My favourite sound

I was listening to a discussion on breakfast television yesterday about the recording of sounds for historical interest.  It was a fascinating discussion which made me appreciate that the sounds I hear today may not be the sounds that future generations will hear.  To illustrate this point they played a recording of Florence Nightingale talking which I had never heard before and which I thought absolutely amazing.  Here was the voice of this incredible nurse who I learned about at school but who seemed so far in the past.  Hearing her voice brought her into the present; it made her real in a way.

Of course it isn't just about human voices but also the sounds of daily living; sounds that we often take for granted but which may die out one day.  It's hard to imagine but the chances are that the world will be a very different place in 100 years time and this will have an impact on how we live and what we hear.  Look at how life has changed in the past 100 years alone.  Scientific and technological progress has transformed our lives so much that the sounds we hear now are very different to our grandparents' day.  The high street my grandmother walked along was very different to the one I know today and no doubt it will change again for my children's children.  Imagine if we recorded the sounds of our high street as it is now and what it would be like for future generations to hear how we lived.

Of course, even in my lifetime, some sounds have changed.  The dawn chorus for example, one of my most favourite childhood sounds, is not what it used to be.  No longer am I treated to a cacophony of bird sound that used to be so loud that, as a child, I could never sleep.  I didn't appreciate the sound at the time but 30 years later I often think back to how lucky I was to hear such amazing birdsong.  Nowadays the town that I live in is taken up by modern housing estates.  The fields have gone and so have the birds and other animals.  Maybe one day we can rectify this situation but for the time being recordings like the one below are a happy reminder of my childhood.