In a recent composition using this approach, called Pendlerdrøm (The Commuter’s Dream), I created the experience of being inside the Copenhagen train station using four separate stereo recordings, unprocessed but played simultaneously so that individual sounds came from different directions, as is typical in a busy station. A local train arrives, and the listener appears to get on it as the scene shifts to the inside of the enclosed train compartment. After a short ride, the doors open and the person (modeled as a commuter) gets off and walks home. However, at two points in this scenario (inside the station and inside the train) the sounds gradually become musically transformed, suggesting that the commuter through tiredness and familiarity goes into an inner world or daydream. Sounds that were previously heard in a more natural context in the station come back in loops or time-stretched, emulating the processes of memory and dreams. Some event on tape triggers the return to reality just as it might in everyday life. This piece combines a very specific environment with an experience analogously shared by many people in industrialized countries, showing the unique blend of local and global that soundscape composition can achieve.

Note: for more information on the recordings and websites referred to, please consult the author’s website.

References

Attali, J. (1985) Noise: The Political Economy of Music. The University of Minnesota Press

Schafer, R.M. (1969) The New Soundscape. Vienna: Universal Edition

Schafer, R.M. (1973) The Music of the Environment. Vienna: Universal Edition

Schafer, R.M. (1977) The Tuning of the World. New York: Knopf

Schafer, R.M. (1993) Voices of Tyranny, Temples of Silence. Indian River, Ontario: Arcana Editions

Truax, B. (1984) Acoustic Communication. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation

Truax, B. (1992) Electroacoustic music and the soundscape: the inner and outer world. In Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought, edited by J. Paynter, T. Howell, R. Orton and P. Seymour. London: Routledge

Truax, B. (1996) Soundscape, acoustic communication & environmental sound composition, Contemporary Music Review, 15(1), 49-65

Truax, B. (1998) Composition and diffusion: space in sound in space, Organised Sound, 3(2), 141-6

World Soundscape Project. The Music of the Environment Series, edited by R.M. Schafer. Vancouver: A.R.C. Publications

(1973) No. 1, The Music of the Environment

(1978a) No. 2, The Vancouver Soundscape

(1977a) No. 3, European Sound Diary

(1977b) No. 4, Five Village Soundscapes

(1978b) No. 5, Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, edited by Barry Truax