The Soundscape : Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the the Soundscape : Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World / R
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This page intentionally left blank. IHI SOUNDSCAPI ,. ./ Our Sonic Environment and TH( SOUNDSCI\P( the Tuning of the World R. MURRAY St HAf l R BOO K S Destiny Books Rochester, ~rmont Destiny Books Destiny Books One Park Street One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 Rochester, Vermont 05767 Copyright © 1977, 1994 by R. Murray Schafer Copyright © 1977, 1994 by R. Murray Schafer Published by arrangement with Alfred Knopf, Inc. Published by arrangement with Alfred Knopf, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schafer, R. Murray. Schafer, R. Murray. [Tuning of the World] [Tuning of the World] The soundscape : our sonic environment and the tuning of the The soundscape : our sonic environment and the tuning of the world / R. Murray Schafer. world / R. Murray Schafer. p. em. p. em. Originally published: The tuning of the world. New York: Knopf, Originally published: The tuning of the world. New York: Knopf, 1977. 1977. Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes bibliographical references and index. eISBN 978-1-59477-668-7 ISBN 0-89281-455-1 ISBN 0-89281-455-1 1. Music-Acoustics and physics. 2. Sound. 3. Music-Philosophy 1. Music-Acoustics and physics. 2. Sound. 3. Music-Philosophy and aesthetics. I. Title. and aesthetics. I. Title. ML3805.S3 1994 ML3805.S3 1994 781.2-dc20 93-6392 781.2-dc20 93-6392 CIP CIP MN MN Printed and bound in the United States Printed and bound in the United States 10 9 8 7 10 9 8 7 Destiny Books is a division of Inner Traditions International Destiny Books is a division of Inner Traditions International Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: previously published material: E. J. Brill: Chart from liThe Spectographic Analysis of Sound Signals of the E. J. Brill: Chart from liThe Spectographic Analysis of Sound Signals of the Domestic Fowl" by N. Collias and M. Joos, originally published in Behaviour, V. Domestic Fowl" by N. Collias and M. Joos, originally published in Behaviour, V. Cambridge University Press: Chart from Bird-Song by W. H. Thorpe, copyright Cambridge University Press: Chart from Bird-Song by W. H. Thorpe, copyright © 1961, p. 63. Also, six lines from Theocritus, edited and translated by A. S. F. © 1961, p. 63. Also, six lines from Theocritus, edited and translated by A. S. F. Gow, copyright 1950, Vol. 1, Idyll 1. Gow, copyright 1950, Vol. 1, Idyll I. This page intentionally left blank. To my co-workers on the World Soundscape Project This page intentionally left blank. Contents Preface xi Introduction 3 PART ONE: FIRST SOUNDSCAPES ONE: The Natural Soundscape 15 TWO: The Sounds of Life 29 THREE: The Rural Soundscape 43 FOUR: From Town to City 53 PART Two: THE POST-INDUSTRIAL SOUNDSCAPE FIVE: The Industrial Revolution 71 SIX: The Electric Revolution 88 INTERLUDE SEVEN: Music, the Soundscape and Changing Perceptions 103 PART THREE: ANALYSIS EIGHT: Notation 123 NINE: Classification 133 TEN: Perception 151 ELEVEN: Morphology 161 ix X CONTENTS TWELVE: Symbolism 169 THIRTEEN: Noise 181 PART FOUR: TOWARD ACOUSTIC DESIGN FOURTEEN: Listening 205 FIFTEEN: The Acoustic Community 214 SIXTEEN: Rhythm and Tempo in the Soundscape 226 SEVENTEEN: The Acoustic Designer 237 EIGHTEEN: The Soniferous Garden 246 NINETEEN: Silence 253 EPILOGUE: The Music Beyond 260 Appendix 1· Sample Sound Notation Systems 264 Appendix 11· International Sound Preference Survey 268 Glossary of Soundscape Terms 271 Notes 277 Index 297 Preface Ever since I began studying the acoustic environment, it has been my hope to gather my work together into one book which might serve as a guide for future research. This book accordingly borrows extensively from many of my previous publications, in particular the booklets The New Soundscape and The Book ofNoise and the several documents of the World Soundscape Project, especially the essay The Music of the Environment and our first comprehensive field study, The Vancouver Soundscape. But it tries to build this fugitive material into a more careful arrangement. As evidence has come in from more distant sources and as I have reflected further or been provoked by my fellow researchers, many early assumptions have been revised or abandoned. The present book is as definitive as it can be at the present time, but since only God knows for sure, it must still be regarded as tentative. Much of the material of this book was revealed through an interna tional study entitled the World Soundscape Project, which many agencies helped to fund. To my immediate co-workers on the Project lowe a great debt of gratitude for countless stimulating meetings and discussions. It is as much their book as it is mine, for they read it, criticized it and provided both facts and encouragement. In particular I wish to thank Hildegard Westerkamp, Howard Broomfield, Bruce Davis, Peter Huse and Barry Truax. Jean Reed, now my wife, was a special help in checking sources, reading numerous drafts and tolerating the many moods of the author. Numerous scholars in different disciplines have encouraged sound scape studies. Many have read portions of this book and have provided helpful commentaries. Others have suggested new angles of investigation or have sent material from abroad which could not otherwise have been obtained. In particular I wish to thank the following scholars: Professor xi xii PREFACE Kurt Blaukopf and Dr. Desmond Mark of the Institute for Music, Dance and Theatre, Vienna; G. S. Metraux and Anny Malroux of UNESCO, Paris; Dr. Philip Dickinson, Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah; Professor John Large, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Univer sity of Southampton; Dr. David Lowenthal, Department of Geography, University College, London; Dr. Peter Ostwald, Langley Porter Neuropsy chiatric Institute, University of California; Marshall McLuhan, Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto; Michel P. Philippot, l'ln stitut National de I'Audiovisuel, Paris; Dr. Catherine Ellis, University of Adelaide; Professor John Paynter, University of York; Professor Jean Jacques Nattiez, l'Universite de Montreal; and Professor Pat Shand, Uni versity of Toronto. I am especially indebted to Yehudi Menuhin for his constant encour agement of soundscape research and to Dr. Otto Laske for his valuable commentaries on my text. The World Soundscape Project could lay no claim to its title without numerous reports and verifications from many countries. For supplying special information, or for helping to translate it, I thank: David Ahern, Carlos Araujo, Renata Braun, Junko Carothers, Mieko Ikegame, Roger Lenzi, Beverley Matsu, Judith Maxie, Albert Mayr, Marc Metraux, Walter Otoya, John Rimmer, Thorkell Sigurbjornsson, Turgut Var and Yngve Wirkander. Nick Reed deserves special thanks for valuable library re search. For typing numerous drafts of the manuscript I am thankful to Pat Tait, Janet Knudson and Linda Clark. When an author keeps changing his mind, typists have the hardest job of all. R. MURRAY SCHAFER Vancouver, August, 1976 TH( SOUNDSCAP( This page intentionally left blank. Introduction Now I will do nothing but listen ... I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following, Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night. ... WALT WHITMAN, Song of Myself The soundscape of the world is changing. Modern man is beginning to inhabit a world with an acoustic environment radically different from any he has hitherto known. These new sounds, which differ in quality and intensity from those of the past, have alerted many researchers to the dangers of an indis.~riminate and imperialistic spread of more and larger sounds into every corner of man's life. Noise pollution is now a world problem. It would seem that the world soundscape has reached an apex of vulgarity in our time, and many experts have predicted universal deafness as .the ultimate consequence unless the problem can be brought quickly under control. In various parts of the world important research is being undertaken in many independent areas of sonic studies: acoustics, psychoacoustics, otology, international noise abatement practices and procedures, commu nications and sound recording engineering (electroacoustics and electronic .music), aural pattern perception and the structural analysis of language and music. These researches are related; each deals with aspects of the world soundscape. In one way or another researchers engaged on these various themes are asking the same question: what is the relationship between man and the sounds of his environment and what happens when 3 4 THE SOUNDSCAPE those sounds change? Soundscape studies attempt to unify these various researches. Noise pollution results when man does not listen carefully. Noises are the sounds we have learned to ignore. Noise pollution today is being resisted by noise abatement. This is a negative approach. 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 orches tration of the world soundscape. For many years I have been fighting for ear cleaning in schools to eliminate audiometry in factories.