systems (Elen 1998); and specialized multiple-speaker systems (Stockhausen 1996). The present interview with composer Denis Smalley (see Figure 1) took place at City University in London on 2 April 1998. Denis Smalley, composer, is professor and head of the Department of Music at City University, London. He received his first degrees in New Zealand, specializing in composition and performance. He studied with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire and investigated electroacoustic composition with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris before moving to the UK, where he completed his doctorate at the University of York. He was senior lecturer in music and director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the Univer