Critical Theory of Topophony

Abstract

The article presents the critical theory of topophony through the historical understanding of the term to modern definitions, based on analysis of academic literature, critical and journalistic articles, textbooks, quotations from authors, critics and composers. Around the second half of the 20th century, interest in space in music increased. By this time the first terminological distinctions concerning the concepts of topophony and spatial music began to appear in the texts of Polish authors such as Monika Gorczycka, Bohdan Pociej and Krzysztof Szwajgier, among others. The reflections and theses of Bogusław Schaeffer and Józef Michał Chomiński, who can be considered in turn as the creator and greatest propagator of the term topophonia, were crucial to the contemporary understanding of both notions. In the presented article, the term describes intentional exploration of sound location – i.e. spatial arrangement of performers, different from the traditional set-up – in musical compositions in which the sound plays a fundamental role (performative, theatrical and multimedia works have been excluded). In such compositions, spatiality – understood as the 8th element of the musical work – is indelible, because it determines how musical material is organized and shaped.