Table Of ContentLoading the SiLence: auStraLian
Sound art in the PoSt-digitaL age
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Loading the Silence: australian
Sound art in the Post-digital age
Linda ioanna KouvaraS
University of Melbourne, Australia
© Linda ioanna Kouvaras 2013
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Linda ioanna Kouvaras has asserted her right under the copyright, designs and Patents act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing Limited ashgate Publishing company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kouvaras, Linda ioanna.
Loading the silence: australian sound art in the post-digital age.
1. noise music–history and criticism. 2. aleatory music –
history and criticism. 3. Musical perception.
4. altermodern (art) 5. Music – australia – 20th century –
history and criticism. 6. Music – australia – 21st
century – history and criticism.
i. title
780.9'05-dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kouvaras, Linda ioanna.
Loading the silence: australian sound art in the post-digital age / by Linda ioanna Kouvaras.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-4156-4 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4094-4157-1 (ebook)
1. avant-garde (Music) – australia. 2. Postmodernism – australia. i. title.
ML360.5.K68 2013
780.994'0904–dc23
ISBN 9781409441564 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409441571 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN 9781472400352 (ebk – ePUB)
Bach musicological font developed by © Yo tomita.
V
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Part 1 Background
Introduction: No Longer Confined to Living in ‘The Age of Flying
[with] Our Archaic Notions of Harmony’ 3
1 Sound Art’s Lineage 19
2 Sound Art as Postmodernism’s Exemplar 35
Part 2 dawning
3 The Dawning of Australian Sound Art 61
Part 3 Postmodern
4 Feminizing the Sound Object 99
5 The Geographico-political 115
6 The Quotidian and Beyond 147
Part 4 altermodern
7 The Nostalgic: The Dawning of the Altermodern (1) 173
8 Neo-Modernist Arts of Noise in a Post-Postmodern Era:
The Dawning of the Altermodern (2) 199
vi Loading the Silence: Australian Sound Art in the Post-Digital Age
Part 5 conclusion
Conclusion: Silence Charged 225
Bibliography 231
Index 257
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the ARC.
Throughout this book I draw on personal interviews, in person across a café table,
at a bar, or by phone, e-mail or letter, kindly and fulsomely granted by many
of the numerous composers and artists I discuss here, and for which I am very
grateful. These people are: Matt Adair, James Gordon Anderson, Ros Bandt,
Nicholas Bates, Brenton Broadstock, Warren Burt, David Chesworth, Carolyn
Connors, Sherre DeLys, Eve Duncan, Andrew Ford, Andrée Greenwell, Joan
Grounds, Moya Henderson, Cat Hope, Sonia Leber, Christine McCombe, Andrián
Pertout, Gail Priest, Catherine Schieve, Greg Wadley and Nick Wilson. I wish
to particularly acknowledge here Warren Burt’s ever-giving availability – since
1992 – for discussion on matters experimental and beyond, and for granting me
unlimited access to his works. His invitation as guest editor to me to contribute to
a Sounds Australian issue on postmodernism and art music in 1992 was my first
assignment in my musicological career.
Invaluable to this project have been my research assistants: Jon Dale, Poppy
Fay, Jillian Graham, Jennifer Hill, Esther Lowe, Bonnie Smart, Gabby Troup, Paul
Watt and Emily Wilbourne. Technical and administration help, very gratefully
received, was provided by Mary Coghlan, Sue Cole, David Collins, Peter Liddelow,
Kathy Palmer, Evelyn Portek, Stefan Siemsen, Elizabeth Tucker, Lena Vigilante,
Christine Webster and Alexandra Williams, and Chelsea Wright’s expertise greatly
enabled the cover design. Thanks to all for your care and professionalism.
For their friendship, encouragement and stimulating conversations I want
to mention and thank Katy and Keith Abbott, Jane Anderson, George Apeitos,
Sue Best, Brenton Broadstock, Julie Brown, Michael Brown, Janine Burke, Jon
Cattapan, Malcolm Collins, Liz Conor, Robert Constable, Andrew Cooks, Rena
Cotter, Jen and Thomas Daddow, Simon Dale, Johnathan Dean, Eve Duncan,
David Everitt, Michael Feehan, Judi Forbes, Shelley Gage, Malcolm Gillies, Anna
Goldsworthy, Jillian Graham, Stuart Greenbaum, Andrée Greenwell, Graham
Hair, Janine Hanrahan, Sue-Ann Harding, Anika Helene, Moya Henderson, Susan
viii Loading the Silence: Australian Sound Art in the Post-Digital Age
Hewitt, Fincina Hopgood, Lynne Horwood, Siriol Hugh-Jones, Adam Hutterer,
James Hullick, Maureen Johnson, Paul Kalina, Ross Kalla, Liz Kaszpryk, Giselle
Kett, Paul Kildea, Virginia Kitchen, Katrina Knell, Genevieve Lacey, Zoë
Laidlaw, Alison and David Lansley, Bobo Lo, Norbert Loeffler, Sally Macarthur,
Janet March, Christine McCombe, Gabrielle Mercer, David Pear, John A. Phillips,
Maree and Joe Pobog-Jaworowski, Susan Lewis, Robynne McFeeters-White,
Andrián Pertout, Merran Poplar, Kevin Purcell, Nicholas Purcell, Margot Quigley,
Steph Rocke, Marianne Rothschild, Bob Scarfe, Jennie Shaw, Johanna Selleck,
Deviani and Rosalie Segal, Bonnie Smart, Ros Smith, Jo and Kevin Summers,
Christian Thorn, Esmeralda Tintner, Alex Todd, Rosemary Ward, Kira and Ethel
White, Emily Wilbourne, Ann Williams, Simon Wilson and Steven and Jen Wilson.
The wonderful Ormond College Community, where I have been Resident Music
Tutor since 1993, has also given me much support and an atmosphere in which to
creatively thrive. My thanks in particular to the staff present during the gestation
of this book, particularly Catherine Anderson, Ann Badger, Moya Barklay, Rufus
Black, James Brown, Justin Brymer, Hugh and Cherry Collins, Nöelle Collombet-
Sankey, Phillippa and Steven Connolley, Mary Dalton, Zoe Dauth, Dirk and
Lesley den Hartog, Dave Freeman, Jane and Jim Freemantle, Billie Giles-Corti,
Adrienne Harvey, Anne Herbert, Jenny and Andrew Holmes, Allan Horsfall, Deb
Hulls, Richard Jackson, David Jones, Rob and Cathy Leach, Richard Lee, Michael
and Barbara Leigh, Kiera Lindsey, Sue Lines, Stephen McIntyre, Nicole Meaker,
Hartley Mitchell, Graeme Priest, Alice Pung, Treen Renard, Thérèse Robin, Sally
Robinson, Howard Sankey, Dave Vickery, Gill Webster and Pera Wells.
My esteemed colleagues at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, the
University of Melbourne, have also contributed in myriad ways to supporting
me in this project, particularly Caroline Almonte, Warren Bebbington, Michael
Christoforidis, Donna Coleman, Barry Conyngham, Cathy Falk, Loukia Gauntlett,
Ian Godfrey, Denise Grocke, Elliott Gyger, Jennifer Hill, Elizabeth Kertesz,
Michael Kieran-Harvey, Christine McCombe, Katrina McFerran-Skewes, Gary
McPherson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Kerry Murphy, Bob Northey, Mark Pollard,
Melanie Plesch, Glenn Riddle, Suzanne Robinson, Jan Stockigt, and Peter
Tregear. I have also been energized by students’ responses upon presenting many
of the ideas contained within to my classes (such as Music in Australia, From
Impressionism to Postmodernism, Art-Music and Postmodernism, and Sex, Death
and the Ecstatic in Music) and in my Higher Degree thesis supervisions and wish
to single out Sophie Boyd-Hurrell, Esther Lowe, Sarah Moore, Kath Nelligan, Eli
Simic-Prosic, Kim Tan and Emily Wilbourne, among the many.
A special thanks is due to Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Dinny O’Hearn, then-
directors at the University of Melbourne’s Australian Centre, where my Hugh
Williamson Senior Research Fellowship in 1991–92 placed me on the path
towards discovering the magic of Australian sound art, and where historian David
Goodman generously gave me many hours of his considered, empathic acumen
as I tried out my ideas about the then-fresh phenomenon of postmodernism in
Australian art music.
Acknowledgements ix
A very big thank-you goes to the Australian Music Centre, particularly its
CEO, John Davis, and to Philippa Horn, Judith Foster and Danielle Carey, for all
their support. I am also grateful to the Australian Research Council for its support
of this book through the Discovery Project Postmodernism in Contemporary
Australian Art Music: Analysis and Reappraisal (2005–2008). Sincere thanks to
Ashgate staff Laura Macy, Heidi Bishop, Jackie Bressanelli, Emma Gallon, Nicole
Norman, Philip Stirups and Beatrice Beaup, and freelance proofreader Felicity
Teague, for their patience, counsel and guidance.
My siblings and their partners Lila and Andreas, Danae and Fragisko,
Maurice and Helena, Philip, Chrissy and Marc, and Andrew and Tania; you and
your families, Bebba, Loreni, Ageliki, Maria, Daniel, Monique, Max, Taylah,
Maddison and Jayden, my aunt Joan and my extended family, Mary, Derek and
Christina, Sue and Tony, Michelle, Ben, James, Derek, Fiona and Daniel, Tim,
Jay and Annie, Noel and Janet, Barrie and Anne, Amanda, Andrew and Alison,
were a steadying and wonderfully supportive presence throughout the process of
producing this book.
Finally, to Richard Ward, for the original cover design, his unstinting editorial
advice, thought-provoking insights, unlimited care and devotion to me and to all
my projects, my love and my deep appreciation.
Excerpts from ABC online productions reproduced by permission of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation and ABC Online, © 2011 ABC. All rights
reserved.
Linda Kouvaras
The University of Melbourne
