In contrast to more traditional musical textures, sound mass composition "minimizes the importance of individual pitches in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact." Developed from the modernist tone clusters and spread to orchestral writing by the late 1950s and 1960s, sound-mass "obscures the boundary between sound and noise." (Edwards 2001, p.326-327) In music, the word texture is often used in a rather vague way in reference to the overall sound of a piece of music. ... Composition deals with the bits and pieces that make up things. ... In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. ... In music, the word texture is often used in a rather vague way in reference to the overall sound of a piece of music. ... In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note which distinguishes different types of musical instrument. ... The word dynamics can refer to: a branch of mechanics; see dynamics (mechanics) the volume of music; see dynamics (music) When used referring to mechanics, it is referring to the study of the motion of both rigid bodies and particles. ... Modernism in music is characterized by a desire for or belief in progress and science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with tradition or common practice. ... A tone cluster, in music and in Western tuning, is a chord or simultaneity comprised of consecutive tones separated chromatically. ... A schematic representation of auditory signaling Sound is an alternation in pressure, particle displacement, or particle velocity propagated in an elastic material (Olson 1957) or series of mechanical compressions and rarefactions or longitudinal waves that successively propagate through medium that are at least a little compressible (solid, liquid or gas... In general usage, noise can be considered data without meaning; that is, data that is not being used to transmit a signal, but is simply produced as an unwanted by-product of other activities. ...

Techniques which may create or be used with sound mass include extended techniques such as muted brass or strings, flutter tonguing, wide vibrato, extreme ranges, and glissandos. Composers and works include Barbar Kolb, Pauline Oliveros' Sound Patterns for chorus (1961), Norma Beecroft's From Dreams of Brass for chorus (1963-1964), and Nancy Van de Vate. Beecroft "blurs individual pitches in favor of a collective timbre through the use of vocal and instrumental clusters, choral speech, narrator, and a wash of sounds from an electronic tape." (ibid) Extended technique is a term used to describe unconventional, unorthodox or improper techniques of playing musical instruments. ... Pauline Oliveros (born 1932 in Houston, Texas) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. ...

An earlier example is the third movement of Ruth Crawford-Seeger's String Quarter 1931 (Nonesuch H-71280) while more recently Phill Niblock's multiple drone based music serves as an example. Ruth Crawford-Seeger (July 3, 1901 in East Liverpool, Ohio - November 18, 1953 in Chevy Chase, Maryland), born Ruth Crawford, was a modernist composer. ... Phill Niblock (born Oct 2, 1933 in Anderson, IN) is a minimalist composer and videographer. ... In music, a drone is a note or chord continuously sounded throughout much or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built. ...

Other examples include European "textural" composers of the sixties such as Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1959) and György Ligeti's works featuring micropolyphony such as Atmosphères (1961), and works by composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, Karel Husa, Kazimierz Serocki, Tadeusz Baird, Henryk Gorecki, Martin Bresnick, Steven Stucky. Sound mass techniques also appear in the music of George Crumb. ([1] (http://usonia.unco.edu/music/theory/pdf/202stylesynopsis.pdf)) Krzysztof Penderecki (born November 23, 1933) is a Polish composer of classical music. ... György Ligeti (born May 28, 1923) is a Hungarian composer (now living in, and a citizen of, Austria), widely seen as one of the great composers of instrumental music of the 20th century. ... Micropolyphony is a type of 20th century musical texture involving the use of sustained dissonant chords that shift slowly over time. ... Witold Lutosławski (January 25, 1913, Warsaw, Poland - February 9, 1994, Warsaw) was a Polish composer. ... Karel Husa (b. ... Kazimierzi Serocki (1922-1981), a Polish composer and one of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival. ... Tadeusz Baird was a Polish composer. ... Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (born December 6, 1933) is a Polish composer of classical music. ... Composer Steven Stucky, pronounced [stʌki] (rhymes with lucky) born 1949 in Hutchinson, Kansas, has written commissioned works for many of the major American orchestras, including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and St. ... George Crumb (born October 24, 1929) is an American composer of classical music. ...

Sources

• Edwards, J. Michele (2001). "North America since 1920" in Pendle, Karin, ed. (1991/2001). Women & Music: A History second edition. Indiana University Press. ISBN 025321422.
• Nonesuch H-71280.
• http://usonia.unco.edu/music/theory/pdf/202stylesynopsis.pdf