Sound objects have time-varying properties; notes are homogeneous abstractions

Traditional musical notation describes homogeneous notes with fixed pitch, duration, and dynamic. Real acoustic phenomena are heterogeneous sound objects whose properties (amplitude, frequency, timbre) vary continuously in time. Granular and particle synthesis embraces this heterogeneity: rather than programming notes with fixed attributes, composers specify sound objects with time-varying morphologies - envelopes, glissandi, spectral evolution. Each particle can be unique. This shift from note-thinking to object-thinking opens up morphological composition where sounds can evaporate, coalesce, mutate, and transition between pitch and noise.

Examples

A bowed violin note starts with a noisy attack, settles into a pitched sustain with vibrato, and decays with a fading shimmer. No parameter is constant - it is a heterogeneous sound object, not a homogeneous note.

Assessment

What distinguishes a heterogeneous sound object from a homogeneous note? Give an example of a musical task that is easy to describe with note notation but difficult to describe in terms of sound object morphology.