A few days ago, during a meeting with several composers, a debate arose: Is sound design part of music, or is it simply sound editing? Some associate it with technical sound work, while others see it as an artistic expression connected to music, more directly related to the composer’s work. In fact, in many cases—especially in performing arts or the video game industry—music and sound design are created by the same person.

What are the origins of this fussion?

On the musical side, movements like musique concrète and electroacoustic music had already explored the fusion of sound and music. Once composition moved beyond tonality as its central axis and opened up to timbral exploration, many musicians began incorporating sonic elements into their compositions that we might initially consider “non-musical” or even creating works built entirely from such sounds. Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète, is perhaps the most representative figure of this movement.

On the other hand, cinema eventually recognized the role of the sound designer—a professional who conceives and designs the sonic dimension of a film (usually separate from music, which remains the composer’s domain). This professional explores all the narrative and aesthetic possibilities of sound, including dialogue, sound effects, and sound ambiences. A turning point in the industry for the recognition of this profession came with Apocalypse Now, the first film to include an official credit for Sound Design, assigned to Walter Murch, who did groundbreaking work in the field.

The boundary between music and sound

For decades, both contributions—incidental music and sound design—have remained relatively distinct, at least in cinema. However, we are currently witnessing an evolution in the way many films are scored. This is the rise of textural music, where the line between sound and music becomes blurred. Films like Joker (scored by Hildur Guðnadóttir) and Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson) exemplify this new trend, where music and sound intertwine to create an immersive experience.

From my perspective—after many years in this profession, creating both music and sound design for numerous theatrical, film, and multimedia projects— one of the key elements may lie in how we encode music and sound and what we expect each to contribute to the story and the audience’s experience.

Typically, sound tends to be more “encoded.” Dialogue, sound effects, and ambient noises often serve an initial informative function, which is highly structured: the language of dialogue, the cause-effect relationship of sound effects (for example, if we see someone walking, we expect to hear his footsteps), and even ambient sounds that help contextualize a scene historically or geographically. Music, on the other hand, is more commonly associated with emotion generation in the audience and the reinforcement of different aesthetic and technical aspects of media storytelling—such as modifying a scene’s rhythm, evoking different emotions, or immersing us in a character’s mind.

However, in many cases, these functions overlap or become less clearly defined. The intonation of dialogue (prosody), the selection of the sounds that must be heard, their volume, when certain sounds are highlighted over others, or even the layering of sounds to “characterize” an environment all play a crucial role in shaping how the audience perceives the story.

In many of my projects, where I have had the opportunity to create both the music and sound design, the two elements are deeply intertwined. For example, in Forzados, an immersive creation for the Almadén Mining Museum, the intonation and sonic treatment of the narrator’s voice, along with the sound effects, played an almost equal role to the music in generating the claustrophobic and distressing feeling that miners experienced. You can check out the video of this installation here:

In 90 Varas, an audiovisual creation for Susana Girón’s photography exhibition, I selected the phrases from the protagonists that best conveyed the intended message, paying special attention to their intonation. The sound effects established the general tone of the narration, enhancing the harshness of the images and conveying the experiences of transhumant shepherds in their work. In this case, music aligned with the images to provide rhythm to the photographic-based narrative and to amplify the emotions generated by the sound design. Here’s the full audiovisual piece: 

This conversation among composers has allowed me to highlight just a few aspects of this topic, which will surely lead to more posts in the future. Beyond labels, what truly matters is how music and sound create an emotional impact within a story. The tools evolve, but their purpose remains the same: to enhance audiovisual storytelling.

What do you think about all this? Let me know in the comments!

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