The Sound of Silence
Expository Writing 1213
Conference draft
Mauricio Cuevas
Due Wednesday, September 05, 2012
The sound of silence “A horrid stillness first invades the ear, and in that silence we the tempest fear”(Dryden, 7). Silence inevitably starts with a sound, which either goes off very slowly, or ends in a Swift movement; and it ends the same way it started, with noise. Noise, sound, our perception of both has changed since they were recognized and “categorized” as such. People see this soundscape changing; our awareness is evolving, and prompting that change. What we categorize as noise has influenced our music or maybe our perception was influenced by our circumstances and thus changed music. Attempts at analyzing these changes have come out with completely opposite approaches. On one side is Schafer, best known for introducing the concept of soundscape, and his wish to going back to Apollonian music, music that was natural, calm, and soothing; and on the other is Russolo, an early 1900’s artist and futurist that argued for embracing the new sounds that man and machine were making, and make away with the old and used up music of the day, new was good and old was bad. Should we contain this avalanche of noises before our perception of real sound is destroyed? Or should we embrace these “noises” like the raw and energetic side of sound? The clank of machines, sound of cars, the hammering sound of our own heart, the harmony, the dissonance, the rhythm; it all comes to us or from us. We should welcome all sounds and strive to understand them. What sound and noise give us is mainly context. People can be overwhelmed by context. They are put in a position where everything that is happening, what everyone is doing, where they are standing, is thrust into their minds in a single line of sound; a cacophony, as the brain interprets it. As the animal instinct is still a part of us, we cringe from such awareness of others. Our brains have been trained to
Conference draft
Mauricio Cuevas
Due Wednesday, September 05, 2012
The sound of silence “A horrid stillness first invades the ear, and in that silence we the tempest fear”(Dryden, 7). Silence inevitably starts with a sound, which either goes off very slowly, or ends in a Swift movement; and it ends the same way it started, with noise. Noise, sound, our perception of both has changed since they were recognized and “categorized” as such. People see this soundscape changing; our awareness is evolving, and prompting that change. What we categorize as noise has influenced our music or maybe our perception was influenced by our circumstances and thus changed music. Attempts at analyzing these changes have come out with completely opposite approaches. On one side is Schafer, best known for introducing the concept of soundscape, and his wish to going back to Apollonian music, music that was natural, calm, and soothing; and on the other is Russolo, an early 1900’s artist and futurist that argued for embracing the new sounds that man and machine were making, and make away with the old and used up music of the day, new was good and old was bad. Should we contain this avalanche of noises before our perception of real sound is destroyed? Or should we embrace these “noises” like the raw and energetic side of sound? The clank of machines, sound of cars, the hammering sound of our own heart, the harmony, the dissonance, the rhythm; it all comes to us or from us. We should welcome all sounds and strive to understand them. What sound and noise give us is mainly context. People can be overwhelmed by context. They are put in a position where everything that is happening, what everyone is doing, where they are standing, is thrust into their minds in a single line of sound; a cacophony, as the brain interprets it. As the animal instinct is still a part of us, we cringe from such awareness of others. Our brains have been trained to