Sound as Model: Lucier Versus Murail

When the properties of sound become the center of the work, we might think of sound art. By focusing on sound, we may escape the traditional architecture of classical composition. However, sound art may be more of an attitude than a focus on sound. When Alvin Lucier composed “I’m sitting in a room,” he literally showed the result of a repeated recorded loop at work. Exactly the same idea is used by Tristan Murail in “Mémoire, Érosion”: he composed from the deterioration of the sonic properties of sound as if it were played in a loop. The theory of Michael Polanyi is used in this chapter to study and compare these two approaches, with a specific focus on how a composition is the result of the perspectives held by the composer—even if they take the same phenomenon as a starting point.