Critical Listening

This page is dedicated to my observations through critical listening of tracks listed in the historical listening appendix of Andrew Hugill's book, The Digital Musician.

1. Pierre Schaeffer - "Etude Aux Chemins de Fer"

This piece has an interesting intro, featuring what I believe to be conductor whistle sounds. The first one: shrill, quite harsh. The second: almost comical, like you can clearly hear a human voice within it. The third reminds me of the classic whistle sound you hear in the theme song for The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, in addition to countless other Western movies. Following this intro is the start of actual train sounds. I find that it's difficult to determine if Schaeffer is looping some of these bits of train sound or simply capturing the repetitive, mechanical nature of the train. From 0:22 to 0:44, it sounds as though there are two distinct loops of equal time which both take on a sort of 4/4 rhythm as they repeat, although I think both are playing the whole time while Schaeffer merely adjusts their respective levels. Following this passage is several repetitions of a harsher mechanical thud, which almost sounds like someone striking the track with a hammer. This portion ends with a kind of static that I'm guessing might just be a rough edit in the tape. That Western whistle pops up again, very nice Mr. Schaeffer. There's a passage from 1:16 to 1:19 that sounds like he slowed down the tape at the end, as it's the same sound but clearly pitched down for the last repetition. I like the descending high whistle sound at 1:33, reminds me of a firework about to explode. There's a looping whistle sound starting at 1:52 that eventually sounds pitched down and farther away, a demonstration of the Doppler Effect perhaps. Maybe that's also the case for the pitch-shifting I mentioned before, although it sounds much more natural in the latter instance. The piece seems to come full circle at the end with another whistling passage, distinct from the intro, but giving the impression of a completed journey on the train.

As one of the first pieces of Musique Concrete, I think this piece perfectly evokes modernity. Not only is the musical style and methodology obviously innovative, but the source material, a train, is very much the embodiment of the modern age of mass transportation and high-speed. Perhaps the piece is even post-modern, in that it challenged people's traditional notions of what music can be and forced the listener to consider the long-term consequences of modern living with it's harsh, unforgiving train sounds, virtually devoid of the beauty heard in a natural environment.

Thoughts on Soundscape Piece Conceptualisation

For this post I thought I'd just do some free writing about the concept I have in mind for my soundscape piece. The basic concept I want to convey is the sound of my brain as it goes through a normal day in which I wake up, take a shower, go record different spaces for my sound library, come home, make dinner, do the dishes and eventually go to sleep and start dreaming. This concept is quite mundane at its core since it's supposed to capture an average day for someone like myself. I'm hoping that I'll be able to add some interest with different sound layers representing everyday stress and the act of dreaming. For instance, I'm thinking that the piece will begin with the droning sound of the fan in my room, followed by my alarm clock. At this point, sounds that will appear later in the piece/day slowly start fading into the mix, representing me thinking about what I have to do that day, but they never come to the fore since they're not actually happening yet.

 As my day goes through typical routine to the point of venturing out through the camden markets, these anticipatory sounds will remain a part of the mix while the sound of what's actually happening is louder and panned center. Then, once I reach the place I actually want to record, Regent's canal to start, I'm enjoying myself more, my head is more clear, and thus the mental noise fades to an almost inaudible level. The piece will then remain fairly simple and sparse, mostly highlighting the peaceful canal sounds of boats passing, water, and bird calls among other elements. I think I'll follow this in a similar fashion with some quality sounds I captured at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Then, the piece transitions into the journey home on tube/bus at which point the mental noise creeps back into the mix as I not only think about cooking dinner, doing dishes and and other chores but also remember what I've done with my day thus far.

Once I've done all my chores and I'm getting ready for bed, the mental noise fades away again as I clear my head to go to sleep, eventually reaching complete silence. This is where the piece really gets interesting as I try to evoke the essence of dreaming using only the previously heard sounds of my day, but with lots of manipulation. For this section, I'll try to make something very detailed and psychedelic that represents the strange fashion in which the brain recycles and jumbles our experiences in dreams. Finally, the piece will come full circle as the psychedelic dreamscape abruptly ends with the sound of my alarm clock, followed by the quiet drone of my fan.