ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I propose combining the concept of landscape with that of soundscape and articulating the latter in an ecological perspective, analysing potential forms of noise pollution in our daily lives. The aim is to better comprehend the musical composition of our biographical trajectories and to examine the interplay of soundscape and subjectivity. Additionally, I invite the reader to engage in an auto-ethnography of the sounds encountered daily in order to document the extent to which we are potentially also the sounds we listen to.
Drawing from Murray Schafer, I underscore that noise pollution arises when we stop listening carefully: polluting noises are, in fact, everyday sounds we have learned to ignore and would like to be able to silence. Furthermore, I highlight how, defending ourselves against noise pollution with a mode of listening that is denied, or that is intermittent, we lose the habit of tuning into the rhythmic sounds of nature, the sounds made by others, and even those made by what takes place in our inner self, ultimately becoming accustomed to not listening at all. This is one of the most adverse effects of our constant overexposure to continuous forms of noise pollution in daily life. I then consider the value of silence and its capacity to sculpt sounds, making them reverberate.
While the first part of the chapter centres on the sounds of everyday life, the second part shifts the focus to the music of everyday life. The latter is analysed through the sociological paradigm of music as “agency”. Here, on the one hand, I present examples concerning the use of musical devices for the social and commercial definition of public spaces; on the other, I propose considering the concept of “musical self” to analyse the soundtracks of our individual biographies. Finally, I explore the concept of “acoustic past” and attempt to outline a map of the main research paths that have investigated it.
