Designing the soundscape of a day in Ancient Rome
15 March 44 BCE - The assassination of Julius Caesar. A very memorable day in Roman history. What I'd like to do is create an accurate soundscape (with some integrated folklore) of this specific day, such that a listener can enter any time (into the input field) and then listen to what occurred at that moment.
Research
My major influence was definitely Jason Lim's work, specifically his chapter detailing Rome's nocturnal soundscape and the sounds or lack thereof that would have been common after sunset. How being loud especially at night was looked down upon as it indicated a lack of self-control and corrupted children. Or how rattling pots and pans could be used to create a cacophony that could scare away enemies. The supernatural was also a hot topic and unexplained sounds were often linked to ghosts or demons.
Setting & Phases
The 'time machine' is located on the first floor window of a senator's house, possibly near the Theatre of Pompey, for more dramatic effect. I proceeded to plan out a ton of interesting scripted events throughout the day with a three phase breakdown to guide my design:
1. Nightmare Phase [Midnight to dawn] demons, soldiers and crying babies.
2. Lively Phase [Dawn to Dusk] market, people, animals, music, assassination.
3. Banquet Phase [Dusk to Midnight] pompous drunks, laughter, music and silence.
Process highlights
· A mix of Hi-fi and Lo-fi sounds with events clearly distinguishable almost as if they occur right in front of the window.
· Soundmarks like Latin/Greek voices, instruments like the Tibia, Lyre and Pan Pipes
· Anthropophony: chisel and hammer, throwing water, doors, creepy whispers
· Biophony: horses, goats, birds in a cage, crickets at night
· Geophony: rain, thunder, winds
Key Events
Based off the three phases and keeping in mind that most of my sounds are limited to publicly available and free-to-use samples, I decided to create key events that could be inserted to add a bit of narrative to the experience.
[12 am]
· quite silent ambience
· baby crying
· dogs barking
· soldiers marching
· philosophers whispering
· early morning thunder rain
[6 am]
· rooster
· people walking, talking, throwing water
· construction – hammers chisels, etc
· goats bleating, horses neighing, whinnying
· marching soldiers
· children playing football disturbing cage of birds
[1 pm]
· hail Caesar
· traveling musician
· bells procession
[3 pm]
· assassination – et tu brute
· soldiers and horses coming back
· Caesar mortuus est – town crier
· people weeping
[7 pm]
· banquet
· dinner noises – conversation
· drunks laughing
· descent into silence once more
Application
You can find a playable version for Windows followed by Mac below:
References
Dissertation by Jason Lim: Social History of Rome’s nocturnal soundscape
Soundscape and social dynamics of a Roman banquet
Foreground sounds and sound marks in Ancient Roman anthropophony
Made using Unity | Audacity | Cakewalk | Freesound
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