Literalism (music)

Literalism in music is a technique that emerged in the late 20th century. It involves composing music by utilising tangible representations of musical elements. With this approach, composers craft a diverse range of compositions, spanning from classical orchestral works to seemingly structureless instances of noise.

Literalism is a technique of music composition that uses physical objects to represent musical elements. This technique was first developed in the 1960s and 1970s by composers such as Alvin Lucier, John Cage, and Pauline Oliveros.

Interpretations
Stephen Davies's wrote a paper on the defence of literalism which considers the emotional descriptions of music. He believes that literalism posits that when a piece of music is described as 'sad,' 'happy,' or other emotions, it actually possesses the expressive qualities we attribute to it. Davies's literalist approach leverages the concept of polysemy, where the meaning of emotion words in descriptions of expressive music is connected to their primary psychological sense. Davies identifies this connection through music's presentation of emotion-characteristics-in-appearance.

Examples

 * Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting in a Room" (1969), uses the physical properties of a room to create a soundscape.
 * John Cage's "4'33" (1952), which is a composition consisting of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence.
 * Pauline Oliveros' "Tuning Meditations" (1974), which uses the physical properties of tuning forks to create a meditative soundscape.