Soundscape and Impressions of French Asia

Paper Summary:

The paper refers to Murray Shafer's Soundscape Project and the emerging field of psycho-acoustics, in reference to Western sound impressions of Asia, a familiar device of occidental film and other arts. Reference to Loti's "Mme Chrysanthmeme" and the author's rejection of Japanese sounds and music, en route to discussion of what is seen as "Asian" music or sound in treatments of French Indochina and Vietnam. The theory in the paper refers to Orientalism, ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism of the 19th century, as these are argued to prevail.

From the Paper:

"Murray Schafer explains the significance of music and sounds in reference to his 1970s involvement with the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University, and informal experiments noting tastes according to culture, or denoting culture, and sounds that appeal to persons of one background, but not another. (1994, 146-149) His ideas are interesting to contemplate in terms of how sound is used in film, for instance, to infer a particular effect. The viewer need never have set foot in Asia, yet effects and music summon cues that `speak' to the viewer's sense of it."

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