The Hyperorchestra

The term hyperorchestra derives from hyperreality, a postmodern philosophical concept coined by Jean Baudrillard; the hyperorchestra is a virtual ensemble that inhabits hyperreality, capable of producing music that has the capacity to sound realistic and connected to our world, but that could never be produced by physical means only. This book studies the hyperorchestra as used in music for the screen and draws from the intersection of practice and theory. From the theory’s side, the book adopts concepts from postmodern philosophy such as hyperreality and Marshall McLuhan’s theory of media.They serve to provide a philosophical ground from which to define the hyperorchestra. From the practice’s side, the book describes contemporary processes, current software tools, orchestration and instrumentation principles, and contemporary approaches to music composition (such as spectral music). In doing so, the book proposes a new perspective for analyzing contemporary film music that pinpoints the importance of the relationship between timbre, meaning, and the different narrative levels within an audiovisual piece. Sergi Casanelles teaches composition at New York University. He has published several articles and chapters on screen music, and he has an active composition practice. He has written concert music for piano, chamber ensembles, orchestra, electronics, as well as music for the screen. He won the COM Radio Tutto Award for his solo piano piece Postlude to Chopin’s F minor Fantasy, and the III Orchestral Composition Competition Evaristo Fernández Blanco for his work From Hell: 4 scenes of Dante’s Divine Comedy.