R. Murray Schafer

The soundscape--a term coined by the author--is our sonic environment, the ever-present array of noises with which we all live. Beginning with the primordial sounds of nature, we have experienced an ever-increasing complexity of our sonic surroundings. As civilization develops, new noises rise up around us: from the creaking wheel, the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer, and the distant chugging of steam trains to the “sound imperialism” of airports, city streets, and factories. The author contends that we now suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information and a proportionate diminishing of our ability to hear the nuances and subtleties of sound. Our task, he maintains, is to listen, analyze, and make distinctions. As a society we have become more aware of the toxic wastes that can enter our bodies through the air we breathe and the water we drink. In fact, the pollution of our sonic environment is no less real. Schafer emphasizes the importance of discerning the sounds that enrich and feed us and using them to create healthier environments. To this end, he explains how to classify sounds, appreciating their beauty or ugliness, and provides exercises and “soundwalks” to help us become more discriminating and sensitive to the sounds around us. This book is a pioneering exploration of our acoustic environment, past and present, and an attempt to imagine what it might become in the future.

Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World

The Soundscape

A Handbook for the Modern Music Teacher

The New Soundscape

100 exercises in listening and sound-making

A sound education

My Life on Earth and Elsewhere, a memoir by the internationally-acclaimed Canadian composer, music educator and writer R. Murray Schafer, traces the author's life and growth as an artist from his earliest memories to the present. Scenes from his youth as an aspiring painter, a music student at the University of Toronto and a sailor on a Great Lakes freighter give way to memories of his several years of work and wandering in Europe, where he gained a deeper understanding of his vocation, and found, especially in Greece, the inspiration for much of the astonishing music he would create after his return to Canada.

My Life on Earth and Elsewhere

Helmi Järviluoma

Acoustic Environments in Change & Five Village Soundscapes

When Words Sing

The Composer in the Classroom

The Sixteen Scribes

Toward a Theory of Soundscape Design

The Tuning of the World

A Theatre Piece for Soprano & Accordion

La Testa D'Adriane

Asterion : a Pataphysical Hierophany

Patria 7

R. Murray Schafer on Canadian Music

E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus) Hoffmann

E. T. A. Hoffmann and Music

Notes for an Experimental Music Course

Ear Cleaning

The Book of Noise

For Mixed Chorus

Psalm

R. Murray Schafer

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