Pauline OLIVEROS (Kingston NY, 1995)
"Sound surrounds us. We are sound inside and we resonate with the soundscape
even if we are not listening."
"Sound surrounds us. We are sound inside and we resonate with the soundscape
even if we are not listening."
MusicAnd Sound Trip #4
GUEST: HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP
Teacher of Sound Ecology (Vancouver, Canada)
SOUND WALK
"I hear the soundscape as a language with which places and societies express themselves. In the face of rampant noise pollution, I want to be understanding and caring of this 'language' and how it is 'spoken'." Hildegard WESTERKAMP
PRACTICE by Andra McCARTNEY
PRACTICE by Andra McCARTNEY
Go out and listen. Choose an acoustic environment which in your opinion sets a good base for your environmental compositions ... What kinds of rhythms does it contain, what kinds of pitches, how many continuous sounds, how many and what kinds of discrete sounds, etc. Which sounds can you produce that add to the quality of the environmental music? Create a dialogue and thereby lift the environmental sounds out of their context into the context of your composition, and in turn make your sounds a natural part of the music around you. Is it possible?
Start by listening to the sounds of your body while moving. They are closest to you and establish the first dialogue between you and the environment. If you can hear even the quietest of these sounds you are moving through an environment which is scaled on human proportions. In other words, with your voice or your footsteps for instance, you are "talking" to your environment which then in turn responds by giving your sounds a specific acoustic quality.
Try to move
Without making any sound.
Is it possible?
Which is
the quietest sound of your body?
(If, however, the sounds you yourself produce are lost in the ambient noise of your surroundings you experience a soundscape which is out of balance. Human proportions have been disregarded here. Not only is your voice inaudible but your ear also is assaulted by a multitude of loud and chaotic noises.)
Lead your ears away from your own sounds and listen to the sounds nearby.
What do you hear? (Make a list)
What else do you hear?
Other people
Nature sounds
Mechanical sounds
How many
Continuoussoundscontinuoussoundscontinuoussoundscontinuoussoundscontinuoussounds
Can you detect
Interesting rhythms
Regular beats
The highest
The lowest pitch.
Do you hear any
I . n . t . e . r . m . i . t . t . e . n . t . o r . d . i . s . c . r . e . t . e . s . o . u . n . d . s
Rustles
Bangs
Swishes
Thuds
What are the sources of the different sounds?
What else do you hear?
Lead your ears away from these sounds and listen
beyond .... into the distance
What is the quietest sound?
What else do you hear?
What else?
What else? what else?
So far you have isolated sounds from each other and gotten to know them as individual entities. But each one of them is part of a bigger environmental composition. Therefore reassemble them all and listen to them as if you are listening to a piece of music played by many different instruments. Be critical and judge if you like what you hear.
Pick out the sounds you like the most and create the ideal soundscape in the context of your present surroundings. What would be its main characteristics? Is it just an idealistic dream or could it be made a reality in our modern society?
© Hildegard WESTERKAMP
Start by listening to the sounds of your body while moving. They are closest to you and establish the first dialogue between you and the environment. If you can hear even the quietest of these sounds you are moving through an environment which is scaled on human proportions. In other words, with your voice or your footsteps for instance, you are "talking" to your environment which then in turn responds by giving your sounds a specific acoustic quality.
Try to move
Without making any sound.
Is it possible?
Which is
the quietest sound of your body?
(If, however, the sounds you yourself produce are lost in the ambient noise of your surroundings you experience a soundscape which is out of balance. Human proportions have been disregarded here. Not only is your voice inaudible but your ear also is assaulted by a multitude of loud and chaotic noises.)
Lead your ears away from your own sounds and listen to the sounds nearby.
What do you hear? (Make a list)
What else do you hear?
Other people
Nature sounds
Mechanical sounds
How many
Continuoussoundscontinuoussoundscontinuoussoundscontinuoussoundscontinuoussounds
Can you detect
Interesting rhythms
Regular beats
The highest
The lowest pitch.
Do you hear any
I . n . t . e . r . m . i . t . t . e . n . t . o r . d . i . s . c . r . e . t . e . s . o . u . n . d . s
Rustles
Bangs
Swishes
Thuds
What are the sources of the different sounds?
What else do you hear?
Lead your ears away from these sounds and listen
beyond .... into the distance
What is the quietest sound?
What else do you hear?
What else?
What else? what else?
So far you have isolated sounds from each other and gotten to know them as individual entities. But each one of them is part of a bigger environmental composition. Therefore reassemble them all and listen to them as if you are listening to a piece of music played by many different instruments. Be critical and judge if you like what you hear.
Pick out the sounds you like the most and create the ideal soundscape in the context of your present surroundings. What would be its main characteristics? Is it just an idealistic dream or could it be made a reality in our modern society?
© Hildegard WESTERKAMP
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