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Leia este post em Português

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- 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.

 

Recommended reading:

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

 

Recommended visting:

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

Author: Pedro de Lemos Menezes

Email: pedrodelemosmenezes@gmail.com

Posts: Every friday.

All posts: Page 1

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