Mach 3: from the razor blade to the speed of sound

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The end of the high fidelity sound landscape

17/04/2010 - 16:21 -

Schafer, Murray. A afinação do mundo. São Paulo: Editora Unesp, 1997.

- Sweepers, dusters, wooden spoons, pots and pans, coconut scrapers and grills!!!

You can hear the peddler in the distance, even without using amplifiers. The musical landscape of big cities decades ago was wonderful; it still exists in a few small cities in the hinterland. I’m not just speaking of commerce, but of the train you could hear from kilometers away, birds singing in the late afternoon, such as the chirping of the pair of macaws that used to fly over the horizon. I am talking about the barking of neighbors’ dogs, the rustling of the leaves in the nearby trees and of the conversations taking place on the sidewalks.

However, modernity and progress limit our perception of reality, from skyscrapers obstructing our view to the noise that invades our homes, deafens our ears and barely lets us carry on a conversation (click here to see documentary). Thus, with an ever-increasing perception of reduced distance, we isolate ourselves from the things around us.

What is Hi-Fi and Lo-Fi sound?

A high fidelity sound system is one that has a favorable signal-noise relationship. Sound landscapes are those where the environmental noise is low and where we manage to clearly perceive the signal. In this case the silent environment allows the listener to hear sounds from much farther away. In low fidelity landscapes, characteristic of big cities, individual signals are obscured by a dense maelstrom of sound that makes our perception of the environment progressively reduced. Therefore, either we effectively change our behavior with respect to this evolution and becoming aware is the first step along this path, or we will wind up locked up alone in a room with the television on at full volume.

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http://territoriosonoro1.blogspot.com/2006/02/projeto-paisagem-sonora-mundial-murray.html

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Incapacitating buzzing

17/02/2010 - 2:56 -

1. Ringing and Other Ear Noise

tinnitus After a hard week’s work, near the end of the day at my office, a middle-aged man came in looking very tired. He seemed concerned, his eyes were very red and he swayed slightly from side to side. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. Mister Zé Alfredo sat down and said:

- Doctor, I can’t sleep anymore. There’s too much noise. A terrible buzzing sound. It never stops! It’s driving me crazy … (silence) … Can you destroy my hearing? I don’t want to hear anymore. To tell you the truth, the way things are now, I don’t want to go on living.

For me, a person who loves researching the auditory system and the details of its functioning, his words seemed incompatible with reality. How could hearing, the only sense capable of sending information from far away in a 360º circle, be so despised by this individual?

Buzzing in the ear affects more than 28 million Brazilians, most of whom are adults over the age of 40 (click here to see report). A host of infections, metabolic disorders, diabetes, hypertension, perforated ear drum, etc. are only some of the likely causes of buzzing. Despite the difficulty in accurately diagnosing its origin – some types are of unknown origin – all is not lost, because most cases are treatable.

Buzzing can be treated

Believe it or not, turning on the radio or the television (not too loud) may help people with mild cases to sleep, at least until they get specialized treatment from an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor. Treatment is wide ranging, from antibiotics and mineral replacement to auditory rest and changes in food habits, depending on the etiology. In the most severe cases and those of unknown origin, patients are referred to a speech therapist for adaptation therapy, after which they “no longer notice” the buzzing.

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2. Tinnitus treatment

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Perfect pitch

27/01/2010 - 22:20 -

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks.

au_carnegie_hall At Carnegie Hall in New York City, the local philharmonic orchestra has a full complement of musicians. More than 100 musicians play together, allowing theater goers to experience a bit of heaven, at least musically speaking.

For me, seated in the seat J45, in the middle of the theater, everything seemed perfect. But it wasn’t. Everything was not so perfect for the conductor. Suddenly he interrupted the performance by rapping his baton on the pedestal. He looked upset. Something was irritating his ears. Then he said:

- Second row of violins, fourth instrument, third string, out of tune, half semitone higher, please!!!

The beauty of the spectacle from then on didn’t matter to me anymore. The unexpected occurrence that showed the conductor’s perfect pitch demonstrated to me how high human creativity can reach and how much most of us can still grow.

What is perfect pitch?

The capacity of mentally visualizing sound frequencies, perfect pitch (click to see documentary) or of humming the same pitch (active perfect pitch), does not appear to be related to any significant structural modification, but rather to a tendency of central physiological mechanisms that can be stimulated, mainly up to five years of age.

Studies show (see SACKS, 2007) that we can train our ears to obtain an even more prodigious musical journey, but the genetic factor apparently determines the greater likelihood of the emergence of this skill.

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Black eyes

13/01/2010 - 19:57 -

A strong black boy is born with happy eyes;

A pearl that shines brightly.

The greatest star ever known, a leader.

His voice, his rhythm and his heart in harmony.

He changed music and dance,

He changed how we dress, walk and hear.

He even changed how we see songs.

The most famous, the most sold, the richest and most eccentric, nothing ever like it seen before.

He had the world by the tail, but it was too much of a heavy burden, too much responsibility.

He couldn’t take it.

Then he started to fade,

He was lost, went crazy. He became very sick.

And the whiter his skin got, the stranger he looked.

He spent almost everything he had made, shriveled, wasted away.

He didn’t know what color he was or even who he was.

He wished he were Peter Pan. An eternal child in Neverland.

Maybe he really was…

The fact is that the other day an extremely weak, debilitated white man, with straight hair died.

Died like any other mortal.