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Forums für Klanglandschaft
Number 6, January 1998 Table of Content
WFAE Network Deadline for Number 7: April 25, 1998
Be noisy ! This newsletter serves a a gossip platform of the international soundscape studies network. We invited all readers members as well as nonmembers to express themselves on this platform. As you can see in this issue, you do not have to write in English: just use your mother tongue - good ideas work in any language. Notice that the back issues of this newsletter are available on the WFAE homepage (see Impressum). The editors WFAE Network and Soundscape Associations ( Geschäftsstelle Forum für Klanglandschaft) Urs Notari, Leiter des "Hauses der Klänge", Mitgründer des FKL und seit dem Beginn dessen Geschäftsführer, hat wegen Überlastung auf Ende 1997 um Ablösung in diesem Amt ersucht. Mirjam Jauslin, die soeben ihr Universitätsstudium erfolgreich abgeWir schlossen hat, übernahm die administrative Geschäftsführung, Claudia Pellegrini führt interimistisch bis zur Jahresversamm lung die Kasse. Der Geschäftssitz ist neu Hammerstrassse 14, 4058 Basel, Schweiz. Wir freuen uns über den lückenlosen Übergang und würden uns freuen, weitere Leute kennenzulernen, die bereit sind, in der näheren Zukunft für das Forum ehrenamtlich tätig zu sein. Mirjam Jauslin und Claudia Pellegrini hoffen, die unter den Umständen aufgelaufene Briefpost des Jahres 1997 bald aufgearbeitet zu haben. Wir schulden Urs Notari grossen Dank für seinen Impuls zur Gründung des FKL, für seinen grossen Arbeitseinsatz und für sein sehr grosses finanzielles Engagement, ohne das das FKL ganz offengestanden heute noch nirgends wäre. Dass das Geschenk einer CD als Beilage zum letzten Newsletter, das sein "Haus der Klänge" den FKL-Mitgliedern machen wollte, in der allgemeinen Überlastung definitiv untergegangen ist, ist zweifellos ein Wermutstropfen für seinen Idealismus. "E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle": Wir hoffen, dass ihn die Entlastung wieder in den Klang der Landschaft der Berge seines wundervollen Wohnortes hinausführt, den er unter der Arbeitslast vermissen musste. Der Vorstand
Jahresversammlung 1998 des Forums für Klanglandschaft Die Jahresversammlung 1998 des FKL findet am Wochenende vom 18.-19. April im Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe statt. Das Rahmenprogramm sieht kommentierte Vorführungen von Klanglandschafts-Dokumenten und einen Vortrag vor. Die Einladungen mit dem Programm werden im März versandt.
Memership fees 1998 are due! WFAE and regional soundscape associations thank you for your contribution. Destinations see Impressum, page 2. Das WFAE und die regionalen Klanglandschafts-Organisationen danken Ihnen für die Überweisung des Jahresbeitrags. Bestimmungsorte siehe Impressum, Seite 2. Le FMES et les associations régionales décologie sonore vous remercient pour le versement des cotisations annuelles. Destinations voir dans limpressum, page 2.
KlangHütte Dresden
A Symposium on "Musical Cognition and Behavior: relevance for music composing" takes place May 28-30, 1998, organized by the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, ECONA Interuniversity Centre for the Research on Cognitive Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems, Rome: University of Rome "la Sapienza", Aula Magna Acceptation will be communicated by e-mail or fax before submit until March 20, 1998. . An extended abstract of 6 pages, camera-ready for publication in the abstract-volume must be sent to the organisers before April 15, (norms will be supplied with acceptation). Three types of sessions are scheduled: reading sessions (20 minutes presentation and 5 minutes discussion), poster sessions, demonstrations, (25 minutes oral and musical presentation). Cognitive scientists and composers are invited to submit abstracts, on a single side of paper, with the author's name, title, institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone and e-mail at the top. Abstracts in English, French or Italian, clearly indicating on the right top: reading session, poster session or demonstration, should be sent directly to the organiser (address below). Scientific Commitee: Marta Olivetti Belardinelli (President), Mario Baroni, Fabio Cifariello Ciardi, Luca Francesconi, Egidio Pozzi. Invited lectures: Rita Aiello (New York); Jamshed J. Bharucha (Hanover, N.H.); Helga de la Motte (Berlin); Irène Deliège (Bruxelles); Michel Imberty (Paris); Carol Krumhansl (Ithaca); Giovanni B. Vicario (Padova). Internationally known composers of contemporary music are invited. Special events: two concerts of contemporary music. Registration:
1. Delegate (Last Name, First Name, Affiliation, Address, Tel/Fax/E-Mail) Please return the registration by hard mail along with registration fee to: Prof. Marta Olivetti Belardinelli, ECONA c/o Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università du Roma 1, via dei Marsi 78, I - 00185 ROMA; fax: +39 6 4462449, fon +39 6 49917533, eMail: belarditecona@iol.it Stadens ljud Stockholm En kalender över ljudhändelser under Kulturhuvudstadsåret 1998
An international conference on acoustic ecology organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in partnership with the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and Stockholm Cultural Capital of Europe 98, June 9-14, 1998 Invitation The Royal Swedish Academy of Music welcomes all friends of sound to the conference "Stockholm, Hey Listen!" on 9th-14th June 1998. Two years ago the Academy published a Manifesto the first in its 225-year history calling for a better acoustic environment. This was the beginning of a determined effort to heighten Swedish awareness of sounds and the acoustic environment. The reason is simple and obvious: undamaged hearing and good acoustic environments are essential in order to avail oneself of interesting musics and sounds, of all genres, that are being created. Our point of departure in this endeavour is that sounds are primarily to be regarded not as a problem area but as a positive resource to be used in the best possible way. This makes it natural to work for a rapprochement between the technological, humanistic, humanitarian and artistic aspects of sound and the acoustic environment. The sounds around us should be regarded in the holistic perspective in which ordinary people experience them and should be ascribed the same essential importance as air, light and water. It gives the Academy great pleasure, as the peak of its acoustic environment activities in recent years, to be able to welcome composers, researchers, environmentalists and all other interested persons to this first international conference on acoustic ecology to be held in Sweden. It has a supremely important purpose, namely that of trying, on the basis of the immense body of knowledge and resources which has now been accumulated in various countries and disciplines spearheaded by the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology to arrive at strategies and paths for achieving concrete results: from awareness to action! We hope that the magical white light of an early Nordic summer and the distinctive acoustic environment of Stockholm will give you unforgettable memories to take back home with you. The Royal Swedish Academy of Music:
Bengt Holmstrand, General Secretary Objectives The past few years have witnessed a significant growth of general awareness concerning the acoustic environment throughout the western world, but the progress actually made has been small and barely noticeable, because the number and level of sounds are rising all the time. This provides the starting point for the conference "Stockholm, Hey Listen!", subtitled "From Awareness to Action". One of the "anchor themes" characterising the programme for Stockholm Cultural Capital of Europe 98 is sound and light in the city. And so the place and time are very amply chosen for drawing attention to the sounds in our environment. The conference will focus mainly on three problem areas:
Tuesday 9th June : Opening (Key-note lecture, concert, reception) Wednesday 10th June : "Where Are We Now..."? , Presentations of current issues Thursday 11th June : Sound Design, Round tables on acoustic design of physical objects Friday 12th June : Virtual Sound, New technologies and its acoustic world Saturday 13th June : "...And Where Do We Go?", Analyses, strategies, action plans Sunday 14th June : Public presentations and workshops The conference is for fee paying, pre-registered participants, except for Sunday 14th June, which is planned to contain a number of "open" events for the general public. The mornings of 10th-12th June will be devoted to discussions and lectures in round table form for all participants. During the afternoons there will be a choice between parallel presentations of papers and projects, partly in seminar form and partly in the "Soundscape Village" (see below). Language All conference proceedings will be in English. We realise that this can create problems and obstacles for a small number of participants, but we are prevented by practical and financial constraints from providing an interpreting service. Presentations and papers, therefore, are also to be in English. Soundscape Village One or more rooms will be available to those wishing to present projects of their own in the form of video or cassette tapes, music compositions, sound sculptures, sketches of ideas, exhibitions or other objects. Space reservations in Soundscape Village will have to be made in advance and will be of limited duration. Soundscape Village takes the form of an open forum or "market place" where participants will also be able to arrange their own discussion groups. Authors and publishers will also be able to sell their documents here. Musical/Sound Events A special musical event will be arranged on every evening of the conference. Some of these events (e.g. an Acoustic Night Walk in the National City Park) are for conference participants only. Other events, such as Concerto Borealis, a concert for all church bells in the city (Saturday 14th June), will form part of Stockholm Cultural Capital of Europe and can be listened to by everybody. Please note that, the focus of the conference being primarily on social and scientific aspects of the acoustic world, there will be only limited scope within "Stockholm, Hey Listen!" available for music performances, sound sculptures and other installations. All those who are mainly interested in performing soundscape compositions of their own are referred to the Amsterdam festival in 1999 (see below), which will focus on the artistic aspects. Conference fee The conference fee has not yet been fixed, because fund raising for the conference is still in progress, but it will be kept to a modest level. The fee will include all conference events, together with lunch, refreshments and all papers. Participants will pay for their own dinner, hotel and travel expenses. For overnight accommodation, reference will be made to hotels in various price brackets and to student accommodation. Please note that the conference will not be responsible for hotel reservations (cancellations). Papers & Presentations Participants in "Stockholm, Hey Listen!" are now invited to present their own research projects, essays and results during the conference. To save the conference from becoming just one more conventional meeting, we wish to create a more dynamic process by means of the following arrangements:
All conference participants are invited during the conference to suggest improvements to the Stockholm acoustic environment. These suggestions will be collected and presented to the City of Stockholm as a gift from the conference. Soundscape Competition A competition will be held for the design of new environmental signals in the City of Stockholm (the underground, pedestrian crossings, entrances to the city, boat sirens and motor vehicle horns, time signals, emergency vehicles etc.) or signals for such things as lifts, microwave ovens, doorbells, computers, alarm clocks etc. Further details will be presented in the programme in December. "Soundscapes voor 2000" During the first week of September 1999 the Netherlands Programme Service will be organising a festival in Amsterdam. This will consist of exhibitions, conferences and concerts focusing on the soundscape repertoire as a musical phenomenon and on sound perception and special projects for children. "Soundscapes voor 2000" and "Stockholm, Hey Listen" are collaborating by deliberately supplementing one another's programmes. Artists interested exclusively in compositions and performances should therefore contact NPS, P.O. Box 29160, NL 1202 MJ Hilversum, The Netherlands. E-mail:ph@nps.nl. Next announcement You are welcome to enrol here and now (without commitment), in which case you will be included on our mailing list and automatically supplied with information as and when it becomes available. Visit the WFAE www site in 1998 for regular updates at: http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/FC/WFAEsc.html World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) For the period ending June 1998, an interim governing body of the WFAE has received a special mandate to draft aims, statutes, membership rules and other details of a permanent international organisation. The intention is for the WFAE to be definitively constituted and a regular governing body elected during the Stockholm Conference. Only members of the WFAE (organisations and individual members) will be entitled to take part in proceedings and voting. Those wishing to take part should therefore have paid the annual subscription for 1998 well in advance of the conference.
World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE)Contact
Henrik Karlsson, Research Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music; Secretary Eva Törnqvist
Turn of the Millennium Soundday Project The New Soundscape Newsletter has been asking: "What is the soundscape of the last day of the present millennium and of the first day of the next millennium like?" First responses to our proposal of this soundscape documentary project have been supportive. Some people have been hinting at the fact that numerically the next millennium starts only on January 1st 2001. Right! Yet the sociologically important event is January 1st 2000 so let us stick to this date. The project consists in coordinated sound documentaries of the soundscapes of the two days which form the turn of the millennium: December 31, 1999, and January 1, 2000. The ideas so far communicated led us to a three categories format. Landscape documentaries: recordings of open, far-reaching sonic landscapes. This can be as well natural as cultural landscapes which exhibit in their envelope the rhythm of a day-and-night. According to their longitudinal position this will (among other things) present the simultaneity of the seasons. Action documentaries: close-up, but uninvolved recordings from particular spots in cities, villages, meeting-places all over the world, documenting the variety of human soundscapes. Feature documentaries: Involved recordings, participant observation of the millennium celebration by particular groups. Also: travel experiences during the turn of the millennium etc. Within all three categories stress is on systematic recording, covering a time-span of at least 12 hours (noon 31-12-1999 to noon 1-1-2000). Landscapes are observed by sampling e.g. recordings of 4 minutes every half or quarter of an hour, action is observed by e.g. picking up high/low activity moments at a choosen public or private place (doors, hallways, bridges etc.), feature observes a given rhythm (of an individual, of a group, of one's own moving forward in space and time) or makes its own pace by interviews or other interventions. Our aim is to cover the sonic appearance of qualitatively different situations from landscapes to social environments which are situated in very different seasonal contexts Northern vs. Southern hemisphere and different temporal correlations from Auckland NZ to Vancouver B.C., where the turn of the year is conventionally 20 hours apart. The raw material will be a basis for scientific, artistic and educational work. The Turn of the Millennium Soundday Project will enter its final coordination stage at the Soundscape voor Amsterdam conference in summer 1999. A Netherlands radio station is ready to function as the collecting, archiving and redistributing centre for the recordings. If you are inclined to participate or to submit a specific idea write to: The New Soundscape Newsletter, TMS Project, p.o. box 319, 2013 Colombier, Switzerland; fax +41 32 841 4654
The Sounds of Displacement Report for the shared listening journey in France, August 4-6, 1997. Following the International Congress of Acoustic Ecology at the Abbaye de Royaumont in Paris, a group of twelve congress participants embarked on a three day shared listening journey through France. The theme of the journey was The sounds of displacement, so appropriately, the group was in constant sonic motion through Lyon, Grenoble, Clelles (Mont Aiguille region), and Nice. Various types of rail transport were used between each location. This provided a thematic set of variations ranging from the soft hum of the TGV train to the rattly and metallic shaking of the narrow-guage train. What follows is a commentary on the experience of the trip in general, along with descriptions of a few soundscape highlights. Charles de Gaulle SNCF Station, Monday August 4, ca. 9:30 am To start the journey, the group convened at a drop off point which overlooked the Charles de Gaulle SNCF Station. While waiting I looked down on the train platform through a succession of white steel arched beams. A glass roof covered the white beams. This added to the diffused and hazy acoustic character of the vast, arena-like, open air train station. Within this cloud of acoustic haziness came a strange musical interaction between the airplanes, trains, cars, and buses who all arrived and departed within earshot of our rendezvous point. One incident began with a prolonged cadence from a piece of Celtic-sounding accordion music playing over the PA system. After drifting into a thick cocoon of overlapping reverberations, the decay of the music drifted seamlessly into a gradually ascending glissando from a departing TGV train. As a bus pulled in and eventually obliterated the train's presence, the glissando was passed over to the bus and dipped downward as the bus came to a full stop. All of these arrivals and departures found a strange cohesive unity under the station's heavy blanket of reverberation. Later on, an airplane had pulled up just beyond the station. As soon as the plane turned ninety degrees away from me, the sound of its propellers or engine diminished considerably in loudness from being an enormous grimace of white noise down to a soft background murmur. This was certainly a very rare occasion, because it is not often you encounter a sound with so much directionality in an environment with such murky acoustics. Descent from Fourvière in Lyon. Monday August 4, ca. 11 pm. Around eleven o'clock that same evening, our group walked down the hillside in Lyon along what seemed like a never ending staircase. Reflections were very crisp. The ear could follow the music of these reflections with every step down the stone staircase; thanks to the remarkable absence of automobile roar from the city below. My body relished the crispness and clarity and activated the space with tongue clicks and finger snaps. The climax of the journey occurred near the bottom of the hill. A narrower space between the parallel stone walls produced very pronounced eigentones. I responded with a series of shouts and aahs to draw out the colour of the space. I noticed that by moving a couple of steps in any direction, the eigentones disappeared altogether. It was as if the area in which the eigentones occurred was a sort of invisible cone into which one could enter and indulge oneself acoustically. After leaving this phantom playground, the group segued slowly into the night time ambience of Lyon. Whereupon, the journey back to the hotel, through the narrow cobbled streets, drew to a gradual finish. Difficulties in Group Listening Complaints were raised that the sounds of the group were overtaking the listening journey. For instance, when travelling as a group in the train, there was always the temptation for individuals to talk with one another. This caused frustration for the recordists who kept picking up the same voices over and over. This also kept listeners from fully engaging in the soundscapes they inhabited. As Pierre Mariétan pointed out, "we are hearing the sounds of each other far too often."' It became apparent to us that much more self-discipline was required from each listener in a group situation, than what was perhaps necessary in a private context. Listening Privately in Mont Aiguille region. Tuesday August 5. The day in the mountains was a nice break from the previous experiences of the listening journey. At last I could listen on my own. I took a walk in the afternoon along a winding road in the quiet rural mountainside. Events in this soundscape passed by gently in the distance. Each event approached one respectfully in single file. By comparison, the previous soundscapes all clamoured and moaned with a multiplicity of events spilling out onto one from every possible direction. A few of us when up the mountain for a short soundwalk in the evening. Ray Gallon made an interesting comment about the crickets we heard in the field (or were they cicadas?). He said, "the fact that there is continuity in the sound is because there are lots of individuals out of phase with each other." What Ray called continuity I perceived as being a mass of unified vocal activity. Earlier that same evening during dinner I experienced a different texture of overlapping voices. This one however could not be qualified in the same way. I was among the first ones to arrive at dinner. Our tables were in a sectioned off area; the kind normally reserved for large groups. As everyone arrived one after the other, a long gradual crescendo in volume and density climbed upward for about 30 minutes. I didn't say very much that evening and concentrated more on the activity around me. I followed just one conversation at first. Then some moments later my attention was split between two conversations. Later still, I found myself listening to the two conversations in closest proximity, while sliding over occasionally to those that drifted in from other parts of the table. Finally, I was straining to take in just one conversation right in front of me, while fighting to tune out tempting snatches of hearsay, speculation, and laughter. It was never possible to step outside of the group and hear all the voices as one unified mass. I was enveloped inside the texture and lived and breathed with each player of the orchestra. Which meant that, unlike the sound of the crickets, I could distinguish unique characteristics of each individual voice and distribute various ones into different groupings. Only when I could walk away into an adjoining room could I ever start grouping the overlapping conversations into a unified mass of sound. But even then other factors would prevent me from experiencing them in this way. I would still distinguish differences in the timbre and register of each voice, not to mention any differences in contents of speech, tone of voice, gender, age, loudness, and so forth. Do the crickets actually experience something similar? Are the voices of their own group full of individual characters competing for attention, while the collective groupings of other animal species, such as humans, form a thick ball of uniform vocal activity? Seizing the Moment The listening journey on the whole was a very difficult challenge, because the notion of displacement and constant movement restrained the listening experience considerably. Many times we rushed to catch a train or make an appointment. Often during soundwalks there was no time to just stop and listen. A month after the listening journey I finally realized that the trip was actually orchestrated in the most realistic way possible. It became apparent to me that nine out of ten times the most interesting sounds in my soundscape were heard while I was in the midst of performing one task or another. Often these tasks revolved primarily around the use of vision, which I had always believed to hinder the extent which I could listen to the soundscape. Thus, the challenge of the journey was to keep the ear engaged in any type of everyday task, despite how straightforward or perplexing it might seem. But to meet this challenge the group had to put aside our preconceptions of what conditions were ideal for listening. Why, for example, ignore the soundscape on account of being stressed or preoccupied, when none of us probably never listened to the soundscape completely free of internalized social pressures? As an alternative, why could one not skip along the road briskly, perhaps late for work, while still being open and aware enough to catch the darting Doppler of a roaring fire engine. Likewise, as one walked through a tight narrow corridor between buildings, why could one not take a second to snap one's fingers and hear the flicker of echoes bouncing this way and that? Moments of discovery invariably await one on the most unsuspecting occasions. It was just a matter of "seizing the moment whenever it came", I have since realized that the key to seizing the moment existed all along inside a kernel of alert listening sensitivity. Every listener could access this kernel within him or herself; despite whatever distraction existed on the outside or on the inside. Our biggest limitation, in the end, was in letting the distractions stand between the soundscape and our listening. The journey provided me with a glowing illustration of how everyday social pressures build up in one, and occupy the junction that connects the ears with the imagination. The trip made it apparent that this junction should be kept free of any unnecessary clutter. It also reminded me of the discoveries which were possible only when the imagination was engaged in the activities of the present moment (rather than being preoccupied by the reminiscences of the past). It so happened that upon my return to Birmingham, the local soundscape rippled with a new fascination. A simple activity, such as water-sprinklers on the rugby field, could be dissected from many new angles as so much more detail became apparent. Perhaps this detail was evident because I had been away for a week. But then again, maybe it came to me because I had been reminded that I was virtually running from the sounds around me. Alas, I could listen around the issue of performing some menial task, which in this case was walking to the studio on campus. The underlying moral of the journey was that even when running to catch a train, one was never free, by extension, to run from the soundscape. The moment was always there latent with new possibilities. After all, the soundscape never fell silent when one was dashing for the train. Only the ears had fallen silent at that moment to create what was ultimately an illusion of silence. Thus, at whatever speed one had been travelling, moments lingered at the edge of the lobe. From there they awaited discovery and collection for future reflection and enhanced understanding. Darren Copeland, Birmingham, September 1997
phon mir aus phon mir aus: ein 1 Modell Ein Konzert für 7 Stimmen und 1 Chor, oder: die etwas andere, klingende Sightseeing-Tour in Vaduz: zum Selber-Erwandern, 6. September 1997. Ein gemeinsames Projekt, in Privatwohnungen und auf Strassen von Vaduz, Fürstentum Liechtenstein, von Hasena institut für (den) fliessenden kunstverkehr, Dalvazza GR und vom Verein Schichtwechsel, Schaan. Internet exhibition Leif Brush, art professor at the University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth MA has organized from october to decembre 1997 an exhibition via internet. He asked people to participate via WWW or by telephone. Information is available on www.d.umn.edu/~lbrush/projects.html ; eMail lbrush@d.umn.edu, fax +1 218 728-2561 Musica Scienza An event organized by Consiglio dei Ministri, Dipartimento dello Spettacolo, Ministero dei Beni Culturali and Comune di Roma, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Rom.
Polifonie urbane, 10 november 1997. Contact: CRM Centro Ricerche Musicali, via Lamarmora 18, I - 00185 Roma, fon +39 6 446-4161, fax -7911, eMail crm.it@usa.net, Homepage www.axnet.it/crm kLanguage Performances und Konzerte an der Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.
14. November 1997, Christophe Charles, Tokyo, Henning Christiansen, Dänemark: Mobile options actions-concert-soundscape Was unterscheidet das physiologische Hören, das schlichte Funktionieren des Ohres, vom Zuhören? Das war eine Frage, die am Symposium "Ganz Ohr", das der Hessischen Rundfunk im September 1997 in Kassel veranstaltete, angesprochen wurde. Und was ist Aufmerksamkeit, diese merkwürdige Fähigkeit, das Hören auf etwas "scharf zu stellen", die es vom blossen Wahrnehmen zum Zuhören macht? In Kassel ging es vier Tage lang um Zuhören, ein Wort aber mit scheinbar unendlich vielen Bedeutungen. Den Hessischen Rundfunk, wie die Medienschaffenden allgemein, interessierte daran wohl auch, wie denn die Zuhör-Bereitschaft einer Radiohörerschaft in der zunehmenden Konkurrenz gepflegt werden kann. Die Kulturwissenschaftler waren eher an den kulturellen Erscheinungsweisen des Zuhörens interessiert und an der Frage, ob Hören und Zuhören heute aus den verschiedenen Lebensbereichen eher zurückgedrängt werden oder nicht heimlich wieder im Vormarsch sind. Das Fazit vorweg: Das Echo auf das Symposium in Radio und Presse zeigte eine gewisse Verwirrung. Dichte und Flut des an vier Tagen Gehörten oder das Empfinden der enormen Zeitdisziplin, die die Veranstalter Referenten und Publikum auferlegt hatten, waren kaum allein der Grund dafür. Es scheint, dass Hören und gar Zuhören nicht zu den Sinnen gehört, mit denen ansonsten wache Journalisten besonders vertraut sind. Es gibt also noch sehr viel Arbeit fürs Zuhören zu leisten. Zeit fürs Zuhören Zuhören braucht Zeit: Gehört es demnach zu einer "langsameren" Welt, die im immer schneller drehenden Alltag verschüttet wird? Gerät das Zuhören in "Zeitnotstand", wie es der Wirtschaftspädagoge Prof. Karlheinz Geissler in seinem Beitrag formulierte? Er erinnerte daran, dass die Messung und Beherrschung der Zeit eine relativ junge, zuerst städtische und dann industriezeitliche Idee ist, die mit dem Eisenbahnzeitalter ihren entscheidenden Durchbruch erlebte. Viele Tätigkeiten in der Stadt und auf dem Land wurden früher und bis vor kurzem durch ein ihnen zugeordnetes Glockenzeichen gesteuert. Diese mächtigen Läutordnungen sind heute von der Taktung durch die Programmstrukturen der Medien abgelöst worden. Um diese mediale Zeitorientierung zu erhalten muss nicht mehr auf die Inhalte der Programme gehört werden, das Erkennen des Klang-Logos und der Klangteppichstruktur genügt. "Zappen" wird so unversehens zu einem Bestandteil des in den Beschleunigungssog geratenen Alltagslebens. Dr. Ekkehard Oehmichen, Medienforscher beim Hessischen Rundfunk, konstatiert bei den anspruchsvollen Radiohörern ein Wachsen vor allem der Ansprüche an "zeitsouveräne Nutzung" des Mediums: Obwohl es die Möglichkeit gebe, eine Sendung auf einen Tonträger aufzunehmen und zu einem selbstgewählten, von der Sendezeit unabhängigen Zeitpunkt abzuhören, "versendeten" sich viele Produktionen. Tatsächlich: Versuchen Sie einmal, Ihren Kassettenrecorder so zu programmieren, damit er eine bestimmte Radiosendung während Ihrer Abwesenheit korrekt aufnimmt. Der riesige Markt der Kinder-Tonbandkassetten, bedient tatsächlich "zeitsouverände" Nutzer, denn Kinder hören sie völlig unabhängig von Programm-Zeitstrukturen. Die Freiburger Medienpädagogin Sylvia Näger berichtete, dass hier allerdings die auf Minimalniveau standardisierten Serien, das Feld beherrschten, Märchenersatz, Babysittersatz, Elternersatz... Sollte Zuhören also von Kindheit an gelernt werden müssen? Müsste es nun etwa gelehrt werden, da die elterlichen Instanzen, die dem Kind das Zuhörenkönnen (und beiläufig das Gehorchenmüssen) bisher scheinbar so nebenbei mitgegeben haben, sich verflüchtigt haben? Sylvia Näger führte überzeugende Beispiele vor, wie Kinder aktiv und fantasiereich Hörspiele produzieren. Man erinnert sich, dass es ohne die Rede, der zugehört wird, kein Zuhören geben kann: Selbst produzierend aktiv werden heisst, den Einbahnkanal der elektroakustischen Übermittlung kompensieren. Befreiendes Zuhören Laut der Betriebsärztin Dr. Susanne Bohner gibt es noch viel mehr zu kompensieren, als das, was in den Frequenzkanälen des Äthers läuft. Ihr Problem als Verantwortliche für Gehörprophylaxe am Ort des Geschehens in Industriebetrieben war, das Verantwortungsbewusstsein der von grossem Lärmdruck betroffenen Angestellten für ihr Gehör nicht mit Argumenten für den Lärmschutz zu "erschlagen", sondern durch Sinneserfahrung zu wecken. In einer leerstehenden Industriehalle wurden aus Klangkörpern aus ganz gewöhnlichen Materialien und Gegenständen Instrumente, die eine Art von chaotischer Industriemusik erzeugten. Diese Klänge, einmal von der Notwendigkeit der Produktionsabläufe gelöst, hätten vielen buchstäblich die Ohren geöffnet. Ein Angestellter kommentierte rückblickend: "Wenn ich jetzt ein Furnier vom Stapel nehme, klingt das ganz anders als vorher". Wo das Zuhören aktiv wird, war schon die halbe Arbeit der Prävention erfolgreich. Der ungern getragene Gehörschutz symbolisiert die Unfreiheit des Hörens und sich Bewegens. Das Zuhören hat also nicht nur die Richtungen, in die es sich selber bewegt, in die es seine Aufmerksamkeit lenkt, sondern auch die Richtungen, aus denen es motiviert, angetrieben und gelenkt wird. Der Hörpsychologe Prof. Hans-Peter Reinecke unterschied in diesem Sinne zwischen "Zuhören-Wollen", das von Neugier genährt wird; das "Zuhören-Sollen", das der Stimme der Autorität gehorcht; das "Zuhören-Müssen", dem der unfreie Reflex der Reaktion auf eine Gefahr zugrundeliegt; alle drei setzen das "Zuhören-Können" voraus, ob gelingend oder nicht."Zuhören-Können" ist eigentlich die "Kunst des Hörens", die mit der Entstehung des Rundfunks erfuhr die Idee eine euphorische Wendung erfuhr: Rudolf Arnheim pries den Rundfunk 1933 als das "grosse Wunder". Wie zweischneidig und für Missbrauch geeignet das "grosse Wunder" Rundfunk (Rudolf Arnheim, 1933) war und ist, zeigte die Kulturwissenschaftlerin Claudia Schmölders an Beispielen aus dem Dritten Reich, die einen beinahe frösteln machten. Etwas pessimistisch klang ihr von den dreissiger Jahren in die Jetztzeit hinüberführendes Fazit: "Vermutlich ist das Gehör sogar anfälliger für solchen Missbrauch als das Auge, welches schon immer mit der Aufklärung paktiert hat und umgekehrt. (...) Die entrückten Tänzer der Love Parade lauschen nicht, sie gehorchen der Musik." Wo ein Dialog fehle, an dem beide Seiten gleich aktiv beteiligt sind und die gleiche, demokratische Regeln beachteten, sei ein wirkliches Zuhören nicht realisierbar. Körperliche Zuhörer Wenn wir ganz Ohr sind, sind wir nicht geometrische Punkte, sondern ganz Körper. Auf diese selbstverständliche, aber beständig verdrängte Tatsache wies die Kulturwissenschaftlerin Ute Bechdolf hin: Wir nennen aufmerksames Zuhören oft "gespannt", womit wir auf etwas im Tonus des Körpers Erfahrenes Bezug nehmen. Still sitzend zuhören sei eine neue, westlich-bürgerlich Übung der Disziplin für andere Zeiten und andere Kulturen ist Höraufmerksamkeit ohne äussere und innere Bewegung undenkbar. Im zweiten Abendprogramm des Symposiums wurde ein Gehörgang in eine solche Welt aufgestossen: Der algerische Regisseur und Erzähler Saddek Kebir schlug sein Publikum während eineinhalb Stunden in den Bann, als er, in der bis auf den letzten Platz belegten Zuhörbar auf und ab gehend und gestikulierend, die Einleitung zu Scheherazades Geschichte erzählte und schon "nichts als die Einleitung" füllte ein Universum. Arbeit an der Höraufmerksamkeit Mit der aktiven Anwesenheit wurde gerechnet, wenn man an einem der vier Workshops teilnahm, die jeweils am Vorabend eines jeden Symposiumtags stattfanden. Die amerikanische Komponistin Pauline Oliveros forderte von ihren Workshopteilnehmern, unter die Haut ihrer eigenen Gegenwart zu horchen, wofür sie den Begriff des "Tiefen Zuhörens" (deep listening) hat. Durch ein meditatives Ausloten der eigenen Hörhaltungen sollten taube Flecken oder Vorurteile im eigenen Zuhören aufgehoben und durch produktivere Kräfte ersetzt werden. Die kanadisch-deutsche Komponistin Hildegard Westerkamp verfolgte in ihrem Workshop ein ähnliches Ziel mit etwas anderen Mitteln. Mit elektroakustischen Beispielen leitete sie ihre Leute zu einem aufmerksamen und kompromisslosen Zuhören an, das ein Auftauchen aus der Stille statt eines Eintauchens in Dröhnung ist. Bei ihr war denn auch der Ort, wo einem klar werden konnte, wofür ein Klangarchiv dienen könnte: zur Sensibilisierung. Der Radioregisseur Helge Heynold beschritt mit seinen Workshop-Teilnehmern den Weg der radiophonischen Produktion, um anschaulich zu machen, zu welchen Hörprodukten akustische Vorgaben am Ende der technischen Produktionskette werden: der Regler am Mischpult kann das Signal verbessern, aber nicht den Sinn. Der Berichtende leitete seine Workshopteilnehmer an, in einer Reihe von Hörspaziergängen die aufs erste Hinhören hin banale Umgebung des Studios Kassel des Hessischen Rundfunks zu erkunden. Im Gehen ist das Hören bewegt, was seiner Natur entspricht, und im schweigenden Schreiten wächst die Aufmerksamkeit gewissermassen zu den Ohren heraus und gestaltet die Wahrnehmung der Umweltklänge neu. Am aktivsten umweltbezogen war jene Übung, bei der es galt, stummen Objekten am Weg Geländern, Pfosten, Kästen durch Anschlagen ihren Klang zu entlocken: Einige Kinder waren so unmittelbar davon angesprochen, was diese Erwachsenen da taten, dass sie sich begeistert anschlossen. Justin Winkler, Colombier
Der Hessische Rundfunk möchte es bei der Förderung des Zuhörens nicht mit dem Symposium sein lassen. Intendant Prof. Klaus Berg kündete die Gründung einer "Stiftung für das Zuhören" an. Eine Gesellschaft, deren Mitgliedschaft jedem offensteht, soll die Stiftung vorbereiten. Interessierte wenden sich an: Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Zuhörens e.V., Hessischer Rundfunk, Projektbüro "Ganz Ohr", 60222 Frankfurt/Main; Fax 069 155-4038, E-Mail lfranz@hr-online.de
Books for Teachers, Parents, and Adolescents (Part II) Hull, John M. Touching The Rock: An Experience of Blindness. New York: Vintage Books. 1992 (Traduction française : Le chemin vers la nuit. Devenir aveugle et réapprendre à vivre. Paris: Laffont 1995.) John Hull could once see the world around him. But an illness gradually took his sight away. His story is told in an illuminating book about listening to the soundscape. He effectively describes having to learn to listen and through listening discovers the unique qualities of the soundscape in which we all live. Schafer, R. Murray. A Sound Education. Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1992 Schafer was the director of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University in the 1970's and is recognized not only as an exceptional Canadian composer, but one of the principle authors on sound and environment. In this book he provides teachers with 100 listening projects to do with students. All of these ear training exercises enhance the ability to listen to sound with an ever more critical ear. Schafer, R. Murray. Voices of Tyranny Temples of Silence. Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions, 1993 In this follow-up book to his classic 1977 book, The Tuning Of The World, Schafer continues to explore acoustic space. Of particular interest is his discussion about the "Glazed Soundscape". He notes in this section of the book that we live most of our lives in houses and buildings and look out through glazed windows at the world beyond. It is a world we can see, but not hear unless we throw open the window and let the sound inside. Unfortunately, we have permitted a noise based environment to be created beyond those windows. It is one few would want to let inside their home or workplace. Schafer, R. Murray. The Tuning Of The World: The Soundscape. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977 Recently re-published by Arcana Editions, Indian River, Ontario The classic book on acoustic ecology. Schafer explores and documents the work of the World Soundscape Project which lasted several years at Simon Fraser University. What once began as a research effort related to noise abatement, it soon turned into a study of the ecology of sound. How sound effects all living organisms, the history of sound in culture, and how we might give consideration to orchestrating our world environment is explored in this book of interest to sociologists, scientists, and artists. Educators must read this book in order to fully understand the potential for studying the acoustical ecology in which we all live. Gary Ferrington
Save Our Senses Netzwerk Im Dezember 1997 ist die Null-Nummer der Save Our Senses Netzwerk Nachrichten erschienen, die vom SOSN herausgegeben werden. Die Redaktion besorgen Jeffrey Barnum, Annett Müller und Gerlinde Prasch. Darin kann unter anderem die im Juli 1996 gefasste Erklärung von Borl "Zum Schutz der Sinne des Menschen" nachgelesen werden. Redaktionsanschrift: SOSN, Wilhelm-Barkhoff-Institut, Weidkampsheide 17, D - 30659 Hannover; fon +49 511 647-590, fax -8673, eMail (attn. SOSN) elias@by-mediaart.com Pfeifen im Walde
Ein unvollständiges Handbuch zur Phänomenologie des Pfeifens. Herausgegeben von Volker Straebel und Matthias Osterwold, in Verbindung mit Nicolas Collins, Valerian Maly, Elke Moltecht. Podewil 1994. SoundScapeDesign von Hans Ulrich Werner und die Insertionisten. Buch mit CD, Akroama 1997, 504 Seiten. ISBN 3-9520335-2-9, DEM 58 / CHF 49. Bestellungen an: Akroama, Hammerstrasse 14, CH - 4058 Basel, Fax +41 61 691 0064 People "The questions of the survival, of our responsibility for, and the interpretation of our environment have haunted me for the last few years and have incited me to compose pieces where both the subject and material are the acoustic environment. The evocative nature of recorded soundscapes fascinate me environmentally, musically and spiritually. I consider myself a child of the acoustic ecology ideology developed by R. Murray Schafer and the World Soundscape Project, including the notion that artists can help design a more imaginative and balanced soundscape." Claude Schryer's professional activities are principally in the fields of electroacoustics, interdisciplinary production, acoustic ecology and the media arts. As a composer he was awarded 1st Prize (documentary section) at the 6th Phonurgia Nova International Radio Art Competition (France, 1996), and the Prix de la creation radiophonique of Radio-Canada 1996 for "Autour d'une musique portuaire".
Os sons que fazen a sinfonia do Rio Selva de ruído em Copacabana, montanhas de burburinho na Tijuca, mananciais de tranqüilidade no Jardim Botânico: pelas ruas do Rio, um gruop de crianças e adolescentes está desbravandoa paisagem sonora da cidade. Capturados por um gravador digital, ser~ao parte de uma sinfonia sobre o Rio de Janeiro, composta pelos alunos da escola de artes Espaço Cultural Tocando em Você. Clarice Lispector descreveu: "Ao seu redor haviam ruídos serenos, cheiro de árvores, pequenas surpresas entre cípos. Todo o jardim triturado pelos instates jamais apressados da tarde. (...) Como porum zunido de abelhas a aves.." Num texto que fará parte de uma exposiç~ao de lançamento do CD. No passeio, os meninos descobiram que no Jardim criado por D. Jo~ao VI faltam canteiros de silêncio. A intenç~ao é afiar os ouvidos dos meninos. O professor Gilvan Melo pede silêncio al grupo, uma trupe alegre que inclui desde garot~oes de 16 anos a piralhinhos de quatro, incluindo crianças com síndrome de Down. Agora, eles percorrem o jardim, procurando sons como se fossem moedas na areia. O passeio termina num lanche à beira do lago das vitórias régioas, onde elem aprendem um pouco sobre a história do Jardim Botânico e do próximo bairro escolhido para traçar o relevo dos ruídos cariocas: a selva sonora e Copacabana. O resultado poderá ser conferido num CD programado para este ano, em que será gravado uma sinfonia pontuada pelos sons da cidade e composta pelos próprios estudantes. Anabela Paiva, em Jornal di Brasíl, 6 de junho de 1997 The sounds that make Rio a symphony A CD of the Tocando em Você project "Rio - a city symphony" will be published by Fanstastico Editores and distributed by Globo News. A campaign about the quality of the urban soundscape follows the project. There is the intention to create a handbook and children plays on this topic. Contact: Prof. Simone Colucci, Espaço Tocando em Você - EDUCART, Projet Sinfonia Urbana, Rua General Roca, 1518, Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro; fon +55 21-5674378. Consult also www.arsnova.net/sinfonia Gesellschaftslärm Am jährlich stattfindenden Schweizerischen Juristentag des Schweizerischen Juristenvereins musste unter anderem eine vereinsinterne "Initiative zur Sicherung der sozialen Funktion des Juristentags" behandelt werden. Die Initianten verlangten, dass die Lautstärke der Tanz- und Tafelmusik während des gesellschaftlichen Teils des Juristentags auf ein absolutes Maximum von 65 dB(A) beschränkt werde. Die Musiker müssten andernfalls mit dem Verlust ihrer Gagen bestraft werden. Die Initiative soll mit grossem Mehr zugunsten eines weniger drastischen Gegenvorschlags des Vorstandes abgelehnt worden sein. Wie Schafer zeigen konnte, entstehen beim Bewusstwerden von Lärmproblemen erst einmal kuriose Regelungsversuche; es ist zu hoffen, dass das berichtete Ereignis tatsächlich auf einen Bewusstwerdungsprozess hinweist. Quelle: Neue Zürcher Zeitung 225 vom 29.9. 1997 Noise on Mars "It may have been the noise the thing made that caught your attention; although the Martian atmosphere is spent and shredded, it's not too tenuous to carry sound." Jeffrey Kluger about the landing of Pathfinder/Sojourner on Mars, July 4, 1997. (Uncovering the secrets of Mars, Time 150(2), 40ss.) Alarms Help Stop Nets Catching Porpoises reuter. Acoustic alarms attached to fishing nets can prevent porpoises from getting caught in them and drowning. Scott Kraus of the New England Aquarium in Boston and a team of marine scientists said the effect of warning devices designed to protect marine mammals was enormous. Scientists have thought that alarms on fishing nets might help save dolphins and porpoises, which use sound to navigate and hunt. But the theory has not been widely tested. Kraus' team recruited fishermen to test their alarms. Between 18 October and 15 December 1994, 15 commercial sink gill-net fishers from the coast of New Hampshire and southern Maine took part in the experiment. Some of the nets were equipped with acoustic alarms that sounded as soon as they hit salt water while others were fitted with devices that looked exactly the same but emitted no sound. Two porpoises were caught in the nets using the alarms while 25 were caught in nets carrying silent devices. British Bird's and Wildlife Sounds The National Sound Archive of the British Library (Nsa) occasionally issues its own audio publications. It is a wide-ranging selection, which includes contemporary poetry and literature, the oral history reminiscences of steel workers and holocaust survivors, and in particular an important series of CD and cassettes drawn from the wildlife sound collection. In 1992 the Nsa released the British bird sounds on CD (NA C7, £5.99, More British bird sounds NAC9, £ 5.99). Comprising high quality recordings of common bird species in close up, it has become a highly-valued identification tool for bird watchers. Now NSA is releasing the CD set Wild Britain, issued on two CD with a 12-page booklet (NS CD6/7, £ 24.95, postage and packing included). Rainforest Requiem is a double CD (CD1/2, £ 27.00). Order: Publication Order, British Library, National Sound Archive, 29 Exhibition Road, London SW7 2A, U.K., prepaid with cheque made payable to the British Library, National Sound Archive. Le son comme élément fondateur en Afrique Le son peut alors être considéré comme l'élément fondateur dans les ces sociétés africaines traditionnelles. Et à ce titre, il bénéficiait de respect et d'adoration. Ce qui explique les multiples précautions quant à sa création et son utilisation. C'est peut-être là le secret de l'équilibre sonore dans les sociétés africaines traditionnelles. Le son devenu rythme Le son dans son aspect utilitaire est moyen de communication (le son devenu rythme). Le tam-tam était l'unique moyen de communication à grande échelle entre les individus d'une même communauté. Chaque son, chaque rythme portait un message clair. On comprend alors mieux le sens de la thèse qui veut que les limites des villages africains étaient fixées aux derniers points où le son du tam-tam est encore audible. Le tambour sacré, chez les Serère (ethnie du centre ouest du Sénégal), obéissait à des règles de fabrication mystiques et ne servait qu'à livrer des nouvelles hautement graves : la mort d'un chef, etc. Chez les femmes Wolof (ethnie dont la langue est la première langue nationale sénégalaise), la pratique du "kandangue" était de mise en particulier entre co-épouses (des femmes qui ont le même mari). Cette pratique consistait à faire du son des instruments qui servaient à piler le mil, des paroles, des messages. Elles se parlaient ainsi, s'échangeaient des politesses entre co-épouses, et l'adversité était alors gérée avec élégance et discrétion entre femmes. La dimension mystique du son Dans le Bafoulabé (frontière entre le Sénégal et le Mali, en bordure du fleuve Sénégal), tous ceux qui jouaient les instruments à cordes étaient exposés à la colère du génie du fleuve. Seul ceux qui sortaient victorieux de la confrontation avec le génie étaient consacrés "Djély" (maître musicien) car, ainsi dompté, le génie lui livrait le secret des instruments. Chez les Walo-Walo (ethnie dans la région Nord du Sénégal, la région du fleuve), les pêcheurs pratiquaient le "Djate". Il consistait à psalmodier des paroles ésotériques qui permettaient d'entrer en communication avec un crocodile dans le fleuve afin de le faire sortir. Par le "même procédé", les Walo-Walo parlaient aux lions et parvenaient à leurs faire faire tout ce qu'ils voulaient. Cette pratique a donné naissance au "Simbe" (jeux de "faux-lion"), séances publiques encore existants. Les serpents n'étaient pas en reste dans ces pratiques propres aux Walo-Walo. A ces occasions, la parole était articulée avec un débit et des techniques vocales qui en faisaient un rythme: une somme de sons. Une adaptation esthétique de cette façon d'utiliser le verbe a donné naissance à une manière de chanter chez les Wolof qui s'appelle le "Tassou" (on dit que le Rap, cette "musique" bien connue des américains, viendrait de ce "Tassou".) Les Lébous (ethnie de la région du Cap-Vert, région de Dakar) pratiquaient le "Ndeup": séance publique d'exorcisme qui fait recours à la musico-thérapie occulte. Le "Ndeup" est un mélange de rythmes faits de son de tam-tam et de paroles, ésotériques psalmadies. Et ce "cocktail" permettait de guérir le malade possédé par un esprit maléfique. Le paradoxe avec ces cérémonies est que ces mêmes sons qui guérissent le malade font entrer dans un état de "possédé" tous ceux qui sont susceptibles d'être habité par le même génie. Il suffit pour cela simplement que les sons leurs parviennent où qu'ils se trouvent par rapport au lieu où se fait la séance du "Ndeup". D'où un contenu particulier à la notion d'environnement sonore dans ces sociétés. Temps modernes Résultats d'enquêtes menées auprès de: Mme Fatou Seck (ma mère bien aimée), traditionaliste. A l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Université Cheikh Anta Diop (IFAN-CAD). Du Docteur Moustapha SENE, Docteur en Anthropologie Culturelle. Le contexte actuel en Afrique est marqué par un bouleversement de tous les systèmes d'organisation et pratiques traditionnelles. L'urbanisation a fini de signer la fin de cet équilibre (dont on a essayé de démontrer les fondaments) et inaugure l'ère des nuisances et autre pollution sonore dont les incidences négatives sur la santé et la qualité de vie n'est plus à démontrer. En Afrique, la configuration des habitations dans les villes défie toute norme architecturale et par ricochet, tous soucis de création des conditions visant l'équilibre en matière de son. La conscience environnementale sonore a du mal à émerger dans ce contexte. Des raisons d'ordre culturels peuvent expliquer cela. On peut en citer entre autres la vision communautaire dont l'expression première est l'obligation, le devoir de tolérance. Mais, de plus en plus les questions liées à l'écologie sonore entrent dans les préoccupations des populations en Afrique. La question est d'actualité et pose son rapport à des éléments de culture incompatibles au contexte de modernité. Abdoul Aziz Sall, BP 15453 Dakar-Fann, Sénégal Octobre 1997 Sound as fundamental element of African culture The author explains the function of sound in the African cultural context. He mentions the spatially relevant language of the drums. Other instruments were used for communication with the spirits of the environing nature, Here also singing is a manner to dialogue with animals or natural forces. Modern urbanization puts an end to the sonic entity of nature and culture: hence awareness and sensibility for environmental issues are at stakes. Acoustic Ecology for Film Students at New York University More than a decade has passed since that seductively noise-muting snowy day in Manhattan when the then Head of the New York University Film School, Charles Milne invited me to join the faculty, confessing a kind of desperation to find someone who could "do something about the sound in the students' films", which had apparently just been identified at a faculty retreat as a major problem area. Interior locations were coming out inadvertently scored for refrigerator hums and the rattle of adjacent elevators because nobody in the crew heard them, or assumed that the very hyupercardiod "shotgun" mic wouldn't. Exteriors had everything from freeway rumble and airplanes to power lines and gas pumps where they weren't supposed to be. No news any of this to Soundscape sojourners its one helluva sound polluted planet alright. But it was a rude awakening for determined but inexperienced young directors and cinematographers (at that time the students rarely chose for sound recordist). I had two things to offer, each of them eccentric from the point of view of the "normal" approach to production sound in film (get a very directional mic in as close as possible and keep the damned thing out of the way): The first was a background in radio drama, that lost and now buried art in America, and a conviction that working at acoustic theatre, and its necessity of envisioning and conveying information sonically was not only a great proving ground for getting the heft of speech into scripted dialogue; it also trained the ears like nothing else on the planet. In recording and editing sessions did we ever listen like mad to every nuance, click, pop, rattle, pause, etc. In production sessions did we ever pride ourselves on the subtle layerings and textures of the washes of sounds out of which we built the drama. The second was earfulls and filefulls of sound studies and polemics coming out of this totally crazed composer, R. Murray Schafer, then living in Vancouver, who got me to realize that my ears didn't go off when I got out of the studio, that the soundscape, like the city, was an artefact not a given, and whose stuff I put on the air [KPFK in Los Angeles, early 1970's] whenever I could got my hands on it. There have been many things done to cause considerable improvement in the sound in student films at NYU over the last decade, some of them technical, and not all of them by me. If my eccentricities had any concrete or demonstrable influence, they can be traced to having generated a more-or-less theoretical, or at least experiential and contemplative, course entitled "Art of Sound" to help students explore the world with their ears and to develop a context and a vocabulary for coping with what they found out. If this could be done, I persuaded myself, production sound would take care of itself. Well, not quite. The first half of the course derives from Schafer and Arnheim and others (with Tuning of the World back in print, they can now read it). Students keep, and share, listening journals and "collect" dead sounds, archetypal sounds, keynote sounds, etc. After an excursion into language oral and/vs. written (more or less out of McLuhan and Walter Ong) I spend a lot of time on the evolution of the soundscape in technology in general and electronic technology in particular. It starts with various attempts to bottle (store and retrieve), amplify, and distribute (broadcast) sound; moving inexorably through the technology and the radio and recording industries into their being swallowed and digested or, more accurately, indigested into the revolution in film that my mother still calls "the talkies". In the final weeks of the course we look at a lot of films and try to apply the soundscape studies to an analysis of their sound tracks always with the not-so-unspoken subtext: when you find a good idea for the use of sound in film, steal it. This little preface gets written because I'm finally honoring an ancient promise to send off some of the course materials to the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. Probably too much to print in the Newsletter, but feel free to excerpt; and be happy to forward to anyone writing to ask; or zap it via the e-mail address shown below. No, sorry, not yet available on the world wide web. Everett Frost Contact and course syllabus: Department of Television and Film, Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway Room 945, New York University, New York, New York 10003 USA eMail: frost@is2.nyu.edu
Silent Night It is warm and sunny here in Udaipur today. As I write this, I am sitting on a rooftop terrace looking at the town's magnificent palace, the labyrinthine streets and the surrounding mountains. I hear the usual hustling, bustling Indian soundscape: always autorickshaws, cars, scooters, always horn honking, always music from somewhere (live ot through tinny, distorting speakers), people's voices everywhere in traffic-free pauses, hammering, sweeping, a hawker calling out his darty wares, some metal clanking, shutter opening, metal gate squeaking, drumming from the nearby temple, occasional chanting, a bicycle bell... A busy, bustling place which never really quietens down before midnight and then begins again before sunrise. Voices are always reverberant in tiled environments, buildings always acting as amplifiers and resonators, inside and outside, crows', parrots', songbirds' calls always present and suddenly a resonant Moooo from one of the cows moving aimlessly like tourists through the streets; or a loud protesting voice from one of the donkeys being herded to a construction site to pick up for the umptiest time a heavy load of sand. A small temple bell rings, sounding more like a blacksmith's hammer hitting an anvil. A cricket is singing somewhere nearby. A camel, carrying two tourists from nowhere to nowhere, is passing below, its bell tinkling. This is the season of weddings in India. Last night we witnessed a glittering, rich version from this same rooftop terrace. Some relative of the Maharadja of Udaipur was getting married. Musical sounds floated up to us from where the guests were gathering to receive the bridegroom. Gradually distant band sounds mingled with the music below: drums, trumpets and euphoniums were approaching from our left, getting louder and at times covering up the other music. We can see the band now, a whole procession of instruments, lights and poeple accompanying the bridegroom who is arriving on a magnificently decorated elephant. A servant on the seat behind is silently fanning the bridegroom with some exotic bird feathers to keep the mosquitoes away. A majestic scene, but the music sounds just as raunchy as at any ordinary Indian wedding. On the street below another small procession of uniformed musicians enters the already dense musical soundscape with its own strangely incoherent wedding band sound and disappears again around the next corner. Later another wedding procession announces itself with explosions from friendly firecrackers, two glittering bridegrooms on horseback and huge musical clamour. This time there is no live band. Instead, one of those loudspeaker-carts (a portable Indian-style amplification system) is pushed through the streets and blasts a similarly raunchy music with maximum reverb, in tandem with the live band still playing at the other wedding. I think of Charles Ives' music as I hear this. Cars, scooters, autorickshaws are not deterred and squeeze past the procession honking their way through the music-filled street. The generator for the bright lights, wheeled along on a cart to illuminate the two bridegrooms, provide a loud, percussive bass ostinato to the whole scene. In the middle of all this, as if there was still room for more sounds, we suddenly hear electronic fragments of "Silent Night". The source: a small passenger car. Every time the driver puts the car into reverse gear, this electronic signal is turned on, continuing the tune of "Silent Night" wherever it had stopped the last time he drove backwards. As the driver manoeuvered the car back and forth, back and forth in a small alleyway, we have the pleasure for several minutes of hearing "Silent Night" ripped into small, sonic shreds.
Hildegard Westerkamp, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
The New Soundscape Newsletter
Editor's Address
Production
Subscription rates / Abonnement-cotisation / Abonnement-Mitgliedschaft
How to become member? / Comment devenir membre ? / Wie werde ich Mitglied ?
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