STUDENT EXAMPLE: The Sound of Silence
August Druzgal
Introduction
Ocean Dreams – Olympic National Park, Washington
This recording, titled Ocean Dreams, was produced on the coast of Olympic National Park in Washington. Gordon Hempton lives near Olympic National Park, so many of his recordings are of the various different sounds that he’s discovered in his exploration of this large and diverse park. This recording focuses on capturing the sound of the steady waves crashing against the beach, and what makes this recording unique is that the rocks ground to make the sand have a different resonant frequency from that of other beaches. The sand of every beach is comprised of distinctly different rocks and minerals, and this recording demonstrates the unique sound of the coast of Olympic National Park.
Forest Rain – Olympic National Park, Washington
This recording, titled Forest Rain, was produced within the massive redwood forest of Olympic National Park in Washington. The sound of rain is unique to any forest, because the different types of trees and the unique nutrients in the ground cause a lot of variation in the way the sound of rain is dispersed throughout the forest. For Olympic National Park, this means that the tall treeline and diverse undergrowth create a slow trickle of rain, deafening the usual sound of raindrops smashing against the ground and replacing it with a new sound of the rain flowing gently to the forest floor.
Riverside – Uda Wala Way, Sri Lanka
This recording, titled Riverside, was produced from a river in Uda Wala Way, Sri Lanka. This recording captures the sound of this river gently flowing, as well as the nearby sounds of the local wildlife around it. Similarly to rain, rivers are unique in the sound that they produce because of the speed at which they flow, and the content of the ground that it flows over. This river in particular is charactarized by slow moving water against a muddy riverbed, creating a soft rhythm of water occasionally splashing against the shore. This recording is one of many examples of unique sounds from relatively unknown locations that might have been lost if they hadn’t been recorded.
Themes
One of the primary themes found within Gordon Hempton’s art is the contrast between sounds and noise. Sounds are simply vibrations that you can hear. Anything that you can hear, from rain hitting the ground to wind blowing in the trees, is a sound. Noises are a subset of sounds, but with the added quality of being unpleasant, loud, or oppressive to other nearby sounds. For the beauty of the sounds of nature, noise looms as a constant threat to our ability to experience them, and the increase in our use of cars and planes over the years has created a substantial amount of unavoidable noise. The preservation of natural sounds through the removal of noise serves as a common theme in Hempton’s work, as he works with the objective of finding and preserving silence so that the unique sounds of life can be appreciated.
Another theme that Hempton works with, which is a result of his interest in music, is the view of natural sounds as a symphony. Hempton’s work demonstrates that, as instruments are created from natural elements, the sounds that can be found in nature are a form of music in themselves. Hempton often chooses to record sounds that, to an untrained ear, aren’t that special; for example, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of value in recording the sound of rain, but Hempton has recorded this repeatedly, because he finds value in the hidden qualities that make this sound unique. The sound of rain changes based on the surface it lands on, or the size of the rain drops, or even the height of the cloud it falls from. The small variations in common sounds like these often go unnoticed by the general public, mostly because they are inaudible against the constant background noise of cars and planes, so Hempton frequently records common sounds in unusual places to preserve the unique beauty of each location.
Analysis
The motivation behind Hempton’s work has remained consistent for the 35 years that he has recorded these sounds, as he has always had a fascination with the sound of silence. Hempton has traveled across the world in search of silent locations to record and preserve. The primary event that has influenced his decision to devote his life to this art form has been the steady increase in global noise. Planes and cars have become more and more prevalent, and few laws restricting the noise created by these vehicles have been created to combat this. Hempton works to raise awareness of the gradual loss of silence across the world, and he focuses his efforts on protecting and preserving the limited amount of silence that remains.
Aside from raising awareness, these environmental sound portraits also serve a secondary purpose of relieving stress for the listeners. Everyone experiences stress, but few realize that one of the main causes of stress is the constant stimulation of the senses; specifically, hearing ambient noise for 24 hours a day every day causes a lot more stress than you might think, and sitting down for a while with some noise-cancelling headphones and listening to a sound portrait gives you a rare break from the stress inducing noise of life. This is, conveniently, a very practical reason to preserve these sounds, and it continues to help demonstrate why it’s so important to raise awareness about the problems that we’ve caused by producing so much noise.
Application
This art form is absolutely crucial for understanding our society’s true impact on the natural world because it helps us become aware of the problems that we’ve created in our pursuit of technology. Most people alive today will never experience life without the background noise of cars or planes moving past, and consequently, will never experience the beauty of the natural sounds that have been paved over through our creation of this global noise. The stark contrast between human noise and Hempton’s recordings shows us that, even in places like the Arboretum, which are meant to be a preserved and protected section of nature, we still damage the auditory elements that make it unique. Hempton’s work becomes more and more important with each passing day because the noise of humanity continues to overwhelm the sounds of nature without showing any signs of stopping.
