At the Border of Poetry and Music

This essay examines Ilmar Laaban’s “Ciel Inamputable” in the context of developing text-sound composition in Sweden during the 1960s and spectral analysis. Laaban’s improvisatory work is analyzed using primary source material and a “theory of oppositions” as codified by American music theorist Robert Cogan. The essay connects the scientific work of the Fylkingen language group to research in spectral analysis and linguistics directly to Laaban’s text-sound work. This is the first study to examine Laaban’s work using the technique of spectral analysis and one of the few essays in English to look in-depth at Laaban’s “Ciel Inamputable.”