the listening project

[I apologize for the delay. Apparently, weeks go by really slowly in my world. Let's get back on track.]

A Sound Education, R. Murray Schafer. Exercise 6:

A real life situation with many moving sounds would be a street corner. We might go there and stand quietly for a few moments with eyes closed, listening to all the sound movements. If we have chosen a busy street corner most of the sounds we hear will be close to us, often frighteningly so. If our street corner is less busy we will hear more distant sounds.

Thus we discover the soundscape expands or shinks according to the amount of activity in it. This is generally true for vision also. Tall buildings limit our view to a few meters, while in the country we can see and hear over great distances.

Listen out for the most distant sound you can hear. What is it? Can you estimate its distance from you?

As people have moved to cities over the past centry, they have developed a preference for close-up sounds, as is evident in the recording and broadcasting industries. One might almost say we have lost the ability to hear at a distance. But sounds heard this way have a special charm, and it would be good to contrast the experience of listening on a busy street corner with that in an open environment.

This exercise connects nicely to the previous ones, which focus on moving sounds. Here, however, Schafer asks us to consider our relationship to sounds in terms of distance.

Suggestions for reflection and discussion:

About how far away is the farthest sound you can hear on your street corner? How does your chosen location impact this distance? Do you agree with Schafer that it is harder to hear sounds that are far away in busy locations? (One scenario I can imagine is a siren moving throughout a large city; even though the block could be relatively busy, you may still be able to hear the siren from far away. In a small town, it may be less likely to be able to hear something from far away just because there are fewer loud noises.)

Do you find that you prefer close sounds? Are you bothered by far-away sounds that you can't make out clearly?

A Sound Education, R. Murray Schafer. Exercise 4:

Some sounds move past you and some remain stationary as you move past them. And then some move with you as you move. The exercise might begin by considering examples in each category. For instance: Stationary Sounds: church bells, factory whistles, heating & ventilation systems Moving Sounds: traffic, aircraft, birdsSounds You Move: your voice, your footsteps, your clothing & jewellery, your car or bicycle When sounds move they change character. I often try to illustrate this by having the group listen, with eyes closed, to the variations in my voice as I stroll about. (There will be many exercises to be performed with closed eyes in this collection, and students should get used to the idea from the beginning.)

Schafer follows this text with an exercise that can be performed in a group: have someone walk around the room, speaking or making some other kind of noise, while the rest of the group sits with eyes closed and focuses on the changes in the sound of the speaker's voice. This is of course difficult to reproduce in individual practice, but it's certainly something to experiment with if you have a few friends who wouldn't mind trying it out.

Suggestions for reflection and discussion:

When can these different categories overlap? Can you think of instances in which a sound could be stationary to one listener, but mobile to another?

How does sound change when it moves? If you don't have anyone to help you with Schafer's suggested exercise, you could go to a public place and practice tracking sounds. What information can you tell about a sound as it moves?

An acousmatic sound is one that you can hear without seeing the source of its production. This term was first used by the founder of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer, who believed that a true acousmatic listening experience is one in which the listener concentrates on the qualities of individual sounds rather than their means of production. What can you tell about sounds without seeing their sources? Do you find yourself making assumptions about the sounds you hear without having to see how they are made? Would anything be gained (or lost?) by focusing on the sounds themselves rather than making conjectures about the means by which they are produced?

A few housekeeping notes before I post the second week's exercise:

I'm a day late this week, if anyone was keeping track, but from here on out I'm resolving to have a new exercise to think about posted every Monday.

A Sound Education, R. Murray Schafer. Exercise 1:

We begin with a simple exercise. WRITE DOWN ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR. Take a few minutes to do this; then, if you are in a group, read all the lists out loud, noting differences. Everyone will have a different list, for listening is very personal; and though some lists may be longer than others, all answers will be correct. This simple exercise can be performed anywhere by anyone. It would be a good idea to try it several times in contrasting environments in order to get into the habit of listening.

How much time do you have to spend doing this? As little or as much as you want to or can afford to. Schafer doesn't specify.

Suggestions for reflection and discussion:

Think about your answers to the following questions: What is sound? How do you perceive it? Which sounds do you tend to naturally prioritize? Which sounds do you tend to naturally ignore?

Schafer suggests (in exercises 2 and 3) categorizing your completed lists in various ways--for example, dividing the sounds into those produced by human(s), nature, and technology, or by designating the noises that you made yourself. He also suggests organizing them from loudest to softest or from most pleasant to least pleasant.

Think of what aspects of your experience you'd like to compare and contrast with the experiences of others: your relative levels of sensitivity to sounds? which sounds you found most distracting? characteristics of the different environments in which you performed the exercise?

My first plan of attack is to approach R. Murray Schafer's "Ear-Cleaning Exercises" as printed in A Sound Education (Arcana Editions, 1992). I will post an exercise or a selection of exercises each Monday and post a thread for discussion each Thursday. See "How do I participate in the listening project?" for more information.

Although I will be posting excerpts from the book online, I do recommend accessing the complete version for your own perusal. It is available directly from Arcana (which publishes only Schafer's works). However, as the price is somewhat steep after tax, the fee for wiring funds, and shipping, I would remind the reader that there is absolutely nothing wrong with consulting one's library to see if this book is available. As for methods of more dubious legality, I would also remind the reader that these exist, although I do not necessarily endorse them nor do I take responsibility for legal or ethical quandaries which may arise as a result of obtaining the book in this manner.

Here's a bit of Schafer's introduction to the book to get you in the right mindset: