A Composer’s Workflow for Deriving a Music Score from Nonmusical Audio

Abstract “Mixed music” has long served as a means for investigating the evolving relationship between electronic sound and acoustic compositional practice. While a number of composers have explored the extraction of notatable materials from recorded nonmusical audio, such approaches remain relatively underdeveloped and are often unsupported by standardized workflows. Drawing on the author’s own compositional practice, this study proposes a reproducible and compositionally constructive methodology for translating environmental recordings into notated instrumental materials through the integrated application of tools including SPEAR, Macaque, and two applications developed by the author: XML Pitch Analyzer and Patcher-Rhythmaster. Using a twelve-second field recording as a case study, the project introduces five different spectral-editing strategies that yield musically differentiated variants, each exhibiting distinct characteristics in pitch, rhythm, and dynamics. A complementary system of visual analysis further supports the evaluation of these outcomes. By linking spectral analysis directly to compositional deployment, this research helps solve what has often been a disconnect between electronic sound data and performable instrumental structure. The proposed workflow offers a flexible and scalable framework that enables the transcription of acoustic characteristics into musical notation, fostering material continuity and integration across the electroacoustic and instrumental domains.