Pam Marshall's notes about composing music, teaching, improvising, music software, nature


Tag: human-made sounds

  • “Polluted” Soundscapes

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    It’s hard to find spots to record nature soundscapes that don’t have some kind of traffic noise…

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  • Singing Machines Part 3

    Reminiscing… I was hiking the Monadnock-Sunapee trail on an August Saturday near our cabin on a New Hampshire lake. I was in the woods at least a quarter mile away from shore and I could hear the motorboats, making endless circles around the lake. It was my homing beacon, better than any compass. I could…

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  • Singing Machines Part 2

    The propeller of the little 9-row airplane that flies from Phoenix to Flagstaff Arizona hums low, the fan warbles at a mid-range pitch, and then the whole plane shakes like the butt-kickers at the IMAX theater as we take off. As we rise higher, the puddle-jumper thrums a pumping pulse about 60 beats/minutes until it…

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  • Singing Machines Part 1

    It’s a cool August morning at our cabin. The quartz heater next to me plays a perfect fourth over and over as the thermostat switches from low to high and back again. A tractor-trailer truck makes an eerie whistling glissando as it speeds downhill on I-89 near the welcome center in Vermont. Was it a…

    Read more: Singing Machines Part 1