Now, that’s a fancy term you might have never heard of, and a peculiar topic for someone writing their very first blog post. Did I welcome you all before going on with my ramble? No? Oopsie daisy.

Welcome to the first blog ever. Okay, let’s get straight to the point.

What's Schizophonia?

Think of this, you listen to some music online. That’s certainly not the original source (singer/instrumentalist/sound desginer) magically appearing in front of you and performing a personal live bedroom concert. It’s a version of the audio that has been taken from the original source, and reproduced in some form.

What that means is that there’s has been a split from the original source. The music or sound has been reproduced electro-acoustically, causing the split.

This is how R.Murray Schafer defined this when he originally coined this term in his book “The Tuning of the World” back in 1977:

Schizophonia- The Greek prefix schizo means split, separated; and phone is Greek for voice. Schizophonia refers to the split between an original sound and its electroacoustical transmission or reproduction.

Sounds quite simple, right? But here’s the fascinating part about this.

To explain it, let’s first take a look at the definition of sound and noise respectively.

How Noise Becomes Sound: Schizophonic Realities of Modern Music

What does noise mean? Cambridge dictionary says, “a sound or sounds, especially when it is unwanted, unpleasant, or loud”. The fun part is that, with schizophonia in the present day and age, noise becomes sound. A wanted AND pleasant sound, that is music to the ears.

For example,

City soundscapes included into music.

The sound of public transport within songs.

Clocks ticking, alarms ringing, and so much more.

Every single one of these elements, when taken from their original source, reproduced electro-acoustically for a song-in-process, transforms and becomes art.

This is the beauty of Schizophonia. You can make art from noise and manipulate it however you would like to, once it is split from its original source. It is unlike the original source. This is how noise becomes sound.

So, it's just Music Production, but in Academic Terms?

Well, yes and no. Schizophonia means the sound split from its original source may or may not be altered. It refers to the split only, but not once the split happens. Do not mesh both the terms together. Schizophonia can occur in any art form, once the sound is reproduced eclectro-acoustically and is a separate entity in itself.

I hope you had fun reading my first blog ever! I’d love to hear more about your own thoughts on this topic. You can leave an e-mail to me at juhelimandal@proton.me.