User:Ihatebrandnew/sandbox

Elements
The term soundscape was coined by Canadian composer and environmentalist, R. Murray Schafer. According to this author there are three main elements of the soundscape:


 * Keynote sounds
 * This is a musical term that identifies the key of a piece, not always audible ... the key might stray from the original, but it will return. The keynote sounds may not always be heard consciously, but they "outline the character of the people living there" (Schafer).  They are created by nature (geography and climate): wind, water, forests, plains, birds, insects, animals.  In many urban areas, traffic has become the keynote sound.


 * Sound signals
 * These are foreground sounds, which are listened to consciously; examples would be warning devices, bells, whistles, horns, sirens, etc.


 * Soundmark
 * This is derived from the term landmark. A soundmark is a sound which is unique to an area. In his 1993 book, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Schafer wrote, "Once a Soundmark has been identified, it deserves to be protected, for soundmarks make the acoustic life of a community unique."

... and the elements have been further defined as to essential sources:


 * Geophony
 * Consisting of the prefix, geo (gr. earth), and phon (gr. sound), this refers to the soundscape sources that are generated by non-biological natural sources such as wind in the trees, water in a stream or waves at the ocean, and earth movement, the first sounds heard on earth by any sound-sentient organism.


 * Biophony
 * Consisting of the prefix, bio (gr. life) and the suffix for sound, this term refers to all of the non-human, non-domestic biological soundscape sources of sound.


 * Anthrophony
 * Consisting of the prefix, anthro (gr. human), this term refers to all of the sound signatures generated by humans.

Pauline Oliveros, composer of post-World War II electronic art music, defined the term "soundscape" as "All of the waveforms faithfully transmitted to our audio cortex by the ear and its mechanisms".

Bernie Krause, musician and bioacoustician, redefined the soundscape elements in terms of their three main sources, geophony, biophony, and anthrophony.