The Soundscape

The Soundscape PDF

Author: R. Murray Schafer

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1993-10-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1594776687

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The soundscape--a term coined by the author--is our sonic environment, the ever-present array of noises with which we all live. Beginning with the primordial sounds of nature, we have experienced an ever-increasing complexity of our sonic surroundings. As civilization develops, new noises rise up around us: from the creaking wheel, the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer, and the distant chugging of steam trains to the “sound imperialism” of airports, city streets, and factories. The author contends that we now suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information and a proportionate diminishing of our ability to hear the nuances and subtleties of sound. Our task, he maintains, is to listen, analyze, and make distinctions. As a society we have become more aware of the toxic wastes that can enter our bodies through the air we breathe and the water we drink. In fact, the pollution of our sonic environment is no less real. Schafer emphasizes the importance of discerning the sounds that enrich and feed us and using them to create healthier environments. To this end, he explains how to classify sounds, appreciating their beauty or ugliness, and provides exercises and “soundwalks” to help us become more discriminating and sensitive to the sounds around us. This book is a pioneering exploration of our acoustic environment, past and present, and an attempt to imagine what it might become in the future.

R. Murray Schafer

R. Murray Schafer PDF

Author: L. Brett Scott

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2019-01-21

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 0810888262

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R. Murray Schafer: A Creative Life is the authoritative exploration of the life and work of this preeminent Canadian composer, artist, educator, and activist. Working closely with the composer and his family, L. Brett Scott has created the most up-to-date and accurate exploration of Schafer. Scott draws on many public and private sources, including the composer’s own journals and correspondence, which have not been previously available to researchers. Scott discusses Schafer’s extensive writings, including his research writings on Ezra Pound and E. T. A. Hoffmann, and his multiple works of fiction. The volume also includes a detailed summary of Schafer’s work in the field of acoustic ecology and recognition of his role as founder of the World Soundscape Project as well as an overview of his writings on creative music education. With complete discussions of his theater works, choral compositions, compositions for voice, chamber pieces, orchestral compositions, and early and transitional works and a chronological list of compositions and select discography, this volume presents the most comprehensive study of Schafer and his enduring legacy.

Patria

Patria PDF

Author: R. Murray Schafer

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781552451090

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Here was a very special ritual - completely without a sense of striving, and promising no rewards. You wandered about amused and amazed, never sure whether you were there to be entertained or entertaining - for the moment you won a balloon or lost your money while upside down on a sky ride, you became an actor, watched by others and excited by their watching. Patria (Latin for 'homeland') is composer R. Murray Schafer's life's work, a cycle of ten related music dramas created and performed over the last thirty years. Each play in the cycle has a common theme - the search of two lovers for one another through the many labyrinths of life on Earth. Though many of the same characters reappear in different sections, the scale of the cycle is vast, unfolding across many cultures and drawing extensively from numerous world mythologies. Many of these works are conceived for performance in unusual environments: on the surface of a lake, deep in a forest or even in a deserted mine. Some begin at dawn, sunset or midnight and some last for as long as a week. This new, definitive edition of Patria contains all ten parts of the cycle, plus photos, pages from the scores (complex visual artworks in their own right), commentary on the performance of the pieces and Schafer's personal essays on aestheticism. In these remarkable works, the arts court one another: theatre meets ritual, mythology fuses with art, and the line between performer and audience blurs.

E. T. A. Hoffmann and Music

E. T. A. Hoffmann and Music PDF

Author: R. Murray Schafer

Publisher: Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press

Published: 1975

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13:

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E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a man of diversified talents, an artist, composer, conductor, critic, jurist, and writer. Although he is best known for his stories, he was a music critic and composer for years before he wrote his celebrated Tales. Hoffmann has long been considered an extremely important force in the shaping of musical romanticism, yet this volume is the first adequate documentation of his influence. Because much of the primary material upon which the study is based, has not previously been available in English, the author has chosen an unusual but especially appropriate format, in which translations of Hoffmann's writings and the author's critical commentary alternate. This book not only fills a unique gap in the history of the Romantic Movement by showing the effect of Hoffmann's writings on the early phases of musical romanticism in Germany, but also presents an over-all picture of romanticism in its incipient years.

R. Murray Schafer and the Plot to Save the Planet

R. Murray Schafer and the Plot to Save the Planet PDF

Author: Jesse Stewart

Publisher:

Published: 2013-07

Total Pages: 462

ISBN-13: 9780992007300

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Journey with Jesse as he captures the biography of one of culture's most colourful characters, R. Murray Schafer. Starting with their search for a lost child in the Haliburton Forest, to exploring soundscapes of Japan, to an unexpected battle with the mysterious Morgellons, Jesse exposes an insidious plot to destroy the planet and arrives at the same conclusion as Murray. Art should be dangerous. Over a period of one year the author shadowed R. Murray Schafer to penetrate the multifaceted genius of Canada's preeminent composer, artist, agitator, environmental activist and the originator of the term "soundscape."

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