Hofstra Drama 20 – Sound for the Theatre

1:  Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:10 pm, House on Braxton St

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

I’m taking a bubble bath in my friend’s newly installed tub as a rare treat, because the tubs on campus seem dirty.  I am also doing this with the specific intention of creating a sound journal for what I hear underwater.  Once submerged, the only distant sounds that can be heard are of so low a register that they seem more like pure vibrations – the sonorous thud of a shutting door and the dull footsteps of a heel-walker on the hall floor outside the bathroom door.

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

I can hear the hot water rushing out of the faucet, making frothing sounds and splashes as it divides to slap the surface of the water and churn down to the closed drain with its stream.  Once I turn off the faucet (with a feeble squeak), I can hear the occasional, singular plink of water into the tub, and even the fluid rustle of water displaced by my shifting limbs.

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

Internal sounds are more audible than they’ve been in any previous sound journals with the water pressure pushing up against my eardrums.  I can hear my heart beating with a thud, with the sonic clarity of hearing it through a stethoscope.  Occasionally my viscera make squishing noises in hunger – as my friend Greg once described the growlier of these noises, they’re like “a monster submerged in pudding.”

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

The sound level to an external ear would be very low – in fact, most of the sound activity I’m observing would be practically inaudible to anyone as far as the other side of the small bathroom.  But beneath the water, the sounds are very full.

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

“Internal”

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 outside the bathroom give clues to context like dulled honking outside a sealed up car, but they aren’t vital to the vibe of the sonic environment.  The sound of the water of varying sizes and speeds (from a downpour to the sporadic droplet) go well with the internal sounds of my body, as there is a fluid, quality to both.  After all, the human body is filled with fluid; therefore, being inside a bathtub is aurally like being inside a body.  Thus, listening to the fluid in my body while submerged in fluid is like meta-sound-journaling.  (Whoa!)