| CONTEMPLATIONS :: Guenther Rabl :: Distant Sounds |
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Sounds are acoustic “pictures.” Are there such things as close and distant pictures (I mean “picture” as a sensation, not as an object one hangs on the wall)? No, naturally not. Sounds? It’s the same. A sound is always close, very close, otherwise we wouldn’t perceive it. Or, to be more exact, they perhaps really do exist – these “distant sounds.” They are very simply those that do not reach or have not yet reached our ears. Linguistic usage indeed abbreviates the matter. A “distant sound” simply means one that comes from far off, whose cause or epicenter is in the distance. Let’s leave parlance at that, but let us be conscious of its meaning. So, what is the essence of such a “distant sound,” one that comes from afar? How does it differ from a “close” one? Through its distance? That does not apply! We surely know, in any case, that it is close if we hear it. The difference, therefore, has to lie in its appearance, in its shape. And that’s the way it is. The sound changes during its journey. It gives something off but also takes something up. The waves which actually make up its essence split during their wanderings and coalesce with other waves. This is also a characteristic of distant sounds – that they carry very much more in themselves than is explainable with a single source. |
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© Günther Rabl 2001 |