美国国家公共电台 NPR--He spent decades recording soundscapes. Now they're going to the Library of Congress

He spent decades recording¹ soundscapes. Now they're going to the Library of Congress

Transcript²

The Library of Congress has acquired the life's work of radio producer Jim Metzner, who has spent decades traveling the world to capture rich soundscapes. While he's honored that they will be archived, he says he wants to make sure people actually listen to them.

Library of Congress

Jim Metzner has spent nearly five decades documenting and sharing the sounds of the world, from immersive portraits of American cities to indelible moments with people and wildlife in places as varied³ as Alaska, Australia, Japan, Greece, Cuba, Nepal and Morocco.

He sees his job as listening to sounds, not capturing them, as he told NPR's Morning Edition in a recent interview.

"Sometimes you hear people say, 'You know, I captured this sound' and 'I captured that sound,' " he adds. "Right from the get-go, I never felt that I was capturing anything. I felt like these things were gifts. You receive something extraordinary, the first thing you want to do is say, 'Oh my God, listen to this! Let me share this with somebody!' "

Metzner has shared those sounds with many listeners over the years, mostly through radio programs including his own nationally syndicated series, Pulse of the Planet, which aired daily from 1989 until earlier this year.

Now more people will be able to hear more of the world through Metzner's tape. The Library of Congress announced earlier this month that it has acquired the full body of his work, which includes thousands of recordings⁴ in addition to photographs, journals, podcasts and storybooks. The collection contains some 28,000 mixed material items dating from the 1970s to 2019.

The Library of Congress says its digital preservation⁵ work is just getting started, but has released a finding aid to the paper portion of the collection that people can use "as a general guide to the depth and breadth" of the recordings that will eventually become available.

"They include soundscapes of every description from around the world and interviews with scientists, artists and indigenous⁶ peoples," Matt Barton, curator of recorded sound at the library's National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, said in a statement. "Whereas many recordists focus entirely⁷ on a single subject — nature, music or science — Metzner's recordings convey a full spectrum⁸ of human experience accompanied by the vast array of sounds from the natural world."

Metzner collects poignant⁹ moments on a global scale

Metzner's career began with a moment of realization¹⁰ in the 1970s, when he first ventured onto the campus of UMass Amherst equipped with a stereo recorder, microphone and earphones. Metzner recalled pushing the red button and hearing a veritable symphony: a couple walking and talking nearby, a bicycle riding through gravel¹¹, a bird flying overhead, bells in the distance.

"And I was going like, 'Wow, this is amazing. What an extraordinary coincidence,'' he recalled. "But it wasn't a coincidence — this stuff was happening all the time, I just hadn't been paying attention to it. And it was the microphone and the recorder that said, 'Wake up ... you live in a world of sound. Here it is.' And it was, like, handing it to me on a platter."

Metzner continued to focus on those sound-rich moments over the years, even as the scope of his work broadened from local to national to global. He produced You're Hearing Boston and You're Hearing San Francisco before broadening out to You're Hearing America and, for several years in the 1980s, Sounds of Science.

He then turned his attention to producing Pulse of the Planet, a daily radio program that brought hundreds of public and commercial stations two-minute segments of soundscapes and interviews mostly focused on science, nature and culture. It ended in June after more than 30 years and 8,000 segments, but continues as a long-form monthly podcast under the same name.

His adventures filled thousands of tapes as tech evolved

Those pursuits took Metzner around the world and into situations ranging from the ordinary to the unforgettable, whether that's a Berber wedding festival in Morocco, a Japanese pottery¹² village, New York's Saratoga racetrack or the scene of cowboys herding¹⁴ cattle in the plains of Brazil — where he tried to run out ahead of the herd¹³ in order to get sound of the vaqueros singing to them.

"The steer¹⁵ which they were herding were longhorn steer. And one of the steer saw me and sort of didn't like what he saw. Lowers his head, charges at me full bore," Metzner recalls. "I'm standing¹⁶ there with 14 pounds of equipment, I'm going, 'I'm a dead man.' I thought for a second, 'Oh my God, maybe I'll take this Nakamishi 550 and put it in front of me.' Then I thought, 'No! I can't do that!' I couldn't even bear the thought of my equipment getting gored¹⁷.

"Then at the last possible second, one of the cowboys comes nonchalantly trotting¹⁸ up to the cow. He's carrying a stick, and he just taps the steer, and the steer veers¹⁹ off. Then the cowboy ... just tips his hat and runs off ... But I got a great recording. No one has ever gotten a recording like that."

Along the way — and as technology evolved — Metzner recorded more than 200 reels of ?-inch tapes, more than 2,000 audio cassettes and more than 1,000 DAT (digital audio tapes) and digital Minidiscs, and created some 100,000 sound files with digital recording gear, according to the Library of Congress.

It says his collection includes tape from the local and national programs as well as the unedited interviews and sounds he recorded to make them.

His life's work continues

Metzner, now in his 70s, isn't hanging up his microphone quite yet — in fact, he's headed to New Zealand to record sounds and share knowledge as a Fulbright specialist in media and communication.

He tells NPR he's grateful to the Library of Congress for preserving his life's work, which he describes as a deep honor. But he also wants to make sure it's actually being heard, not just "buried in an archive."

Metzner's been talking to the library about the possibilities for curating those sounds. He's also thinking about other ways to celebrate the art of the soundscape. In the age of the smartphone, that includes creating an online forum²⁰ where people — both professional recordists and ordinary citizens — can submit sounds that are important to their communities and culture, to create a global crowd-sourced archive.

He hopes more people will get to experience — and recognize the value — of soundscapes, which he describes as "part of our natural heritage" and "the touchstones to our feelings."

"You can go to a museum and see Diane Arbus' photographs. You can see René Magritte's paintings," he adds. "Why not soundscapes? They are every bit as much of an art form."

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

4 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

5 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

6 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

9 poignant   

adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的

参考例句：

• His lyrics are as acerbic and poignant as they ever have been.他的歌词一如既往的犀利辛辣。
• It is especially poignant that he died on the day before his wedding.他在婚礼前一天去世了，这尤其令人悲恸。

10 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

11 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

12 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

13 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

14 herding   

中畜群

参考例句：

• The little boy is herding the cattle. 这个小男孩在放牛。
• They have been herding cattle on the tableland for generations. 他们世世代代在这高原上放牧。

15 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

16 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

17 gored   

v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was gored by a bull. 他被公牛顶伤。
• The bull gored the farmer to death. 公牛用角把农夫抵死了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 trotting   

小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• The riders came trotting down the lane. 这骑手骑着马在小路上慢跑。
• Alan took the reins and the small horse started trotting. 艾伦抓住缰绳，小马开始慢跑起来。

19 veers   

v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的第三人称单数 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转

参考例句：

• The car veers out of control. 这辆车失去了控制。 来自辞典例句
• His fondness for his characters sometimes veers towards the sentimental. 他对那位主人公的偏爱有时也稍显矫情。 来自互联网

20 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。