Publish at March 06 2024 Updated March 08 2024
The wind is up; a dry wind. Between four walls, we're only aware of its presence by the sounds it makes. Whistling, hissing, sometimes howling. The effect on the building is noticeable: creaks in the structure, knocks, rattles in the windows, the whole environment manifests its presence through different sounds, to which we add the interpretation of our experience. Unless it's an unknown noise, none of them worry us; the most we know is that it's not a very pleasant day outside.
The number of words we use to characterize sounds suggests just how important the soundscape is to us.
First of all, we name the noises things make: creak, clatter, clank, grind, thump, screech, crackle, rustle, rumble, crash, din, cacophony, etc. Each of these words can evoke a different phenomenon, depending on the intensity qualifiers that accompany it. Our memories of these sounds serve as a yardstick.
Sounds clearly bear the marks of what produces them. We can distinguish :
Through the characteristics of sound, we naturally estimate the distance between source and receiver and what lies between the two. Whether a simple door or window is open or closed makes an easy-to-perceive difference.
We clearly recognize animal sounds by their distinctive signatures: chirping, croaking, cooing, buzzing, streaking, mooing, bleating, barking, neighing, yapping and many others, in all languages.
In fact, every living creature has its own species signature sound. Some calls even transcend species; a distress call is strangely similar across all species. Snoring, growling, hiccups and the like refer more to general biology than to a particular species.
On the flora side, we can recognize the sound of leaves on different trees or the dryness of a field by the sound of the wind between the stems.
Human sound words are in a class of their own: from the babble of a baby to the cry of joy, via whispers, susurrations, breaths, sighs, rumors and other murmurs. These words convey characteristics of mood or emotion. Whether in a friendly or threatening tone, casual or serious, distant or warm... we are able to estimate the emotional message of the sound without even understanding its meaning, because the sound carries the emotion, independently of the meaning. Meaning is a function of our brain's complex decoding; we understand emotion first.
The words used to characterize the voice are even more revealing of its richness: if it can be high or low, nasal, hoarse, guttural, hoarse, powerful or clear, it can also be warm, robotic, playful, sad, assertive, soft, posed, articulate, mumbled... and so on. We can notice the objective characteristics of a voice, but the ones we remember are more often subjective and associated with a perceived emotional impression.
The technical words used to describe sounds reduce the complexity we rely on to distinguish the characteristics of what we hear:
In a complex sound, we are able to perceive resonance, harmonics, reverberation (echo), distortion, flow, etc. We can also associate rhythm and arrhythmia. We can also associate rhythm and arrange sounds into melodies or moods to communicate emotions and messages. But more generally, through sound we detect emotions as subtle as assurance or hesitation, urgency or insistence, confidence or coldness, and we do so almost instantaneously, without much thought. The absence of any complex characteristics also makes synthetic sounds easy to detect.
From monotonous to enthusiastic, from authoritative to benevolent, from confident to hesitant: the impression conveyed by the teacher's voice sends the first message, even before the end of the first sentence. The course will be long or interesting, easy or demanding, exciting or conventional. Is it the course content or the teaching method that leads the teacher to adopt a particular tone, or the opposite, or a little of both? We recognize that the student's emotional state affects his or her learning; the tone used by the teacher also influences it, and is therefore part of his or her pedagogical toolbox.
Intention is translated into sound, whether live or recorded. Obviously, the effort put into a quality pedagogical production takes into account the quality of sound and tone. A quality microphone already gives an impression of professionalism, so what about impeccable elocution? Elocution, articulation, flow, intonation, projection, pronunciation, diction, fluidity, rhythm... all these words deal with the quality of speech, regardless of meaning. If, in addition, the depth and coherence of meaning, tone and timbre resonate, we obtain an amplification of the scope, both of the sound and of the message it carries.
Illustration: Landscape of a windy day by the sea - Generated by Gemini.
Further reading
Vocabulary: Noise
https://www.wattpad.com/285800048-conseils-%E2%80%A2-vocabulaire-le-bruit
Glossary of terms used in sound production
http://deschamp.free.fr/exinria/divers/jcassard.html
Glossary of amplified sounds
https://guide-sons-amplifies.bruit.fr/ressources/lexique
Audio Glossary
https://lasonotheque.org/dossiers/dossier-lexique-audio.html
Acoustic voice analysis for speaker emotion detection
Leila Kerkeni - Thesis - https://theses.hal.science/tel-02925116v1/file/2020LEMA1003.pdf
The theatrical voice as a vector of emotion - Géraldine Dupla
https://www.manufacture.ch/download/docs/gjn9wkg4.pdf/BAT-E%20-%20DUPLA%20G%C3%A9raldine%20-%20La%20Voix%20au%20th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre,%20vecteur%20d%27%C3%A9motion.pdf
À voix haute - Dossier
https://cursus.edu/fr/dossiers/15427/a-voix-haute
Listening - Dossier
https://cursus.edu/fr/dossiers/13794/a-lecoute
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