Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology. The idea of soundscape refers to both the natural acoustic environment, consisting of natural sounds, including animal vocalizations and, for instance, the sounds of weather and other natural elements; and environmental sounds created by humans, through musical composition, sound design, and other ordinary human activities including conversation, work, and sounds of mechanical origin resulting from use of industrial technology. The disruption of these acoustic environments results in noise pollution.
The term "soundscape" can also refer to an audio recording or performance of sounds that create the sensation of experiencing a particular acoustic environment, or compositions created using the found sounds of an acoustic environment, either exclusively or in conjunction with musical performances.[1][2]
Elements
The term soundscape was coined by Canadian composer and environmentalist, R. Murray Schafer. According to this author there are three main elements of the soundscape:
- This is a musical term that identifies the key of a piece, not always audible… the key might stray from the original, but it will return. The keynote sounds may not always be heard consciously, but they “outline the character of the people living there” (Schafer). They are created by nature (geography and climate): wind, water, forests, plains, birds, insects, animals. In many urban areas, traffic has become the keynote sound.
- These are foreground sounds, which are listened to consciously; examples would be warning devices, bells, whistles, horns, sirens, etc.
- This is derived from the term landmark. A soundmark is a sound which is unique to an area.
In his 1977 book, The Tuning of the World, Schafer wrote, “Once a Soundmark has been identified, it deserves to be protected, for soundmarks make the acoustic life of a community unique”.
Pauline Oliveros, composer of post-World War II electronic art music, defined the term "soundscape" as "All of the waveforms faithfully transmitted to our audio cortex by the ear and its mechanisms".[3]
Soundscapes in music
In music, soundscape compositions are often a form of electronic music, or electroacoustic music. Composers who use soundscapes include real-time granular synthesis pioneer Barry Truax and Luc Ferrari, whose Presque rien, numéro 1 (1970) is an early soundscape composition. [4][2]
Music soundscapes can also be generated by automated software methods, such as the experimental TAPESTREA application, a framework for sound design and soundscape composition, and others. [5][6]
The soundscape is often the subject of mimicry in Timbre-centered music such as Tuvan throat singing. The process of Timbral Listening is used to interpret the timbre of the soundscape. This timbre is mimicked and reproduced using the voice or rich harmonic producing instruments.[7]
Soundscapes in health care
Soundscapes from a computerized acoustic device with a camera may also offer synthetic vision to the blind, utilizing human echolocation, as is the goal of the seeingwithsound project.[8]
Soundscapes and noise pollution
Papers on noise pollution are increasingly taking a holistic, soundscape approach to noise control. Whereas acoustics tends to rely on lab measurements and individual acoustic characteristics of cars and so on, soundscape takes a top-down approach. Drawing on John Cage's ideas of the whole world as composition, soundscape researchers investigate people's attitudes to soundscapes as a whole rather than individual aspects - and look at how the entire environment can be changed to be more pleasing to the ear.
It has been suggested that people's opportunity to access quiet, natural places in urban areas can be enhanced by improving the ecological quality of urban green spaces through targeted planning and design and that in turn has psychological benefits.[9]
See also
References
- ^ LaBelle, Brandon (2006). Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 198, 214. ISBN 0826418457.
- ^ a b Paynter, John (1992). Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought. Routledge. pp. 374. ISBN 0415072255. "Electroacoustic Music and the Soundscape: The inner and the Outer World, by Barry Traux"
- ^ Oliveros, Pauline (2005). Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice. iUniverse. pp. 18. ISBN 0595343651.
- ^ Roads, Curtis (2001). p.312, Microsound. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18215-7
- ^ Boodler ambient soundscape generator written in Python
- ^ fLOW ambient soundscape generator (Apple Macintosh)
- ^ Levin, T., Where Rivers and Mountains Sing, Sound, Music and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond (Bloomington: Indiana University press, 2006)
- ^ Seeing with Sound
- ^ Irvine et al (2009), Green space, soundscape and urban sustainability: an interdisciplinary, empirical study. Local Environment, Volume 14, Number 2, February 2009 , pp. 155-172(18)
Further reading
- 1969 The New Soundscape - R. Murray Schafer
- 1977 The Tuning of the World - R. Murray Schafer (ISBN 0394409663)
- These 2 works were adapted to become part of the 1993 book, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World - R. Murray Schafer (ISBN 0-89281-455-1)
- 1977 Five village soundscapes (Music of the environment series) - A.R.C. Publications (ISBN 0-88985-005-4)
- 1978 Handbook for Acoustic Ecology - Barry Truax (ISBN 0-88985-011-9)
- 1985 Acoustic Communication : Second Edition - Barry Truax & World Soundscape Project (ISBN 1-56750-537-6
- 1994 Soundscapes: Essays on Vroom and Moo, Eds: Jarviluoma, Helmi - Department of Folk Tradition
- 2002 Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World - Bernard L. Krause (ISBN 0-89997-296-9) - book & CD
- 2003 Site Soundscapes: Landscape architecture in the light of sound - Sonotope Design Strategies, Per Hedfors (Diss.: ISSN 1401-6249 ISBN 91-576-6425-0 [1] Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Diss. summary: ISBN 978-3-639-09413-8
- 2004 The Auditory Culture Reader (Sensory Formations) - Michael Bull (ISBN 1-85973-618-1)
- 2005 "Acoustic Ecology Considered as a Connotation: Semiotic, Post-Colonial and Educational Views of Soundscape" in Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology Vol.6 No.2 - Tadahiko Imada 13-17 (ISSN 1607-3304)
- 2006 Qualitative Judgements of Urban Soundscapes: Questionning Questionnaires and Semantic Scales - Raimbault, Manon, Acta Acustica united with Acustica 92(6), 929–937
- "Soundscapes / Paesaggi sonori". lo Squaderno (10). December 2008. ISSN 1973-9141. http://www.losquaderno.net/10.html. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
- 2006 ,“Gebiete, Schichten und Klanglandschaften in den Alpen. Zum Gebrauch einiger historischer Begriffe aus der Musikethnologie”, Marcello Sorce Keller, in T. Nussbaumer (ed.), Volksmusik in den Alpen: Interkulturelle Horizonte und Crossovers, Zalzburg, Verlag Mueller-Speiser, 2006, pp. 9-18.
- 2006 The West Meets the East in Acoustic Ecology (Tadahiko Imada Kozo Hiramatsu et al Eds), Japanese Association for Sound Ecology & Hirosaki University International Music Centre ISBN 4-9903332-1-7
- 2008 "Soundscape, postcolonial and music education: Experiencing the earliest grain of the body and music" - Tadahiko Imada in Music Education Policy and Implementation: International Perspectives (Chi Cheung Leung, Lai Chi Rita Yip and Tadahiko Imada Eds, Hirosaki University Press) ISBN 978-4-902774-39-9
- 2009 A Little Sound Education - R. Murray Schafer & Tadahiko Imada (Shunjusha, Tokyo) ISBN 978-4-393-93539-2
External links