My First Paper!

My first paper is up. It’s on the other page. I looked at the music of Sigur Ros under the lens of R. Muray Schafer’s ideas on soundscapes. It lines up fairly well. Read away.

I’ve found some information.

I’ve been looking into R. Murray Schafer’s views on soundscapes. He’s been working in the subject for a long time, but more from the point of worrying about the aural environment we are creating. I sort of sympathize with him since I’ve noticed the broad range of electronics hums, buzzes, and clicks coming from all the new devices in my parents house. They have one of those “Roomba” robots, and the charger for it makes this wild beeping sound that you can only hear when the house is quiet. Anyway, I’m writing my first paper on my topic in relation to Schafer and it should be up soon.

It All Starts Here.

This is my first day with this Blog. This is all part of a class I’m taking at the University of Maine at Farmington called “Writing about music”. I’ve decided to start with the band Sigur Ros since they most clearly define my subject. Their music defines the Icelandic landscape with an aptitude I’m blown away by. Clean, minimalist, destructive, gentle; these words could be interchanged in describing the music or the landscape. I’ve found a text I want to get my hands on. It’s called “The Book of Music and Nature” by David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus. Apparently David likes to play the clarinet with whales. It sounds exciting and I’m thinking about buying it. I hope to get into machine music as well (I really love George Antheil). We’ll see what happens. I’m supposed to write my first small paper for Wednesday. I’ll have to think about where to start…