R. Murray Schafer

Raymond Murray Schafer (July 18, 1933 – August 14, 2021) was a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book, The Tuning of the World (1977). He was the first recipient of the Jules Léger Prize in 1978. Biography Born in Sarnia, Ontario, Schafer studied at the Royal Schools of Music in London, with Alberto Guerrero at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and at the University of Toronto, where he was a pupil of Richard Johnston. His innovative approach to music education repeatedly challenged and transcended orthodox approaches through explorations of the relationships between music, performer, audience, and setting. He started soundscape studies at Simon Fraser University in the 1960s. His 1977 book, The Tuning of the World, popularized the concept of soundscape (Schafer attributes the invention of the term itself to city planner Michael Southworth). Reviewing the book in The Musical Quarterly, Laske commented that it “is one of those rare texts which simultaneously broaden our notion of musical science and of music itself”. He also coined the term, schizophonia