Hildegard Westerkamp facts for kids

Hildegard Westerkamp is a Canadian composer, radio artist, and teacher. She was born on April 8, 1946, in Osnabrück, Germany. She is famous for her work in a field called acoustic ecology. This field studies how sounds affect our environment and us. She also helped create "soundscape composition" and "soundwalks." Her work with the World Soundscape Project in the 1970s and 1980s was very important.

Westerkamp has written many articles about these topics for different journals and conferences.

Her Journey and Studies

Hildegard Westerkamp first studied flute and piano in Germany from 1966 to 1968. After that, she moved to Canada. There, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia in 1972.

While studying, she met Barry Truax and R. Murray Schafer. In 1973, she started working with Schafer on the World Soundscape Project. This project was at Simon Fraser University (SFU). She later continued her studies at SFU. In 1988, she earned a Master of Arts degree. Her thesis was about "Listening and Soundmaking: A Study of Music-As-Environment." She also taught about sound communication at Simon Fraser until 1990.

In 2024, Simon Fraser University gave Westerkamp an honorary doctorate. This was to recognize her important contributions to acoustic ecology, music, and sound studies.

Hildegard Westerkamp became a Canadian citizen in 1975. In 1972, she married the Canadian poet and playwright Norbert Ruebsaat. They worked together on several projects. She later had a long-term relationship with Peter Grant. Her 1997 music piece Talking Rain is dedicated to him.

Her Creative Work

Music and Soundscapes

Many of Hildegard Westerkamp's musical pieces are about the sounds around us. This way of composing is called soundscape composition. As part of her work with the World Soundscape Project, she listened to and organized many recorded sounds from different places. Since then, most of her work has involved layering and changing these recorded sounds.

She also made the idea of soundwalking popular. A soundwalk is "any excursion whose main purpose is to listen to the environment." This means going for a walk just to pay attention to all the sounds you hear. Pieces like Kits Beach Soundwalk were inspired by this practice.

Working with Others

Hildegard Westerkamp has worked with other artists, like director Gus Van Sant. They both explored similar ideas in their work. One writer, Randolph Jordan, said that her music helps show how young people in Van Sant's films might be looking for new ways to understand their environment.

Early Work (1973–1991)

From 1973 to 1980, Westerkamp was a researcher with R. Murray Schafer at the World Soundscape Project. This work helped Schafer write his book The Tuning of the World. In 1974, she also started working at CFRO-FM (Vancouver Cooperative Radio) as a producer and host.

Through her work with Schafer and radio, she became very interested in noise and the sounds of our environment. This greatly shaped her music style. She began to experiment with recording, changing, and mixing environmental sounds in a studio.

Westerkamp was also part of other research projects about noise, acoustic ecology, and music. From 1974 to 1975, she researched for the Noise Abatement Project in Vancouver.

In the 1980s, she became interested in creating music for live performances. She also made "composed environments" and sound installations for specific places. In 1982, she researched for the Women in Music project at Simon Fraser University. She is also a founder of the World Forum on Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). This group focuses on the study of soundscapes.

Later Work (Since 1991)

After 1991, Westerkamp focused more on composing, giving talks, and writing. She shared her music and ideas at concerts and conferences. She was the editor of The Soundscape Newsletter from 1991 to 1995. In 2000, she joined the editorial committee for Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology.

She has also created music for radio plays and films. Her music has been in movies by Gus Van Sant, including Elephant (2003) and Last Days (2005). She also worked with Jesse Zubot on the electronic music for Koneline (2016).

Some of Westerkamp's works are connected to women's issues. For example, in 1990, she composed "École Polytechnique." This piece was created as an artistic response to a very sad event in Montreal, Quebec, in 1989. It helps us remember and reflect on important moments in history through art.

Music Recordings

Here are some recordings that feature Hildegard Westerkamp's music:

• (1989) Kits Beach Soundwalk
• (1990) Anthology of Canadian Music: Electroacoustic music
• (1990) The Aerial 2
• (1990) Électro clips
• (1994) Radio Rethink - art and sound transmission
• (1995) Der Verlust der Stille
• (1995) Klang Wege
• (1995) Transmissions From Broadcast Artists, Radius #4
• (1996) The Vancouver Soundscape
• (1996) Transformations
• (1997) 1977-1997, 20 Jahre Osnabrücker Komponisten
• (1998) Harangue I
• (1998) Harangue II
• (1999) The Dreams of Gaia
• (1999) This Place is Dreaming
• (2000) Radiant Dissonance
• (2002) Into India
• (2003) Musique inpirée et tirée du film Elephant
• (2003) S:on
• (2022) Breaking News
• (2023) Klavierklang

List of Her Works

Compositions

• Whisper Study (1975–79)
• Familie mit Pfiff (Theme and Variations) (1976)
• Fantasie for Horns I (1978)
• Fantasie for Horns II (1979)
• A Walk Through the City (1981)
• Cool Drool (1983)
• His Master's Voice (1985)
• Harbour Symphony (1986)
• Cricket Voice (1987)
• Moments of Laughter (1988)
• Kits Beach Soundwalk (1989)
• The Deep Blue Sea (1989)
• Breathing Room (1990)
• École polytechnique (1990)
• Beneath the Forest Floor (1992)
• India Sound Journal (1993)
• Sensitive Chaos (1995)
• Dhvani (1996)
• Talking Rain (1997)
• Gently Penetrating Beneath the Sounding Surfaces of Another Place (1997)
• Into the Labyrinth (2000)
• Attending to Sacred Matters (2002)
• Like a Memory (2002)
• Breaking News (2002)
• Liebes-Lied/Love Song (2005)
• Für Dich-For You (2005)
• MotherVoiceTalk (2008)
• Once Upon a Time (2012)
• Beads of Time Sounding (2016)
• Klavierklang (2017)
• The Soundscape Speaks - Soundwalking Revisited (2021)
• The Soundscape Speaks - A Remix (2022)

Composed Environments and Sound Installations

• Cordillera (1980)
• Zone of Silence Story, with Norbert Ruebsaat (1985–1986)
• Coon Bay (1988)
• Türen der Wahrnehmung (1989)
• Nada – An Experience in Sound, with Savinder Anand, Mona Madan, and Veena Sharma (1998)
• At the Edge of Wilderness, with photographer Florence Debeugny (2000–2003)
• Soniferous Garden, a revised part of Nada (2000–2003)

See also

In Spanish: Hildegard Westerkamp para niños

• Music of Canada
• List of Canadian composers