Feld, Steven- Waterfalls of Song: An Acoustemology of Place Resounding in Basavi, Papua New Guinea

Feld opens this piece with a simple question: "How is place actually sensed". He states that his "desire is to illuminate a doubly reciprocal motion: as place is sensed, senses are placed; as places make sense, senses make place".

He goes on to reference Drew leder's The Absent Body (1990) which asks "why, if the body is so central to sensory experience, if it so actively situates the subject, might it also be so experientially absent or out of focus."

Feld references many writers in trying to establish what it means to experience a sense of place, and more specifically the role of sound in this establishment.

He defines Acoustemology as "an exploration of sonic sensibilities, specifically of ways in which sound is central to making sense, to knowing, to experiential truth".

He says that "Acoustemology means that as a sensual space-time, the experience of place potentially can always be grounded in an acoustic dimension.

This reminded me of a documentary about blind people who are learning echo-location in order to traverse their world. Some blind people are able to go for walks and even cycle bicycles simply by learning to experience the world acoustically using clicks of their tongue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpxEmD0gu0Q

He goes on to discuss the acoustemology of the Bosavi people. The bosavi use two distinct metaphors to describe their multisensory experiences: "Lift-up-over sounding" and "flow".

He explains the importance of place and placenames to Kaluli life.

He goes on to describe the perpetual presence of water in the tribes life. Much like the water-mills in Schafer's piece, even when it cannot be seen, it can be heard. He says that the acoustic presence of the water changes from season to season. It becomes like a calendar for the Kaluli, much in the same way that the bells were in europe as described by Schafer.

Feld later discusses the song structure and can get very specific at times. His diagrams detailing the structure of the songs, as seen on page 116 is very useful in grasping the structure, just as his lyrics and translations are in understanding the feeling of the songs.

I particularly liked his description of her third song being sung for, to and about the water she is sitting beside, as it demonstrates the important role that place plays in the Kaluli singing tradition.

Another interesting comparison we can draw between Feld's piece and Schafer's piece is that while the sound of the water and jungle directly influenced the type of music performed by the Kaluli, the rhythm of peoples breathing, as well as the repetitive beating of the industrial revolution influenced the music of that time and place too.