Hofstra Drama 20 – Sound for the Theatre

1:  Saturday, March 8, 2013, 9:19 pm, Steinway St, Astoria

2:  Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.

Steve and I are in his Honda, driving up and down the pedestrian-heavy streets of Astoria, looking for a parking space within walking distance of our friends’ apartment on Steinway.  Finding a parking spot is proving impossible, and we keep cycling through the same side streets.  The farthest audible noises are those of traffic on other streets and across an overpass – I hear some honking horns of cars of all different makes, creating varied tonality to the sound of the widespread fight for parking spaces.

3:  Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.

On the main street, replete with storefronts and late night lounges and hookah bars, the sidewalks teem with pedestrians, some drunk, some sober, all highly vocal and energized by being out and about on a Saturday night.  People call to one another from across intersections, hollering greetings and squealing when they see their favorites bars.  From the open doors of many of these late night establishments emanates an assortment of popular music, to which many people smoking cigarettes outside playfully dance.

4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (– you can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant).

In spite of the racket of Astoria at this time of night, the inside of the car feels very quiet.  I can hear Steve humming faintly to himself, I can hear him switching gears, I can hear the uneven purr of his car’s engine, and I can hear the haptic feedback on my phone as I type out text messages to our friends, updating them on the tribulations of our search for legal parking.

5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.

There is a great deal of sound activity, with sounds from far and near layering without cancelling out each other.  Nothing is painfully loud, especially from within the car.  And there is an interesting interplay of human and mechanical sounds, of music and simple sound effects, and of bold sounds and very delicate ones.

6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”.

“Urban”

7: Select and list 3 sounds that are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try and figure out what sounds make up this environment and which of those sounds need to be there for the feeling of the environment to stay intact.

The sounds from inside the car feel least relevant to the Astoria nightlife vibe of the sonic environment, but I would still be reluctant to take them out of the picture.  Their audibility even over shouting and car horns adds depth to the environment and is so characteristic of the quiet of the inside of a car that anyone listening would immediately know the context.