Hidden Melodies

Hidden Melodies demonstrates originality through its integration of geological field recording, interactive digital music systems, and participatory performance within a single research output. While site-specific sound art and cave acoustics have been explored independently within sonic art and acoustic ecology, this project uniquely reframes geological formations themselves as playable musical instruments via real-time interaction. The translation of stalactite and stalagmite resonances into MIDI-controllable virtual instruments extends existing compositional paradigms beyond representation or soundscape documentation, introducing an original methodological approach to composition-as-interaction.

The project’s use of convolution reverb derived exclusively from impulse responses captured in Gibraltar’s subterranean spaces further distinguishes the work. These acoustic signatures are not treated as environmental effects but as compositional and structural elements, producing an interconnected aural topology specific to the Rock of Gibraltar. This approach advances current practices in sound installation by embedding place-based acoustics directly into the generative musical system rather than applying them post hoc.

The significance of Hidden Melodies lies in its contribution to contemporary research in music, sound art, and practice-as-research methodologies. The work expands understanding of how interactive audio systems can function as tools for public engagement with geological heritage, environmental sound, and non-Western histories of musical materiality. By foregrounding audience interaction, the project challenges conventional performer–listener hierarchies and demonstrates inclusive modes of music-making accessible to non-musicians.

The research also contributes to debates around sound as both medium and material, aligning with and extending scholarship in sonic art, acoustic ecology, and sound architecture. Its relevance to heritage, spatial listening, and environmental awareness positions the work within interdisciplinary research agendas, enhancing its reach beyond music to cultural geography and digital heritage studies.

The rigour of Hidden Melodies is evidenced through a systematic and transparent research process combining fieldwork, technical experimentation, and theoretical contextualisation. Field recordings were conducted using established site-specific recording methodologies to capture the resonant properties of stone, while impulse responses were gathered using standard acoustic measurement techniques to ensure reproducibility and fidelity.

The compositional system was developed through iterative prototyping within Ableton Live, rigorously testing mappings between physical gesture, sonic response, and spatial behaviour. The work is underpinned by sustained engagement with relevant scholarly literature in practice-based research, acoustic ecology, prehistoric music studies, and sonic art, ensuring that artistic decisions are theoretically informed rather than intuitive alone. Audience interaction functions as a research instrument, generating embodied knowledge that is central to the work’s epistemological claims.

• Cobussen, M. (2017) The Field of Musical Improvisation. Leiden: Leiden University Press.

• Doğantan-Dack, M. (ed.) (2016) Artistic Practice as Research in Music: Theory, Criticism, Practice. London: Routledge.

• Gilmurray, J. (2017) ‘Ecological sound art: steps towards a new field’, Organised Sound, 22(1), pp. 32–41.

• Lacey, J. (2016) Sonic Rupture: A Practice-led Approach to Urban Soundscape Design. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

• Nelson, R. (2022) Practice as Research in the Arts (and Beyond): Principles, Processes, Contexts, Achievements. 2nd edn. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Ouzounian, G. (2021) Stereophonica: Sound and Space in Science, Technology, and the Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

• Pham, V. (2024) ‘Negative space: an alternative framework for interpreting prehistoric sonic behaviours’, Journal of Cognition, 7(1).

• Taylor, H. (2024) ‘Field recordings as invitation and transportation’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 38(1), pp. 42–55.

• Valenzuela, J., Díaz-Andreu, M. and Escera, C. (2020) ‘Psychology meets archaeology: psychoarchaeoacoustics for understanding ancient minds and their relationship to the sacred’, Frontiers in Psychology, 11.

• Vear, C. (ed.) (2022) The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research. London: Routledge.

• Voegelin, S. (2021) Sonic Possible Worlds: Hearing the Continuum of Sound. Revised edn. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.