Title: Environment matters : why song sounds the way it does /
Authors: Whidden, Lynn, 1946-; Shore, Paul J., 1956-
Year: 2019
Subjects: Music Environmental aspects.; Music Social aspects; Singing Social aspects.; Music and architecture; Music Origin; Music and architecture; Music Environmental aspects; Music Origin; Music Social aspects; Musik; Umweltfaktor
Abstract: Why does human music sound the way it does? To better understand this, the authors look at the human and even animal ability for mimicry, at existing acoustic niches and introduce the idea of at least three habitats for music. Is there a unified sound quality for music created indoors, for song sung outdoors, and for music produced with electric signals? The authors seek answers from music ethnography, from the closed space of medieval churches, from Gothic architecture, from particular buildings such as the Prague Estates Theatre and from their own experience and that of others in the contemporary electronic music environment. Drawing on fieldwork, archival materials and media studies research, they propose a model that will inspire scholars to explore human music in its rightful and important place in the natural world.
Contents: Introduction -- Organized sound genres: song, music and electronic mode -- At least three habitats for song, music and electronic mode -- Mimicry: the song enabler -- Fama: a complex sound yields a simple song. Habitat 1: the outdoors : The Canadian subarctic -- Northern plains -- The Northwest coast -- The Canadian arctic. Habitat 2: the indoors : Towards habitat two: cold space -- The closed space of the medieval church -- In the realm of notation: a corollary -- Layered music space -- Silent space -- Decorated Gothic space: an indoor forest of sounds -- Redefined space, reconfigured sound -- Word space, sound space -- Buildings reused and redefined -- Spaces Baroque and Rococo -- Nostalgia -- The outdoors imagined. Habitat 3: the electronic mode : Conclusion -- Bibliography.