COMN 4729

Professor: Mark Hayward

Listening Assignment

Heard and Recorded By: Martine Pinelli

Due: Thursday, September 26, 2013

  The location where I took part in my listening assignment was near my home in the beaches on Queen St. E and Neville Park Blvd. right down at the lakeside. I began listening to my surroundings at about 8:30pm on Monday, September 23^rd, 2013 when the streets were calm and the crowds had settled.

  The sounds that I heard while sitting at the edge of the old launching dock at the beachside were the following:

  A steady, tranquil “swooshing” sound of the waves slowly reaching the shore brushing against the small rocks and sand that greeted them. The sound was constant also the most dominant, its duration lasted from when I sat down in my position to after I left as it is something that although changes in pace and volume is inevitably audible when at the beaches.

  Every so often as the waves grew greater a deep “plunking” sound arose from underneath the dock where I was seated a very short and crisp sound comparable to the sound of one strike of a steel drum.

  In the distance a frequent but not constant low pitched and subtle “honk” of a Canadian goose can be heard ever so slightly in an unapparent direction.

  The “chirping” of crickets is constant and all around some louder some softer but all at a high pitch and quick, sharp tempo almost harmonizing with one another to create their own composition.

  Farther away the deep “roar” of dogs wrestling and playing can be heard along with the “scatter” of rocks slipping underneath their feet get closer and farther, louder and softer as the dogs run back and forth.

  Alongside the playful pets the “crunching” of sand and rocks underneath the feet of pet owners and dog walkers striding along the beach are constant and deep getting louder and softer depending on the individuals weight, their size and their pace.

  Even farther in the distance the loud, high pitch “shrieking” and “squealing” of streetcar tracks, a sound common to Torontonians that make you cringe at the sound which, even at such a distance from the street, echoes across the trees to be heard even far away by the waters edge.

  A loud and deep “buzz” suddenly runs across the water from a distance and gains velocity and volume and an insect making skims across the water at a quick pace making the noise apparent and then disappear within a matter of moments. The sound cuts through all other sounds dominantly.

  Very far away the deep throaty “rumble” of airplane engines grow in loudness but stay the same low pitch as they eventually fade in passing.

  With an abundance of sounds to overhear, the beach was definitely a place to hear and experience an assortment of different sounds. Majority of the sounds heard were natural and there were only a couple of sounds that were technological, which is a reason I chose to conduct this assignment in this soundscape in particular. It is very rarely that many of us take the time to experience the many sounds that nature has to offer us, myself included in this, so I thought it would be a great way to bring myself and my ears back to the auditory spectacles that nature, and the beach in particular, has to offer. The beach is definitely a place that has a much different sound than the rest of the city of Toronto and therefore the sounds that are heard there are so incredibly unique to the rest of our city which have much more of a technological based soundscape.

  The fact that the sounds at the beach are so soothing and calming, reflect the type of “happy-go-lucky” environment that the beaches has to offer. As a resident of the beaches I definitely notice a much more relaxed and slower paced environment than the hustle and bustle of the downtown core and is a main reason why there are so many pet owners and pet lovers that live in this area because of its easy and vast access to nature and everything it has to offer. This being said, there are still some signs of the technology from the main city streets that leak in such as the occasional honk of a car horn that can be heard at other times of the day and the other technological sounds that were mentioned earlier in my assignment.  

  The ‘Keynote’ to my experience at the beach would definitely have to be the softness of the waves and their sound in particular, because Lake Ontario is a smaller body of water the waves don’t gather as much velocity which in turn creates a softer sound of them brushing against the shoreline.