Endangered Sounds

As technology is becoming more used, the sounds associated with purely manual work are gradually being replaced. In many cases this also results in the loss of a direct relationship between work activity and sound produced.

For example, on the street the grinding of spices is done by hand. The sound produced is quiet and intimate: when the grinder speeds up or slows down, so do the resulting sounds; when there is a pause to refill, so the sound pauses. In contrast, the supermarket uses a machine that emits an intense whine like a dentist's drill and can be heard all over the shop.

Another endangered sound is the ‘twang’ of the cotton bouncer. In wintertime people take the cotton filling of their duvets to the cotton bouncer to get them re-fluffed and rejuvenated. The cotton is first put onto a working surface and then brought to life by the vibration of the taut string of a berimbao-type sounding instrument. This too, however, is gradually being replaced by the machine alternative and so soon another musically sounding aspect of the workplace will disappear.