Library Person
Denis Smalley
New Zealand-born composer of acousmatic music, who coined the analytical concept of spectromorphology.
Denis Smalley (b. 1946, Nelson, New Zealand) studied at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University before moving to Europe, working at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen, with the GRM, and at the University of York. He was Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the University of East Anglia from 1976 to 1994, then professor of music at City University, London, until his retirement. His 1974 piece Pentes is regarded as a classic of electroacoustic music. In 1986 he coined “spectromorphology” — the analysis of how sound spectra change shape over time — extending Pierre Schaeffer’s categories of sound objects into a more detailed framework for describing and composing acousmatic music.