The grammatical structures of process music: exploring the music of Tom Johnson through combinatory patterns in sound poetry

Abstract

This article explores similarities between the permutational processes in sound poetry and process music, suggesting models for new music which supports audience comprehension of processual language. The use of textual materials within the poetry is examined, with reference to the analytic nature of the English language and how different sentence types arise in performance from the results of the processes employed. The article then translates this analysis onto music made from numerical processes, focussing in particular on the work of American composer Tom Johnson. By viewing the material of process music through a morpho-syntactic linguistic frame, this discussion suggests compositional methods and performance approaches which help to facilitate an audience’s understanding of the grammatical structure within a piece of process music.