describing the contemporary sound environment

• Home
  • About this work
• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• I. Introduction
• II. Analysis of the models
  • Aims and fields of application
  • Epistemological approach
  • Main Concepts and Models
• III. Methodologies
  • The Three Methodologies
  • The Synthesis
• IV. Case Study
  • Summary
  • Representative Locations
  • Acoustic Community
• V. Conclusion
• Appendices
  • B. Glossary
  • C. Sonic Mind Maps
  • D. Questions
  • E. Sequential Analysis
  • F. Sonic Identity Charts
  • G. Newspaper Article
• Audio Excerpts
• Bibliography

APPENDIX B - GLOSSARY OF TRANSLATED TERMS

This glossary provides a basic description and explanation of some of the concepts introduced in France and used in the current work. A thematic classification has been adopted to facilitate the understanding of the relation between each term (1).


The three dimensions of the sonic identity (C-V-S)

The relationship between a listener and a particular sound environment can be understood, according to Amphoux (1991, 1993a, 1993b) in terms in three types of representation and experience corresponding to Peirce’s three types of symbols:
- The known dimension (le connu, or C) describes a symbolic representation in which particular environments are known by both inhabitants and foreign listeners, based on the fact that they “conventionally represent a city” (Amphoux, 1993a, p. 16; my translation). Here, a sound or an ambience comes to represent the whole city, and is understood as such.
- The lived dimension (le vécu, or V) expresses a more intimate relation that is situated at the level of the district, the neighbourhood. Its semiotic equivalent is the index, partly arbitrary but shaped and reinforced by one’s individual experience.
- The sense dimension (le sensible, or S) corresponds to a universal and tautological relationship in which the sound becomes the icon of the location from which it originates. The soundscapes of markets, malls or cafés, for instance, do not necessarily represent specific locations or situations but rather become icons of urbanity.

The three types of listening to the world (E-M-P)

Amphoux (1991, 1993a) has established a tripartite model to describe the possible ways one can listen to the sound environment. His model is concerned with the simultaneous role of memory, perception and interpretation in one’s understanding of the soundscape. The three main types of listening can then be subdivided to produce a series of qualitative criteria to express “certain qualities concerning the context of sounds” (Hellström, 2003, p. 158).
- The environmental listening (l’écoute environnementale, or E) refers to an attitude in which the listener listens objectively, a certain distance from the sounds heard. The sounds are described and represented as external objects, and the attitude leads to the establishment of criteria of quality.
- The milieu listening (l’écoute médiale, or M) concerns the sonic comfort of an environment, and therefore implies a contextual experience of the soundscape rather than a distant evaluation. The listener becomes involved in his or her own expression of the soundscape, and this produces criteria of qualification which “do not account for the environmental morphology, but rather present a prescriptive discourse on what should be or what should not be a sonic milieu” (Amphoux, 1993a, p. 37; my translation).
- The landscape listening (l’écoute paysagère, or P) corresponds the contemplative perception of a sound environment. Here, what matters is the “relation between the form and the content of a discourse, when what is described is reflected in the actual modalities of description” [emphasis his] (Amphoux, 1993a, p. 35; my translation). This type of listening results in criteria of qualitativeness.

Qualitative criteria

Amphoux’s numerous qualitative criteria (critères qualitatifs) result from his initial classification of the type of listening to the world. It provides a new type of soundscape vocabulary, introduced to describe the various criteria that can be used when analysing a particular environment and the way it is heard and understood by inhabitants. Three main types of criteria can be used, each of which is subdivided in more specific categories:
- Criteria of quality (critères de qualité) correspond to an environmental listening and produce objective qualities related to the organisation of the soundscape; the criteria are strictly descriptive, and frame the sound environment as a controllable reality.
- Criteria of qualification (critères de qualification), on the other hand, are the result of a milieu listening and correspond to values and judgements about what a soundscape should or should not be; these criteria refer to the sonic comfort of a situation in which the listener is directly involved, they are intimately linked to one’s everyday experience and subjective perception.
- Criteria of qualitativity (critères de qualitativité) refer to the “ensemble of phenomena which allow a sensitive, aesthetic and ‘altered’ appreciation of the sonic world” (Amphoux, 1993a, p. 38; my translation). Again, these criteria are based on an analysis of the “described and the description” (ibid.) in a way that emphasizes the evocative and aesthetic qualities of an environment.

Sound Effect

The sound effect (effet sonore), used at CRESSON since the beginning of the 80s, can be described as “a meeting point, an interaction and a correspondence between the measurable objective environment, the soundscape of a cultural community and the inner space of any individual” (Augoyard, 1999, p. 123). By considering a particular sonic situation in its inherent complexity, the sound effect allows one to move from one discipline to another and draw connections between them.
The sound effect describes any aural experience as a result of specific physical conditions (nature of the sound source, acoustics, morphology of the environment, etc.), social and cultural contexts and a subjective perceptive mechanism. Therefore, every major effect can be traced and discussed in various disciplines ranging from psychology to architecture and urbanism. Some of the important sound effects are summarized below, to provide the reader with an overview of the theoretical and practical usefulness of the concept (2).

- Anamnesis (anamnèse): Effect characterising the triggering, most often involuntary, of the memory by listening and the evocative power of sounds. Here the effect is located in the listener’s interpretation and association of a given context. The everyday is filled with sound signals that trigger particular memories; from the acoustics of a childhood room to the melancholic sound of foghorns, sounds often find their meanings through their evocative power. In music, the leitmotiv or the reprise often create such effect.
- Drone (bourdon): Effect characterizing the presence, in a sound ensemble, of a constant layer of stable pitch, without any noticeable variation in intensity. Linked to music in its designation (the drone is a permanent bass over which certain pieces are laid), the drone effect can also be observed in urban and industrial soundscapes. Many technical systems generate constant sounds that are close to this effect, even if the frequencies in question, are not limited to the bass range that originally characterized it.
- Masking (masque): Presence of a sound that partially or completely masks another sound, because of its intensity or distribution of frequencies. This effect, easily demonstrated on the acoustic level, also implies a subjective reaction on the psycho-physiological level: the masking sound can be judged as parasitic or, conversely, favourable, depending on the value given to the masked sound.
- Remanence (rémanence): Continuance of a sound that is no longer heard. After extinction of both the emission and propagation, the sound gives the impression of being still "in the ear". Remanence is neither an anamnesis (sounds that are heard in the present and that evoke the past), nor a phonomnesis (remembered sound, without physical listening). It is simply the trace of sound signals barely subsided. This effect is very often used in music: permanence of the tonal or modal climate of reference, impression of hearing a continuous drone, melismatic movements that make virtually present an absent sound.
- Reverberation (réverbération): Propagation effect in which a sound continues after the cessation of its emission. Reflections of the sound on surfaces of the surrounding space are added to the direct signal. The longer reflections conserve their energy, the more considerable is the reverberation time. In everyday language, reverberation is often referred to as the "cathedral" effect, or, by extension, as echo. While it is first and foremost an effect linked to the physical properties of the space of diffusion (or the effects applied to an electroacoustic signal), it also refer to the more symbolic significations of reverberation (solemnity and monumentality, for instance).
- Sharawadji (sharawadji): This aesthetic effect characterizes the feeling of plenitude that is at times created by the contemplation of a sound motif or a complex soundscape whose beauty is inexplicable. This virtual order, imperceptible and present, produces fascination, and is breathtaking. The sharawadji effect is unexpected and transports us elsewhere, beyond the strict representation of things, out of context.
- Ubiquity (ubiquité): Effect linked to spatio-temporal conditions which expresses the difficulty or impossibility of locating a sound source. In the major variant of this effect, the sound seems to come from everywhere and from nowhere at the same time. In its minor variant, it seems to come from both a singular source and many sources simultaneously, and may create a feeling of disorientation.
- Wave (vague): Compositional effect describing a sound or a group of sounds that we hear following a curve of intensity whose shape is analogous to that of a wave and its undertow: crescendo, maximal point, fast or progressive rupture of the sound, and decrescendo. These cycles, spaced over relatively long intervals (a few seconds), follow each other according to a variable or regular frequency.

(1) For a more elaborate study of the fractal relationship between each of Amphoux's tripartite models, see Amphoux, 1991, 1993a; Hellström, 2003.
(2) These desriptions come from Auogyard & Torgue, 1995; my translation.