mouth music (voice snow, voice wind)

"The text consists of inuit words for various kinds of snow : apingaut , first snowfall; mauyk, soft snow; akelrorak , drifting snow ; pokaktok , snow like salt"

performers: Elektra Women's Choir

alternate version



more elemental music by R. Murray Schafer



"The wind, like the sea, possesses an infinite number of vocal variations...The wind is an element that grasps the ears forcefully. The sensation is tactile as well as aural. How curious and almost supernatural it is to hear the wind in the distance without feeling it, as one does on a calm day in the Swiss Alps, where the faint, soft whistling of the wind over a glacier miles away can be heard across the intervening stillness of the valleys. " - R. Murray Schafer



"All modern languages have colourful words to describe sound qualities. Numerous exercises could be devised to explore language onomatopoeia, starting by simply making lists of words in your own language that illustrate in sound the notion or object they are describing (gurgle, splash, bubble, smack, pop, etc.). But an exercise I prefer is to invent words in your own private language with onomatopoeic qualities. Try inventing some to illustrate the following: bell sneeze a bomb exploding a cat purring moonlight Here, for example are some onomatopoeic inventions for 'moonlight' given to me by 11-year-olds..."
- R. Murray Schafer




voicescape as chimescape




voicescape as chimescape #2