Spatialization as a Musical Concept

Space, time and sound have always been tightly bound to each other within our musical consciousness; yet this interrelationship was identified only relatively recently with respect to the history of music. From the time that space was discovered as a part of musical structure and performance, it took many years to recognize spatialization as an aesthetic musical concept. Since 1950, spatialization has become an inevitable part of musical composition, and a major part of academic research. Electroacoustic music, because of its capability in terms of simulating space, played-and still plays-an extraordinary role in this development. This paper proposes and proves spatialization as a musical concept within electroacoustic music through discussing three characteristic genres, namely: Soundscape, Musique Acousmatique and Sound Installation.