Welcome to the weblog for the Short Term course at Bates College, The Soundscape.  The course offers a sustained introduction to what composer R. Murray Schafer calls the soundscape “unfolding around us ceaselessly.  We are simultaneously its audience, its performers and its composers.”  Class is held outside as much as possible and in a variety of sound environments.  While students read and discuss key writings about sound, the principal method of the course is deep listening, extended through performance and composition—whether in music, words or visual media.  In addition to a contemplative practice, the course includes an introduction to field recording techniques, to the spring songs of amphibians and birds, and to some key recordings in the history of soundscape composition.  Students also gain practice in the digital editing of field recordings.  A final project includes composing—in sound, in words or in graphic media—a response to particular, living soundscapes.  No musical experience or aptitude is required.  A chief aim of the course is to explore how attention to the soundscape helps to make us better citizens of the natural environment.