Spatial music performance with the hexaphonic guitar

Abstract

Spatial music can be defined as any form of music in which the spatial location of performers or sounds is used as an explicit compositional parameter. Most spatial music is not performed live but rather consists of either pre-composed multichannel works which are simply played back, or pre-composed stereo tracks which are diffused live to a loudspeaker orchestra. Linking the musical gestures of an instrumental performer with the spatial gestures of the electronic track is a significant challenge, as the spatialization process is often not related to the musical instrument in any obvious way. In addition it is rarely practical or possible for a single performer to concurrently play and diffuse a musical instrument. Stringed instruments fitted with polyphonic pickups produce a separate audio signal for each string. The discrete multi-channel output of these instruments would seem to be very suitable for spatialization to a multi-channel loudspeaker array. By linking the spatial location to the choice of string, the spatialization process can be synchronized to the physical performance of the instrument. In addition, the performer does not need to learn any new gestures or instrumental techniques.