How to Understand Acoustics

I.

According to Merriam-Webster: 

 

acous·tics     Pronunciation: \e’-küs-tiks\    Function: noun plural

1 singular in construction : a science that deals with the

production, control, transmission, reception, and effects of

sound.

2 also acoustic : qualities that determine the ability of an

enclosure to reflect sound waves in such a way as to produce

distinct hearing.

 

 

II.

Remember: 

 

The relationship between environment and sound is learned—

trial and error.  Sing 

from the diaphragm.  Do not 

let the voice escape,

force it from your lungs, 

your throat, 

your lips.  

Feel it expand as it leaves you.  

Listen to the resonance grow and resound.  

 

Create flowing vibration: the deep 

brassy reflection of ancient stone, hand-formed steel,

cavernous darkness.  Desire 

the amplification that comes without dissonance, 

which allows you to hear you own voice as though 

it lives independent of you, as though 

it goes to work, sleeps, dreams, woos, despairs and

overjoys in the complexities of its own history.

 

 

III.

In the Cape 

a white woman discovered 

a native garbage man who sang— 

an African Pavarotti.  

 

She convinced the city opera house to grant him 

a performance, for one night.

She bought him a tuxedo,

cut his hair. The news showed

the native man singing as he worked, 

the sound of dumping garbage crushed beneath

his tenor. We were all amazed.

 

In school we studied the planets, 

the first landing on the moon, 

the silence of Apollo 13, 

the tragedy of the Challenger exploding—

a firework again and again on 

the informative video.

 

Teacher said:

 

The class asked: 

 

 

IV.

My people are English, exiled 

in the 1600’s when the king discarded subjects: 

poor, sick, some thieves, some worse—not many.  

 

We were put on ships, sent off 

to anyplace deserted enough to take us, 

sometimes out to sea until supplies ran thin, left 

to chase rats, drink sea water, haunt the hollow waves 

twelve generations later—cruise ships trampling 

thousands of feet overhead.  

 

Some arrived in Australia, Africa, America, 

in jails, in towns, discovering new lands, running 

for office, crowding subway stations, wearing printed tee-shirts

with retro logos, worrying about cell phone companies 

and losing their latest pounds.  

 

The only proof my people have: a broken stopwatch 

passed through first born sons, reporting: March 7th, 3:35—

there being no difference between day and night.

 

Still, we felt nostalgic when deep-sea divers found the wreck, 

St. George III, the prison ship that had caught fire 

off the coast centuries earlier.

In the midst of an uprising a cargo full of prisoners went free 

in time to choose to a death in flames or water. 

People on shore watched, breathless, only wondering

if they heard screams skimming across the sea.

 

 

V.

Proof is what’s known: 

The speed of any wave depends upon the properties 

of the medium through which it passes. Rigid materials

maintain their shape; elastic materials deform readily. 

 

The speed of  a sound wave through air: 343 m/s.

The speed of a sound wave through water: 1433 m/s.

The speed of a sound wave through iron: 5130 m/s.

 

 

VI.

My mother recited prayers in the ocean 

because she liked the sound.  

Dividing “Amen” between air and water: 

“A” to the sky, “men” bubbling out 

into the cold Atlantic.  

 

I would sink with her, close my eyes and listen 

echoes, seeming to travel great distances, over time, recalling

all that the ocean had allowed and claimed.

 

 

VII.

From the Cape, the broadcast of the national opera 

travelled across wires to our waiting eyes. 

On the stage, framed in velvet, under lights,

the native garbage man bowed. 

A man whose people had never been cast-out, but burned—

instead—where they stood. He opened his mouth, 

but no sound came. 

 

The audience waited.

Faces Fell. 

Eyes looked away.

 

Of course, Teacher said.