Composition two!
So after better informing myself about the acousmatic repertoire- I decided to base my second composition on a model already ‘out there’ so to speak. Although I really like Xenakis’ compositional style- I am also intrigued by the huge impact Cage had on 20th Century music, in particular reference to this composition: ‘William’s Mix.’ (1951) I found it interesting to note that this was Cage’s first surround mix for tape. The score in it’s entirety is 192 pages long, and divided into two systems of 8 lines. The score determines the exact splicing ’shapes’ required for the magnetic tape. 600 recordings are needed to realise this composition, which are in turn divided into six categories- the problem with this is that a lot of the recordings are in no way related..
For this composition I have recorded various techniques available on the violin. Instead of collecting ‘groups’ of sounds, I will have eights samples, with varied versions of each.. in a sense compensating the various sound groupings. I have designed my own graphic score to detail how I will sequence the piece. Gladly- I wont be splicing anything by hand 
. I hope to use some of the techniques I have used earlier in my experiments such as the use of IXI software, EXS24 sampler and the other plug-ins available in Logic.
I have already started sampling the sounds, but was at first apprehensive- as naturally a lot of them produced audible pitches.. I was concerned because a lot of the ‘acousmatic’ music we have listened to tends to avoid this fundamentally, however as Julio pointed out there are various schools of Acousmatic Music.. and defining it is essentially a subjective thing! So i’m hoping to mix sounds we might instinctively associate with the violin with those that.. we wouldn’t, necessarily!
I did make the mistake of leaving my sounds on the ‘communal’ macs, which were deleted a day after.. So I did have to re-record them all, however it’s not a major issue! (I need to convert the AIF samples so that I can upload them to my blog) But will scan in my plan too 
. Peace.
