Hidden Music – The Composer’s Guide To Sonification

“Hidden Music is truly excellent and fills a huge gap in the literature. In this carefully argued book, Mermikides presents a very personal, academically rigorous, yet highly accessible view of how to bring together data sonification, modern information theory and music composition” 

Morten Kringelbach, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Director of Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing and Co-founder Center for Music in the Brain

“In Hidden Music Milton Mermikides summarises decades of research and draws from his own, deeply humane creative praxis to show us ways of beholding and understanding the patterns hidden in the world around us. Data relations rendered sonic and musical have the potential to surprise us with truth, sensuality, elegance and insight, usefully blurring the boundary between science and art. Inspirational.”

Leah Kardos, Composer & Author (Blackstar Theory, Hounds of Love)

“Hidden Music explains how the music of nature can be integral to the nature of music. It treats sonification as making the world sound afresh, in distinctive ways that only musicians can bring forth. This is a thoughtful guide that marries theory and practice in the best possible way.”

Melissa Lane, Professor in Politics, Princeton University

This book explores the intersection of data sonification (the systematic translation of data into sound) and musical composition. Section 1 engages with existing discourse and offers an original model (the sonification continuum) which provides perspectives on the practice of sonification for composers, science communicators and those interested in this rapidly emerging field. Section 2 engages with the sonification process itself, exploring techniques, models of translation, data fidelity, analogic and symbolic data mapping, temporality and the listener experience. In Section 3 these concepts and techniques are all made concrete in the context of a selection of the author’s projects (2004–2023). Finally, some reasons are offered on how sonification as a practice might enrich composition, communication, collaboration, and a sense of connection.

“This handbook of ideas is clear, concise, and precise. Not a single word is wasted. A must for any creative musician wanting to explore the intricate world of data sonification.”

Professor Steve Goss, Composer, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music

‘An intensely personal and insightful guide to how music can help us unlock the humanism within the data and systems of everyday life. Bringing together a lifetime of thought and creativity, Milton Mermikides leads the reader on an adventure into the music of the world around us.’

Dominic Broomfield-McHugh, Professor in Musicology, University of Sheffield