Music G205
Introduction to Ethnomusicology: Audiography: Sound Classification
The object of this assignment is to become aware of sounds that surround us, to attempt to capture these sounds in a recording, and to classify the sounds according to various criteria. Students create a recorded inventory (Part 1) of between twenty and forty ordinary specific sounds to study and categorize (Part 2).
Part One: Sound Harvest
Using an electronic recording device, capture the various sounds that you encounter in the environments in which you live, work, or travel through and to. DO NOT use sounds that have been prerecorded, or that come from other archives or databases. You are trying to hear, record, identify and name 20 to 40 separate sounds. It is suggested that you record at least ten to fifteen minutes in order to find them.
Search for a variety of sounds and sound environments. You will have to choose where to record and which sounds to try to record but try not to collect the sounds according to preconceived categories if possible. A single environment can of course yield many sounds. Because you are trying to collect many sounds, it is understood that there will need to be many tracks. There is no reason why several sounds could not appear on the same track.
You will need to identify and label each sound in order to arrange them in an inventory. For that reason, you need to listen carefully to your sound harvest, LABEL each track and NAME each sound you plan to use. You are responsible for providing an index or some other way of identifying and finding each sound that you refer to in your inventory.
Part Two: Organization through Classification and Category
Descriptive Science generates large collections of data that has been identified, observed and recorded, and it includes the arrangement and presentation of that data. Arranging the inventory in a productive classification is a way to begin to manage the data and make meaning from it. The classification is informed by carefully examining the collected evidence for significant phenomena which are then related under one attribute or another of “sameness” or similarity.
After listening to the tracks and labeling them, create categories in the form of lists, ranks, indexes or spreadsheets that relate the sounds according to as many criteria as possible. You might want to start with the criteria for analysis that we applied to Alphabet sounds: Sound Source, Sound Structure, and Sound Significance. By carefully examining your collection create as many other meaningful categories that relate one sound to another and include the relevant sounds in them by name. A sound might fit in several categories: for instance, “Footsteps” will fit in a group of sounds with a steady pulse, and in a group of sounds having to do with transportation.
Presentation of the classifications and categories in tables, charts, diagrams, and any other visual means, along with the recorded and labelled inventory are to be accompanied by a two-page essay commenting on your discoveries and conclusions.
