KEYNOTE SOUND: In music, keynote identifies the key or tonality of a particular composition. It provides the fundamental tone around which the composition may modulate but from which other tonalities take on a special relationship. In soundscape studies, keynote sounds are those which are heard by a particular society continuously or frequently enough to form a background against which other sounds are perceived. Examples might be the sound of the sea for a maritime community or the sound of the internal combustion engine in the modern city. Often keynote sounds are not consciously perceived, but they act as conditioning agents in the perception of other sound signals. They have accordingly been likened to the ground in the figure-ground grouping of visual perception. Compare: SOUND SIGNAL.
LO-FI: Abbreviation for low fidelity, that is, an unfavorable signal-to-noise ratio. Applied to soundscape studies a lo-fi environment is one in which signals are overcrowded, resulting in masking or lack of clarity. Compare: HI-FI.
MOOZAK (MOOZE, etc.): Term applying to all kinds of schizophonic musical drool, especially in public places. Not to be confused with the brand product Muzak.
MORPHOLOGY: The study of forms and structures. Originally employed in biology, it was later (by 1869) employed in philology to refer to patterns of inflection and word formation. Applied to soundscape studies it refers to changes in groups of sounds with similar forms or functions when arbitrarily arranged in temporal or spatial formations. Examples of acoustic morphology might be a study of the historical evolution of foghorns, or a geographical comparison of methods of telegraphy (alphorn, jungle drums, etc.).
NOISE: Etymologically the word can be traced back to Old French (noyse) and to eleventh-century Provencal (noysa, nosa, nausa), but its origin is uncertain. It has a variety of meanings and shadings of meaning, the most important of which are the following:
1. Unwanted sound. The Oxford English Dictionary contains references to noise as unwanted sound dating back as far as 1225.
2. Unmusical sound. The nineteenth-century physicist Hermann Helmholtz employed the expression noise to describe sound composed of nonperiodic vibrations (the rustling of leaves), by comparison with musical sounds, which consist of periodic vibrations. Noise is still used in this sense in expressions such as white noise or Gaussian noise.
3. Any loud sound. In general usage today, noise often refers to particularly loud sounds. In this sense a noise abatement by-law prohibits certain loud sounds or establishes their permissible limits in decibels.
4. Disturbance in any signaling system. In electronics and engineering, noise refers to any disturbances which do not represent part of the signal, such as static on a telephone or snow on a television screen.
The most satisfactory definition of noise for general usage is still “unwanted sound.” This makes noise a subjective term. One man’s music may be another man’s noise. But it holds open the possibility that in a given society there will be more agreement than disagreement as to which sounds constitute unwanted interruptions. It should be noted that each language preserves unique nuances of meaning for words representing noise. Thus in French one speaks of the bruit of a jet but also the bruit of the birds or the bruit of the waves. Compare: SACRED NOISE.
SACRED NOISE: Any prodigious sound (noise) which is exempt from social proscription. Originally Sacred Noise referred to natural phenomena such as thunder, volcanic eruptions, storms, etc., as these were believed to represent divine combats or divine displeasure with man. By analogy the expression may be extended to social noises which, at least during certain periods, have escaped the attention of noise abatement legislators, e.g., church bells, industrial noise, amplified pop music, etc.
SCHIZOPHONIA (Greek: schizo = split and phone = voice, sound): I first employed this term in The New Soundscape to refer to the split between an original sound and its electroacoustic reproduction. Original sounds are tied to the mechanisms that produce them. Electroacousti-cally reproduced sounds are copies and they may be restated at other times or places. I employ this “nervous” word in order to dramatize the aberrational effect of this twentieth-century development.
SONIFEROUS GARDEN: A garden, and by analogy any place, of acoustic delights. This may be a natural soundscape, or one submitted to the principles of ACOUSTIC DESIGN. The soniferous garden may also include as one of its principal attractions a Temple of Silence for meditation.
SONOGRAPHY: The art of soundscape notation. It may include customary methods of notation such as the sonogram or sound level recording, but beyond these it will also seek to register the geographic distribution of SOUND EVENTS. Various techniques of aerial sonography are employed, for instance, the isobel contour map.
SONOLOGICAL COMPETENCE: The implicit knowledge which permits the comprehension of sound formations. The term has been borrowed from Otto Laske. Sonological competence unites impression with cognition and makes it possible to formulate and express sonic perceptions. It is possible that just as sonological competence varies from individual to individual, it may also vary from culture to culture, or at least may be developed differently in different cultures. Sonological competence may be assisted by EAR CLEANING exercises. See O. Laske, “Musical Acoustics (Sonology): A Questionable Science Reconsidered”Numus-West, Seattle, No. 6,1974; “Toward a Theory of Musical Cognition”Interface, Amsterdam, Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter, 1975, inter alia.
SOUND EVENT: Dictionary definition of event: “something that occurs in a certain place during a particular interval of time.” This suggests that the event is not abstractable from the time-and-space continuum which give it its definition. The sound event, like the SOUND OBJECT, is defined by the human ear as the smallest self-contained particle of a SOUNDSCAPE. It differs from the sound object in that the latter is an abstract acoustical object for study, while the sound event is a symbolic, semantic or structural object for study, and is therefore a nonab-stractable point of reference, related to a whole of greater magnitude than itself.
SOUNDMARK: The term is derived from landmark to refer to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities which make it specially regarded or noticed by the people in that community.
SOUND OBJECT: Pierre Schaeffer, the inventor of this term (I’objet sonore), describes it as an acoustical “object for human perception and not a mathematical or electroacoustical object for synthesis.” The sound object is then defined by the human ear as the smallest self-contained particle of a SOUNDSCAPE, and is analyzable by the characteristics of its envelope. Though the sound object may be referential (i.e., a bell, a drum, etc.), it is to be considered primarily as a phenomenological sound formation, independently of its referential qualities as a sound event. Compare: SOUND EVENT.
SOUNDSCAPE: The sonic environment. Technically, any portion of the sonic environment regarded as a field for study. The term may refer to actual environments, or to abstract constructions such as musical ompositions and tape montages, particularly when considered as an environment.
SOUND SIGNAL: Any sound to which the attention is particularly directed. In soundscape studies sound signals are contrasted by KEYNOTE SOUNDS, in much the same way as figure and ground are contrasted in visual perception.
WORLD SOUNDSCAPE PROJECT: A project headquartered at the Sonic Research Studio of the Communications Department, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada, devoted to the comparative study of the world SOUNDSCAPE. The Project came into existence in 1971, and since that time a number of national and international research studies have been conducted, dealing with aural perception, sound symbolism, noise pollution, etc., all of which have attempted to unite the arts and sciences of sound studies in preparation for the development of the interdiscipline of ACOUSTIC DESIGN. Publications of the World Soundscape Project have included: The Book of Noise, The Music of the Environment A Survey of Community Noise By-Laws in Canada (1972), The Vancouver Soundscape, A Dictionary of Acoustic Ecology, Five Village Soundscapes and A European Sound Diary.
Footnotes
; INTRODUCTION
a For definitions of ear cleaning, clairaudience and other special terms, see the glossary.
CHAPTER ONE: The Natural Soundscape
b The Roman writer referred to is Pliny (Natural History, V. x. 54), who merely states that the cataracts were very noisy but does not claim that they caused deafness. A legend, nevertheless, seems to have grown up to this effect, for we find it mentioned in Bernardino Ramazzini’s Diseases of Workers (De Morbis ArHficium) of 1713, a work which is remarkable for being the first known study to mention industrial deafness.
CHAPTER TWO: The Sounds of Life
c Decibels are more accurately designated by the addition of A, B or C to their abbreviation of dB. DBA indicates that the lower frequencies of the sound are discriminated against by a weighting network in the measuring instrument in a manner roughly equivalent to the human ear’s discrimination against low-frequency sounds. DBB indicates less of such discrimination, while dBC represents nearly flat response to the sound being measured.
d Abbreviations for languages are: E—English, A—American, F—French, Ar—Arabic, V—Vietnamese, J—Japanese, G—German, Gr—Greek, M—Malay, U—Urdu, L—Lokele tribe of the Congo.
CHAPTER THREE: The Rural Soundscape
e I must warn the reader that Levi-Strauss informs me that the Sacred Noise theory developed in this book bears “little relationship, if any” to what he has written. Nevertheless, I must give him credit for igniting my imagination.
CHAPTER FOUR: From Town to City
f Typically, while both the Muslim and Christian faiths have important signaling devices, the Jewish faith, which is not missionizing, does not.
CHAPTER FIVE: The Industrial Revolution
g The earliest study of industrial deafness that I have been able to discover was that of Bernardino Ramazzini, Diseases of Workers (De Morbis ArHficium), 1713.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Music, the Soundscape and Changing Perceptions
h A note of luxury is sounded in the three-tone horn, for it is standard equipment only on the most expensive cars: Cadillac and Lincoln Continental.
i I recently came across an interesting confirmation of the above paragraph in the words of Stockhausen: “I was flying every day for two or three hours over America from one city to the next over a period of six weeks, and my whole time feeling was reversed after about two weeks. I had the feeling that I was visiting the earth and living in the plane. There were just very tiny changes of bluish colour and always this harmonic spectrum of engine noise. At that time, in 1958, most of the planes were propeller planes and I was always leaning my ear—I love to fly, I must say—against the window, listening with earphones directly to the inner vibrations. And though theoretically a physicist would have said that the engine sound doesn’t change, it changed all the time because I was listening to all the partials within the spectrum. It was a fantastically beautiful experience. And I really discovered the innerness of the engine sounds and watched the slight changes of the blue outside and then the formation of the clouds, this white blanket always below me. I made sketches for Carr é during that time, and thought I was already very brave in going far beyond the time of memory, which is the crucial time between eight- and sixteen-second-long events.” Jonathan Cott, Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer, London, 1974, pp. 30–31.
CHAPTER EIGHT: Notation
j The history of the technology of sound visualization would make a good subject for a thesis. Many of the people who worked on this problem came at the subject after work in visual studies. Typical was the case of Thomas Young, who invented the first practical means of projecting sound by means of a moving stylus connected to a tuning fork over a wax-coated revolving drum—an instrument called the phonautograph (1807). Young’s previous work had been in the study of light (he was the first to measure astigmatism) and in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
k On the other hand it seems necessary to point out that the proliferation of noise measurement systems, each claiming to be a refinement over the last, also tends to obscure the basic issue under a mask of jargon, designed largely to make it possible for engineers to stay in the noise pollution business without really solving it.
l See Appendix I for isobel contour and sound event maps.
CHAPTER NINE: Classification
m Drift (fading) or displacement (ambiguous point of origin) often result from atmospheric disturbances such as wind or rain.
n Acoustical engineering firms have also already taken over our term soundscape and speak of “soundscaping an office” to refer to the same white-noise mesmerism.
o See Appendix II for International Sound Preference Survey.
CHAPTER TEN: Perception
p Piaget calls these two complementary aspects of perception “accommodation” and “assimilation,” but I prefer the outgoing suggestion of “expression.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Morphology
q I am aware that there is a certain similarity between these two types of studies and what structuralists call a paradigmatic series and a syntagmatic chain, but I think it best not to use expressions which sound like rusty iron on the tongue.
r In the more restricted areas of specialized field study, the morphological approach can be applied more systematically. See in particular our study Five Village Soundscapes, Vancouver, 1976.
s The natural rustling of Maori women’s flaxen skirts (piu piu) produces a similar susurration of great beauty.
t And much more inexpensively than by going to the acoustical engineers. See Chapter Fourteen.
CHAPTER TWELVE: Symbolism
u The fact that numerous people tested (in Canada) also produced rounded drawings in response to steady-state drones such as those produced by air-conditioners is perhaps explained by my remarks to follow about the taming of natural sounds as man retreats into artificially controlled interior environments.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Noise
v The Book of Noise, Price Milburn Co., Wellington, New Zealand, 1973.
w It may be pointed out that in a few isolated cities the noise level has actually been lowered by means of strict noise abatement procedures. Thus when Moscow prohibited the use of car horns in 1956, the result was a drop of 8 to 10 phons (Constantin Stramentov, “The Architecture of Silence,” The UNESCO Courier, July, 1967, p. 11). The noise level in GÖteborg (Sweden) has also been lowered by 7 dBA in recent years due to strict limits on new busses, compressors and garbage disposal trucks (Dr. B. Mollstedt, personal communication).
x I am grateful to Dr. G. Schmezer for providing information from the municipal archives.
y For the sake of clarity a number of smaller municipalities supplying information, notably in Australia and Canada, have not been included. For a detailed assessment of the situation in Canada the reader is referred to the World Soundscape Project document, A Survey of Community Noise By-Laws in Canada (1972). In the international survey we were unfortunately unsuccessful in securing sufficient accurate information from Communist countries. In the following table, communities with no legislation other than provision against noisy vehicle exhaust as part of a highway act or code are listed as possessing no legislation.
z Bombay Districts
Midnight
3 a.m.
Dadar (B.B.) 40 dBA 35 dBA
Ghatkopar 47 dBA 43 dBA
Wadala 35 dBA 30 dBA
Vile Parle (West) 33 dBA 25 dBA
Kalbadevi 50 dBA 45 dBA
The Norwegian level for residential districts is 55 dBA at night during the summer, and 60 dBA during the winter. The levels for Bombay were obtained by S. K. Chatterjee, R. N. Sen and P. N. Saha (see note, p. 198). Most of these levels also fall below those required by Tokyo law, which is 45 dBA for residential districts at night. For further comparison, the night level for Sweden is 40 dBA and that for Richmond (Australia) is 30 dBA.
aa Freiburg also permits the mowing of lawns only from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Outside the Germanic countries, w
e have obtained information from only one other city with a by-law against carpet-beating—Adelaide (Australia): By-law No. IX, Paragraph 25b (1934).
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Listening
ab From Scarborough, England, comes the news that a British fisherman won what was billed as the World Shouting Competition by raising his voice to 3 decibels at a distance of three meters.
ac The Composer in the Classroom, Ear Cleaning, The New Soundscape, When Words Sing, Toronto, 1965, etc.
ad Eigenton is the German word used to refer to the fundamental resonance of a room, produced by the reflection of sound waves between parallel surfaces. It can be located empirically by singing different notes. The room (particularly an empty one) will resonate quite loudly in unison with the voice when the right note is sounded.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Acoustic Community
ae A Helmholtz resonator is a cavity-type resonator, so constructed that it will vibrate only at a particular frequency. It was developed by the German physicist Hermann Helmholtz in the nineteenth century to analyze the harmonic components of complex sounds.
Notes
INTRODUCTION
p. 5
Music is sounds Quoted from R. Murray Schafer, The New Soundscape, London and Vienna, 1971, p. 1.
The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment And The Tuning Of The World Page 33