The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World

by R. Murray Schafer

From society we will learn how man behaves with sounds and how sounds affect and change his behavior.

For some time I have also believed that the general acoustic environment of a society can be read as an indicator of social conditions which produce it and may tell us much about the trending and evolution of that society.

What the soundscape analyst must do first is to discover the significant features of the soundscape, those sounds which are important either because of their individuality, their numerousness or their domination.

keynote sounds, signals and soundmarks. To these we might add archetypal sounds, those mysterious ancient sounds, often possessing felicitous symbolism, which we have inherited from remote antiquity or prehistory.

The term soundmark is derived from landmark and refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities which make it specially regarded or noticed by the people in that community.

“Terror is the normal state of any oral society for in it everything affects everything all the time.”