> From: John Campbell <>
>
>>
>> At the other end of the dynamic scale, in '72 my wife and I, courtesy of an
>> American Forester, Clark Gleason, stopped at a visitor information station
>> at an entrance on the eastern side of (I think) Yosemite NP. Location is
>> not important anyway. There was a tiny pond covered with a thin sheet of
>> ice which was melting with the morning warmth. It made a heavenly sound.
>> Very soft, very beautiful. Wished I had a recorder with me. Not much
>> opportunity for listening to ice in the subtropics.
>>
>> Syd Curtis (Brisbane, Australia)
>
> Syd,
>
> Well, ya could always stick ya head in ya esky, mate, next time ya
> gettin out a coldie.
>
> But seriously, are there a few descriptive words you could suggest
> which give some idea of how this sounded? You've aroused my
> curiousity.
>
> John Campbell
Putting the cold tinnie down for a moment, John, I suggest you ask Bernie
Krause, he of "Wild Soundscapes".
Mind you, I don't know that Bernie has listened to the music of melting thin
ice. In fact, on further reflection, perhaps he hasn't, 'cos if he had why
isn't it on his CD with the book? But if he has, he would have the ability
to do justice to the sound in words.
My dear wife Anne remembers it as "fairy-like", as pure musical sounds, a
sort of tinkling. More prosaically, I can only say, pure musical notes of
definite but varied pitch unrelated harmonically, staccato, pianissimo, and
irregularly spaced.
Water expands as it freezes I am told, which is why ice floats, and fish
don't get frozen. One may conclude that ice contracts as it melts. And (I
surmise) a very thin sheet of ice, if remaining anchored to the shore at its
edge, cracks as it contracts, and on a perfectly still, quiet day, each
crack makes an audible musical note.
BTW, Anne suggests it was in a National Forest rather than a National Park,
either Mt Whitney N F, or a N F containing Mt Whitney. She also suggests
that if one used a domestic refrigerator to make a thin sheet of ice, and
then dropped some boiling water onto it, one might get some similar sounds.
I haven't tried it.
Syd
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|