Sonic Exploration of Alto Recorder for Nadi Bumi: Applied Research in Contemporary Classical Music Composition

Abstract

Musical acoustic research has defined acoustic properties of fundamental recorder techniques for sound production that provide valuable insights into the process and techniques of contemporary classical music composition. Nonetheless, the exploration of musical acoustic properties from extended techniques of the recorder, especially for alto recorder, is not distinctly defined, scientifically and artistically. This research aims to: 1) study the scientific and artistic profiles of the alto recorder’s extended techniques found in contemporary classical recorder music compositions and 2) discuss newly discovered extended techniques derived from the earlier alto recorder extended techniques. The musical composition of Nadi Bumi is a derivation of applied research based on empirical studies of the earlier and new extended techniques sound production of the instrument. The musical ideas of the piece were associated with bone whistle or flute, Fibonacci series, Schumann Resonance and spectral music techniques. This research employed narrowband short-time Fourier Transform (STFT) spectrogram analysis, absolute scale non-linear decibel loudness seismograph analysis and music composition analysis based on selected score excerpts of contemporary recorder music composition and its controlled audio recording environment of alto recorder sound production sampling. Ultimately, this research enabled sonic exploration of new alto recorder extended techniques and is anticipated to become a reference framework for the future artistic development of alternative alto recorder music compositions.