ABSTRACT
A soundscape, from sound and landscape, is any acoustic field of study: a music work, a radio program or an acoustic environment. In 1973, the World Soundscape Project published The Vancouver Soundscape, a record edited by R. Murray Schafer including 10 tracks reproducing sounds of the Ocean, sounds of the Vancouver harbour, sirens and whistles and music played in various places around the city of Vancouver. Schafer aimed at studying the relationship between man and the sounds of the environment, examining the contribution of scientific, social and artistic disciplines, such as acoustics, psycho-acoustics, otology, noise abatement procedures, sound engineering and music. A fundamental topic about soundscape regards its notation, its transcription in visual signs for preservation and analysis. Schafer looks for a technology able to measure the duration, frequency, amplitude and timbre of sound events, and a notation system able to relate events belonging to the same soundscape.
