The Soundwalk

The streets of Canal Street, Chinatown has many unique sounds that help create the essence of New York City. The cultural mix of Chinese immigrants and tourist rave the neighborhood. The texture of the sound is polyphonic because Canal Street or any street in New York is filled with different sounds. Sounds like cars swishing by, the languages from all the different cultures (English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Creole, and hundreds more), the whistles of the crossing guards, the subway trains going by, ambulances and police sirens going on, the rings from the bikes. Occasionally I would hear the shop owners whispering “hangbag hangbag,” they wanted to make sales on counterfeit luxury handbags. In the background there were people bargaining for prices. One can also hear the vendors preparing food in the food carts. The sizzling of the grills is a great contribution to the city’s symphony. One of the jewelry stores had a thing where when a customer steps into the store it would make the “doo-doom” sound. Cars, ambulances, and people are the city's instruments. Without the sound of different languages and fire trucks going off New York City would not be the city that never sleeps. Through this assignment, the question "What sounds do you hear in different times of the day?" came up. When I pondered on this question I realized that the city really “never sleeps”, because at night the cars, sirens, and people are still there creating the same kind of symphony. The dark made the symphony even more beautiful because of the city lights.