Sound mass

In contrast to more traditional musical textures, sound mass composition "minimizes the importance of individual pitches in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact." Developed from the modernist tone clusters and spread to orchestral writing by the late 1950s and 1960s, sound-mass "obscures the boundary between sound and noise." (Edwards 2001, p.326-327)

Sources

• Edwards, J. Michele (2001). "North America since 1920" in Pendle, Karin, ed. (1991/2001). Women & Music: A History second edition. Indiana University Press. ISBN 025321422.
• Erickson, Robert (1975). Sound Structure in Music. University of California Press. ISBN 0520023765.
• Composers Quartet (1973). Nonesuch H-71280.
• http://usonia.unco.edu/music/theory/pdf/202stylesynopsis.pdf