The Traveling Sound Museum will make its world debut in New York City in May, 2009 with a curated selection of six sound jars from the permanent collection, including:
Cape Finisterre - “The Coast of the Dead”
History
Cape Finisterre is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain. It is often referred to as the western most point in Spain (though that’s not completely accurate) and has been a destination for pilgrims to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great. The origins of the pilgrimage go back to pre-Christian times and Finisterre’s reputation amongst sailors as the “Edge of the World”.
As a prominent landfall between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, Cape Finisterre is home to several battle grounds, and the waters are littered with shipwrecks. Of note is the wreckage of the British ironclad HMS Captain which went down in 1870, leaving over 500 dead.
The Jar
The Cape Finisterre Sound Jar dates back to the 1805 Battle of Cape Finisterre wherein the British fleet under Admiral Calder prevented the Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral de Villeneuve from entering the English Channel to help Napoleon invade Britain during the War of the Third Coalition in the Napoleonic Wars. The sounds within are from the morning of the battle itself.
With special thanks to soundscape archivist Udo Noll
The Galápagos Islands - October 10th, 1835
History
European discovery of the Galápagos Islands occurred when Dominican Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, sailed to Peru to settle a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his lieutenants. De Berlanga’s vessel drifted off course when the winds diminished, and his party reached the islands on March 10, 1535. The first English captain to visit the Galápagos Islands was Richard Hawkins, in 1593. Until the early 19th century, the archipelago was often used as a hideout by mostly English pirates who pilfered Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver from South America to Spain. The first scientific mission to the Galápagos arrived in 1790 under the leadership of Alessandro Malaspina, a Sicilian captain whose expedition was sponsored by the King of Spain. However, the records of the expedition were lost.
The Jar
The Galápagos Islands Sound Jar is from October 10th, 1835, when the HMS Beagle stopped by on its round the world journey. The young naturalist Charles Darwin made observations on the species of tortoises and finches on the various islands, while an unknown shipmate captured this historical soundscape of the natural environment of the island.
The Catania Fish Market
History
The statue of an elephant, made entirely by lava spewed from Mount Etna, stands in the center of Piazza del Duomo as a symbol of Catania’s resilience and triumph over nature and man. This bustling city on Sicily’s east coast has been completely destroyed by earthquakes and volcanos seven times in its rugged history and has, since the 6th century, been under the rule of various empires including the Byzantine, the Arab, Norman, Swabian, Angavin, Aragon, Spanish, Savoy, Austrian, and Bourbon. No small feat for a city of less than 300,000 inhabitants. Catania is also a center of activity for the Mafia, and generally a major center of business and commerce on the island of Sicily.
The Jar
The Catania Fish Market Sound Jar dates from the late 1700’s and is a simple walk through the bustling, 6 day a week market that still exists to this day. Little is known about who made the jar or any other significance of the capture.
The Baghdad Battery - A Meta Jar
History
This jar is a particularly fascinating addition to the modern collection as it is actually a capture of the mechanical sound of the “baghdad battery”, the earliest known power source of the original 7th century sound jars.
In 1940 a man by the name of Wilhelm Konig, then the director of the National Museum of Iraq, discovered in the basement of the museum a collection of small terracota jars amidst all the other dusty artifacts. Each jar contained a copper tube and and iron rod. These jars piqued Konig’s curiosity. He had tests run on the jars and discovered that they each had traces of lemon juice in them. When iron, copper, and acid are combined there occurs an electrochemical process which yields 0.5V of electricity, enough to power a small sound capturing device like the sound jar. Konig wrote a controversial paper speculating about the origins and actual use of these jars, ultimately attributing them to the mystics who controlled the temples, who would hook them up to the statues so when the devout would come to worship and touch them, they would receive a small but consistent shock and believe in the power of the temple. We know, however, that whether that was the case or not, these devices were also used to power sound jars at least until the 16th century.
The Jar
This jar contains not a historical place or time, but the sound of the Baghdad Battery itself, somehow captured at some point in the 9th or 10th century. This is the oldest jar in the modern collection and it is assumed that it probably used to contain an actual soundscape of some sort, but the sound of the battery is now of sufficient historical significance to make this a “must hear” from the collection.
With special thanks to soundscape archivist Michael V Farley
The Sacking of Jaisalmer by the emporer Ala-ud-din Khilji - 1293
History
Jaisalmer, nicknamed “The Golden City”, is a town in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone, crowned by a fort, which contains the palace and several ornate Jain temples. Many of the houses and temples are finely sculptured. It lies in the heart of the Thar Desert and has a population of about 78,000. It is the administrative headquarters of Jaisalmer District.
The inhabitants of Jaisalmer descend from the Bhatti Rajputs, who take their name from an ancestor named Bhatti, renowned as a warrior when the tribe were located in the Punjab. In ancient times, the clan was driven southwards, and found a refuge in the Indian desert, which was henceforth its home. Deoraj, a famous prince of the Bhati family, is esteemed as the real founder of the Jaisalmer dynasty, and with him the title of rawal commenced. In 1156 Rawal Jaisal, the sixth in succession from Deoraj, founded the fort and city of Jaisalmer, and made it his capital as he moved from his former capital at Lodhruva.
In 1293, the Bhattis so enraged the emperor Ala-ud-din Khilji that his army captured and sacked the fort and city of Jaisalmer, so that for some time it was quite deserted. Some Bhatti’s migrated to Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib in Distt. Nankana Sahib and others settled in Larkana under the name of Bhutto. In Nankana Sahib, the Bhatti Clan can be traced from the lineage of Rai Bhoe and Rai Bular Bhatti.
The Jar
This sound jar was created by one of the men in Ala-ud-din Khilji’s army shortly after the sack of Jaisalmer in 1293. It is believed that Ala-ud-din Khilji came into posession of sound jar technology through interaction with the Golden Horde, the division of Mongols ruled by Berke Khan, the first of the Mongols to convert to Islam. The sounds in the jar appear to be a simple conversation between camel guides around sunset.
A Walk Through Old London Town - 1734
History
The 18th century was a period of rapid growth for London, reflecting an increasing national population, the early stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, and London’s role at the centre of the evolving British Empire.
The Jar
The origins of this jar are largely unknown, though rumors have long abound. It is assumed that the man doing the capturing was a notable gentleman, given how limited the knowledge of sound jar technology was at the time. The most common rumor is that Benjamin Franklin was one of the few in England who knew about sound jars and was actually one of the few in all of history that was able to successfully dissect an old jar he had in his possession. It is assumed that he applied what he learned from these experiments to all of his future inventions. None of this, of course, is substantiated. This jar is a pleasant walk through a market in the northern part of the city.