Quiet In The Land Analysis

On a daily basis people are exposed to numerous sounds in the environment around them and according to Kendall Wrightson (Wrightson, 2000: 11) These, sounds can all be categorised as high fidelity (Pre-industrial) or low Fidelity (Post-industrial) sounds, as per acoustic ecologists. Eric F. Clarke (Clarke, 2013: 92) explains that, in a broader terminology, there is a greater understanding of the psychoacoustic of the human approach that can be expressed in three dimensions of space in reaction to what the observer witnesses. These three dimensions are known as, “Left/Right; in front/behind; up/down” (Clarke, 2013: 92).

Focusing on the Canadian pianist and composer Glenn Gloud’s radio documentary “Quiet in the land” Solitude Trilogy (1977), I will be discussing the soundscape features found within the first four minutes of the piece. According to Kendall Wrightson (Wrightson, 2000: 10), R. Murry Schafer used the following terminology to describe these sounds: Keynotes, Sound signals and Sound Marks (Wrightson, 2000: 10).

at 0:08 the murmur of children in the background appears with the repeated church bell rhythm, followed by an approaching car, with a crescendo dynamic, the vehicle’s soundscape changes from a keynote to a sound signal as he approaches and then reverts back to a keynote as the car drives away (0:18 - 0:25). This can be seen on a connotative level as cars driving into the church grounds. The following sound that occurs people moving around on the church benches and paging through hymn books, that provides a pizzicato sound and with the repeated approaching car sound that finishes off the outdoor sounds with a car horn (0:27 -