Soundscape: Bugler's Cry

Bugler's Cry-The Origin of Sounding Taps (6:50) The sound of taps rings across the soundscape with the burial of soldiers lost in war.  Taps Historian and bugler Jari Villanueva explains the origins of America's most famous bugle call.

Lecture: Modeling Natural Sounds

Modeling Natural  Sounds with Modulation Cascade Process (27:51)  Richard Turner, University College, London. Auditory scene analysis is extremely challenging. One approach, perhaps that adopted by the brain, is to shape useful representations of sounds on prior knowledge about their statistical structure. For example, sounds with harmonic sections are common and so time-frequency representations are efficient. Most current representations concentrate on the shorter components. Here, we propose representations for structures on longer time-scales, like the phonemes and sentences of speech. We decompose a sound into a product of processes, each with its own characteristic time-scale. This demodulation cascade relates to classical amplitude demodulation, but traditional algorithms fail to realise the representation fully. A new approach, probabilistic amplitude demodulation, is shown to out-perform the established methods, and to easily extend to representation of a full demodulation cascade. Source: Vimeo

Soundscape: Sounds From The Arctic

Sounds from the Arctic (3:56) In June, 2006, Bioacoustician Bernie Krause and a team of environmental sound recordists spend two weeks recording the biophony at diverse sites in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Source: New Scientist and YouTube.

Soundscape: Site-specific performance/sound intervention

N-Train Traverse (3:13) Thousands of commuters pass over the Manhattan Bridge every day. As soon as the train exits the tunnel, signal is restored to cell phones and faces immediately drop into their devices, ignoring the spectacular view of New York that can be seen only from this vantage point.

N-Train Traverse is a sound intervention that prompts commuters to appreciate the view. The composition is based on modular themes that are cued by specific views from the bridge, integrated into the visual score. Commuters watch and listen to the skyline as they sit amongst the musicians on the N train. Source: Vimeo

Soundscape: Japan - Flowing Water

Water has a significant meaning in Japanese culture and religion and is found in the country's history, literature and mythology. Here are three reflective videos related to rain and water in the Japanese soundscape.

Rain On An Old Roof (2:12)  By Shinji Kanki. The sound of gentle rain falling on the roof of an old house in Kurashiki-city provides a quiet contemplative soundscape. Source: YouTube

Rainy Courtyard (1:02) By Hiroshi Sato. The sound of rain in a traditional garden and architectural setting.   Source: YouTube

Rice Field Water Sounds. (3:53) By Kurt Bell.  The hills and mountains of central Japan are pleasant places to walk and explore. During summer the rice farmers irrigate their fields and there is a distinct tinkle and gurgle which can be heard as water flows from irrigation channels into and out of each field. Source: YouTube

Hard Rain on the Roof (00:41) By Kurt Bell. A moment in the mountains when heavy rain cascades off a nearby roof.

Nagoya Garden (2:02) The sound of water is an important part of many Japanese gardens such as this one in Nagoya.

Soundscape: Cicada of Japan

The sound of the cicada is an acoustic symbol of summer's arrival in Japan as their song fills the air during the hot and humid months throughout the country.

Sound of Summer (1:01) The sound of a Japanese summer soundscape with the buzzing of cicada as background. Video by Kanal Von Docsnoek. Source: YouTube

Forest Cicada (1:05) The sounds of cicada reverberate at the edge of a mountain bamboo forest on an August evening. Video by  Kurt Bell.  Source: YouTube

Soundscape Composition: Flow

Flow  (8:21) This video and more importantly the audio was created by Tim Opie using the composition technique known as eco-structuralism in which sound recordings, particularly field recordings, are analyzed for underlying structures and patterns. This analysis, used in conjunction with a strict set of rules, becomes the constructs of the musical work.

The field recordings for this composition were recorded at a waterfall near The Basin in Victoria, Australia. It was recorded just after the first rainfall since the major fires on Black Saturday had begun and had been burning for two weeks. There was some ash in the air and very little water in the river - just enough to get some flow, and a little fire relief. Source: Vimeo

Lecture: Architecture and the Sound of Music

How Architecture Helped Music Evolve (16:31) As his career grew, David Byrne went from playing CBGB to Carnegie Hall. He asks: Does the venue make the music? From outdoor drumming to Wagnerian operas to arena rock, he explores how context has pushed musical innovation.