5.1 Acoustic communities
Fundamental to the concepts of keynote, signal and soundmark is the recognition of hearing in the formation of ‘acoustic communities’, to use a phrase coined by Schafer’s fellow-Canadian composer Barry Truax (b. 1947). An ‘acoustic community’ is defined by its members’ shared understanding of the sounds of the environment in which they all live. As Truax explains, such sounds not only mark the temporal patterns of a community (within a day, a week, month or a year), but also assert the presence of dominant institutions or individuals in that community (such as bells or a muezzin calling people to prayer, gunfire asserting military power etc.). Furthermore, the soundscape defines the spatial boundaries of a community, in terms of who experiences these sounds, but is shaped itself by the local topography: features of both the natural and built environment (size, shape, structure and the material(s) of which it is formed, such as trees, plants, wood, stone or brick) all affect how sounds are experienced by the individuals living within a particular place:
Our definition of the acoustic community means that acoustic cues and signals constantly keep the community in touch with what is going on from day to day within it. Such a system is ‘information rich’ in terms of sound, and therefore sound plays a significant role in defining the community (1) spatially, (2) temporally, in terms of daily and seasonal cycles, as well as (3) socially and culturally in terms of shared activities, rituals and dominant institutions. The community is linked and defined by its sounds.
(Truax, 1984, pp. 59–61; see also Smith, 1999, pp. 46–7 and Fisher, 2014, pp. 7–8)
Activity 9 Acoustic communities
Try to identify some of the ways in which you are part of an acoustic community or communities. First, spend some time considering which sounds the community privileges and which ones it seeks to limit or restrict, as well as how these prescriptions are enacted.
Then, drawing on Truax’s three points, find examples of how acoustic communities you belong to constitute themselves through sound.
One example should demonstrate how your community designates its spatial boundaries through sound.
Another should demonstrate how the community articulates a significant temporal cycle through sound.
A third example should demonstrate how, through sound, your community affirms shared cultural activities or rituals, or acknowledges important social institutions.
It is of course possible for a single sound to do more than one thing. Feel free to refer back to sounds you noted in Activity 8 or introduce new ones, and to discuss smaller communities (workplaces, congregations) as well as larger collectives (neighbourhoods, cities, countries).
Discussion
Spatial boundaries: I live in one of London’s Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). In late 2022, Haringey Council designated it as an area that would have less vehicle circulation, less pollution and less noise – a ‘safer, cleaner and quieter neighbourhood’ (Haringey Council, 2022). Aside from the word ‘quieter’, the council’s website makes little explicit reference to the desired qualities of sound within LTNs. Nevertheless, its characterisation of the desired outcomes of the LTNs seems to imagine the sounds of talk and play: ‘We will reclaim local streets … [as] safe, welcoming and liveable spaces where people meet, chat, [and] socialise and where children play’ (Haringey Council, 2023).
Temporal cycles: Within the UK, laws prohibit loud noises at certain times during the 24-hour day. For example, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Noise Act 1996 prohibits loud noises between 11pm and 7am (United Kingdom, 1996).
The church bells at All Hallows’ Church in Tottenham, mentioned in my response to the previous activity, also mark out temporal cycles: days of the week (Sundays) and days of the church year (for instance, Christmas and Easter Sunday). The bells thus articulate temporal cycles that have a religious/ritual component – which brings us to the next question.
Shared rituals and important social institutions: In centuries past, the bells in the tower at All Hallows’ produced the loudest or most widely heard sounds in their area. In so doing, they enacted a sonic ascendency that was the counterpart of the church’s importance as a social institution.
The same sound also had associations with other powerful institutions: namely, the nation and its military (at least for those in the know). William Robinson (1840, 14n) reports that the main service bell at the church, installed in 1801, was seized from the French in Québec in 1759.