Human existence is accompanied by environmental sounds as by-products of people’s activities and sounds that are intentionally generated to allow human society to function. The resulting soundscapes that surround people’s daily existence are subject to technological, as well as behavioural change. Cultural heritage management has begun to address the question of which sounds and soundscapes should be preserved and maintained as part of humanity’s legacy to future generations. A side-effect of the dramatic social and behavioural change caused by governmental responses to COVID-19 has been a dramatic temporary alteration of urban cultural sound-scapes. In this paper we will consider the nature and extent of these and will explore to what extent the COVID-19-induced reality can be employed to project a future of urban cultural soundscapes if no active heritage intervention were to occur.
The use of religious bells as symbolism and ritual is prevalent in many faiths worldwide. However, the sound of bells emanating from churches is by nature not exclusive to the church, as these sounds can effectively become part of the “public domain.” The value of church bell ringing can therefore be attributed to the church community and clergy as well as the wider community. Cessation of these sounds affects not only the soundscape of the area, but the people who place value on these sounds or soundscapes. Data are presented from a previous survey from 2018 investigating church bell practices in New South Wales (Australia) and compared to the current practice of bell ringing, which has been heavily influenced by regulations introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For centuries, religious buildings have been using bells to call the faithful to prayer. Bell-ringing activity on church premises does not serve a purely religious function, however, as people in the community may perceive this activity secularly, attributing their own meanings and significances towards these sounds. If bell ringing (or the actual sound) were found to have great significance to a specific community, denomination, or a regionality bracket, this may have future implications in any management of these resources. There is a need to hear the voices of the actual practitioners and their perceptions regarding what they, their congregations, and their host communities feel. This paper represents the first large-scale assessment of the views of practitioners of five major Christian denominations with regards to bell-ringing practice and its role in contemporary society.
Annually, there are between 2500 and 3000 Christmas markets in Germany. While claiming to be rooted in century-old tradition, the current concept of the markets, shaped in the 1930s, gradually transformed from primarily mercantile operations to experiential events. In contemporary times, these markets also have quantifiable social and experiential dimensions. The last of these, the experiential dimension, is a mélange of visual, auditory, and olfactory components that create a compound sensory response—the “Christmas atmosphere”. There are copious intangible elements of these markets, which combined create a sum greater than the addition of each of the individual constituent components. We find the recognition of such collections of entwined intangible heritage is novel, warranting further research and documentation, as standard approaches to the identification and management of intangible cultural heritage are too limiting.
As a social species, humans have developed soundscapes that surround, and to some extent circumscribe, their daily existence. The concept of aural heritage, its conceptualization and its management represent a rapidly expanding area of research, covering aspects of both natural and human heritage. However, there have been no contemporary regional or supra-regional studies that examine the nature of sound making in Christian religious settings, nor the extent to which it is still used. This paper presents the results of a survey into the presence of bells and bell ringing practices among five major Christian denominations in New South Wales, and examines to what extent bell ringing is still practiced and what factors may determine any differentiation. In doing so, it provides an objective basis from which to investigate future changes in bell ringing practices, and provides a solid foundation with reference to aural heritage of sound in a religious setting.
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