Musings on Sounds

Subject: Musings on Sounds and Musical Taste
From: Janie
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:16 PM

Today I found myself noticing how different the qualities of sounds are here in the rolling low hills of the Piedmont of NC to the qualities of the sounds where I grew up on the Applalachian Plateau in WV. The differences, I guess, are largely due to the difference in topography. Then I got to thinking about how the rural and small town sounds with which I grew up are so very different from the sounds an urban child grows up with.

I wonder how our "sound" environment and experiences subliminally (or otherwise) influence our responses to different kinds of music.

Any takers?

Janie

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 12:46 PM

An interesting question. It also applies to sight and smell.

I read just recently that early pioneer reports of seeing the Rocky Mountains from a certain distance on the plains is impossible today because of the smog.

It's also known that rural tribesmen in many parts of the world can see and hear better than city people.

Back a few years ago, in the 70's, there was a concern that rock n' roll musicians were losing their hearing at very young ages because of the volume at which they played.

So, growing up in a quieter environment would, I should think, make you more sensitive to the nuances of music. But, maybe not be as
"hip" to all the new sounds ?

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: Mudlark
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 07:59 PM

Lots of "sub" sounds in the country, as well as the city, air movement for one: different sounds wind makes rushing thru different trees, bamboo, ripe barley field, ripe corn; ryhthmic sounds, like waves, insects and woodpeckers; melodic sounds of birds, moving water; even the distant sound of people when there aren't any, often heard over rushing water. Country songs reflect these organic sounds...even fast numbers are often basically the same kinds of sounds, only speeded up.

Urban sounds are often manmade--more staccato, more frenetic, more percussive which tends to create more aggressive music.

Both vast oversimplification, of course, but I do think background ambiance has a lot to do with both the music we write and the music we sing/play.

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 09:25 PM

A sailboat in a nice breeze has multitudes of sounds as well as motion. Troubles, cares, worries all seem to pass away the further one gets from land. Ah, just yesterday... What a great sail.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: mack/misophist
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 09:16 AM

I'd have to say that, in the country, even a lack of sound has a particular tonal quality that can't be found in the city. It can't be described. But if you've ever heard it, you know.

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: Amos
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 10:43 AM

Some of us spend our work days under the benevolent flicker of fluorescents, listening to the gentle whisper of AC pumps in the ducting and the murmur of sweet hard-disks and cooling fans, our bodies permeated by the subtle influence of 60-cycle hum and AC flux. Needless to say this constant immersion in such sweetness makes us mild-tempered, sensitive to human concerns, delicately rational and deeply intelligent about the ways of life in the world. If it weren't for this exposure to so much beauty, god knows, we might become engineers.

A

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: mack/misophist
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 09:26 AM

Amos, lad

May I send your statement to my cousin, who has engineers in his employ?

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: meg
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 11:00 PM

On "This American Life," a show produced by Ira Glass on National Public Radio, there was a piece about a guy who figured out the pitch of all the little hums in his background -- computer fans, a/c, etc. He took a list compiled by some musicologist (maybe; memory is foggy on this point) that ascribed some emotion to various intervals, and figured out what emotional moods his background noises might be producing in him. It was an interesting idea, that vague feelings of anxiety, for example, might be due to the pitch relationship between his computer and the ventiliation system at work.

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: Mudlark
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 01:30 PM

Lots of motor sounds fill me with anxiety...heavy equipment working w/in earshot, the whine of a skill saw or the ripping sound of a chain saw, even the sound of a vacuum cleaner, especially if I'm not at the helm. Medication and bouts of basket weaving help...

Subject: RE: Musings on Sounds
From: JennyO
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 09:00 AM

This reminds me of my grandmother's vacuum cleaner. It had a light on the front and the motor made a sinister (to me) hum as it moved along. As a child visiting her place infrequently, I was actually scared of it. It gave me the creeps.

Another sound which gives me the creeps is the drone of any kind of airship. Don't know why. I wasn't alive through any wars or anything of that kind.

Jenny