For my one-hour soundwalk assignment, I wanted to choose a neighborhood that I had never been to before. I asked my friend Andy if he knew of any interesting areas nearby, and he immediately suggested Alphabet City which lies along East River on the lower East Side. I was instantly sold, almost entirely for its enticing name.
It was Monday the 24th of March at 2pm, and it was a cold sunny day in Alphabet City. The first thing I noticed about the area was how quite it was relative to the rest of Manhattan. Don't get me wrong, it still had that constant hum of city rush; however, it was just not as overbearing. This allowed for the background sounds (keynotes) to flourish. During my walk, I noticed the following keynotes: cars, wind, planes, the ocean, dishes clattering (in restaurants), doors opening and closing, footsteps, and the occasional outline of a song radiating from passing headphones.
Prevailing over these background sounds were the sound signals, a term which refers to sounds in the foreground. Sound signals heard included buses, people talking, buskers, and trains (but only when I was near either 14th street or the Williamsburgh bridge).
After taking note of all these sounds, I thought about which of them I would consider soundmarks; that is, sounds which are somewhat unique or defining to an area. The first thing that came to mind was the sound of the water. Alphabet City is so nice and quite, and so close to the river that you can hear the gentle waves cracking over each other. You can also hear the seagulls chirping in the wind. Those would definitely be the biggest sound marks, however there is one other thing I can place on the list: the buskers of Alphabet City (assuming that that stay local). During my walk, I passed this band of 4 playing all woodwind instruments on Avenue B. It was very unique.
