Soundscapes

Fred of Fragments from Floyd today shares a journal entry from the summer solstice that is particularly evocative of the soundscape of his little valley — he hears the creek rumbling with the recent plentiful rains as the low note, the incessant stridulations of cicadas in the middle register, and the wind blowing a million soft leaves on the ridge as the treble voice.

The term soundscape comes from the Canadian composer and communications researcher R. Murray Schafer who in the late 1960s started the World Soundscape Project, aiming to document the relationship, both good and bad, between people and their acoustic environment. He wrote in his 1977 book The Tuning of the World:

Noise pollution results when man does not listen carefully…We must seek a way to make environmental acoustics a positive study program. Which sounds do we want to preserve, encourage, multiply? When we know this, the boring or destructive sounds will be conspicuous enough, and we will know why we must eliminate them. Only a total appreciation of the acoustic environment can give us the resources for improving the orchestration of the world soundscape.

Schafer’s interests led to the development of a new field called acoustic ecology. There is now a society called the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology whose members are interested in the social, cultural, and ecological aspects of the sonic environment. A favorite activity of acoustic ecologists, recurringly described in their writings, is to go on soundwalks, an excursion where the point is to listen to the environment.

These people are on to something: awareness of our acoustic environment is very much neglected, and gaining this awareness makes for a much richer life. So step outside sometime, close your eyes, and listen…