Schafer- From Town to City

In this exerpt, Schafer gives an account of various urban soundscapes present in Europe up as far as the time of the Industrial Revolution. He gets quite specific when separating the more obtrusive sounds from the general soundscape. He divides them into three categories: Keynotes, Signals and Soundmarks.

He begins by describing the importance and meaning of the church bell from the seventh century onwards. He describes it as both a centripetal force (drawing church-goers in for various ceremonies) and in the past a centrifugal force (driving out evil spirits). These bells took on such an important and present role in early christian society that they were given names, "big Jaqueline, or the bell Roland".

Johan Huizinga hypothesizes that the pealing of the bells must have been intoxicating when rung for extended periods of time to signify the election of a new pope or the end of a war and the declaration of peace.


Schafer goes on to describe how not everybody was happy with the bells. Many critics of the time were irritated by them on their tours around Europe, such as Charles Burney. Example of annoying church bell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFb28LtY4RE

I found the correlation between the spread of Christianity and the use of church bells, especially when compared to the Muslim faith, which also uses signalling devices and is also missionizing, while the Jewish faith does not. I particularly liked the description of the Bell as a type of "acoustic calendar".

He goes on to track the combination of the clock with the bell. I found it interesting that some old clocks are specifically exempted from anti-noise legislation.

My favourite quote from the piece is "Clocks reach into the recesses of night to remind man of his mortality". A very poignant image.

The Water-Wheel, also very common. Many towns built on rivers. An example of a water mill can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rauJq_LTMYI

He describes the sound of Blacksmiths and tinsmiths.

He describes "Keynotes" as being specific to their geographical location. Eg. the cobblestones found in many european cities and the sound of wheels on wood found in many North-American cities.

He mentions the role of nightwatchmen and town criers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYfnzS1exMk

He describes the plight of street musicians who, during the reign of Elizabeth I in England, were supressed by two acts of Parliament. They were seen as irritating and often unmusical, especially by leading composers of the time.

I found it funny that the sound that caused the most irritation was actual music.

Finally, I appreciate his view of noise legislation as an interesting way of gauging social attitudes of the time.