Schoolyard Soundwalk

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Originally appears in the Fall 2021 issue.

By Galina Vakhromova

Editor’s Note: Fall is a wonderful time to explore the sonic environment, as “singing” insects (well, stridulating insects, if we’re being exact) are the dominant sound-makers from the animal kingdom — and it’s not just at night; a surprising number of species actively stridulate during daylight hours. If there’s even a bit of long grass or herbaceous vegetation on the grounds where you teach, you can be sure that there will be some sort of insect chorus. Regardless of your teaching context, the tips and insights included in the second half of this article will help you guide your learners in opening their ears to the music of nature and everyday life.

At the University of Toronto (U of T) New Music Festival, Kiyo Iwaasa opened the Karen Kieser Prize Concert with three pieces by Canadian musician Hildegard Westerkamp: “Like a Memory,” “Attending to Sacred Matters,” and “Klavierklang” (“Sounds of Piano”). With each piece, the composer invites the audience on a journey to explore an acoustic environment. Westerkamp is interested in acoustic ecology, which is the science of analyzing the sonic landscape. The sound “pictures” she creates of the environment also give listeners a chance to explore different countries and cultures. In “Klavierklang”, she relays a story from her past. Once, while walking along a beach, she saw an abandoned house where nobody lived. There, she found an old piano. She put her hands on the keyboard and heard sounds. It was not a “real” instrument anymore because some of the keys were missing and a few strings were broken, but she continued playing compositions that she had learned during childhood. Then, something unusual happened. She started to remember her past as assorted memories from her childhood returned. Some of them were very clear and some were not. She played the piano and remembered long-forgotten feelings which were connected to pictures from the past. It was an extraordinary musical experience. 

Westerkamp was born in Osnabrueck, Germany and moved to Canada in 1968. Since 1993, she has been a member of the committee that facilitates the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. Scholars involved in the forum study the relationships between human beings and their environment. Westerkamp also works in radio and, together with the Goethe Institute, she prepares and presents soundscape workshops both in Canada and worldwide. Her work is changing our understanding of the act of listening itself, while raising awareness about the impacts of the acoustic environment on humans and the wider ecosystem.