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In recognition of his trailblazing efforts in electroacoustic and computer music, and his monumental impact on sound studies, School of Communication professor emeritus Barry Truax has received an honorary degree from 51社区黑料.

鈥淭oday is the fulfilment of a life-long goal of having a Doctorate where I can say: I鈥檝e finally graduated from 51社区黑料 with a DFA 鈥� and it only took 52 years! So, if any of you are worried about how long your degrees have taken, you鈥檝e beaten me by a mile,鈥� he joked during his convocation address on June 11^th at 51社区黑料Burnaby.

When he came to 51社区黑料over 50 years ago, he joined the School of Communication with an interesting resume, holding B.Sc. Degrees in physics and math, a M.Mus. in Electronic Music composition and two years of post-graduate research in Utrecht, Netherlands where he developed an interactive computer music system. After previously meeting with the late Murray Schafer on various occasions, Truax was invited by Schafer to join on the World Soundscape Project, calling it the 鈥渨orld鈥檚 most important work.鈥� Truax joined 51社区黑料in the summer of 1973 and began as a Visiting Instructor that fall.

What attracted Truax to the School was its interdisciplinary and progressive nature. In his early days, he remembers attending many lectures from different faculty members, which opened up the world of social sciences to him. He also recognizes the efforts of the late Dr. Tom Calvert, who was the dean of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies and fostered an environment to grow fledging schools and departments, respecting and supporting the sound production work of Truax and others.

鈥淭hat was the exciting aspect of the School of the Communication, because everybody who was a chartered faculty in the School was driven by the search for a more interdisciplinary approach,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 used to think of them as refugees from the various traditional social sciences.鈥� Their influence helped Truax write his comprehensive book Acoustic Communication, a key text in Sound Studies.

Truax was certainly unique in his own research, as well. The World Soundscape Project was the first of its kind, drawing attention to the sonic environment and Vancouver鈥檚 rapidly changing soundscape in the early 70s. The legacy of this project continues to this day, as the field recordings have been digitized to keep them available, secure and long-lasting as a research database for teachers, artists and other interested parties.

While field recordings were done beyond the walls of 51社区黑料across Canada and Europe, much of the sound production work took place in the Sonic Research Studio, of which Truax was the director from 1975-2015. In its early days this space was located on one of the lower levels of the Robert C. Brown Hall but now resides in the School of Communication hallways. Even past retirement, Truax continued to teach and work in this space up to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You can be very solitary in production work, and that鈥檚 one of the issues now with everybody having their own computer systems. The Sonic Research studio was a research centre and a production centre, but it was also where we had our meetings, which was incredibly important in those early days,鈥� says Truax.

鈥淵ou would play your projects for your colleagues, whether they were fellow researchers or teachers, and you would get feedback. We were all in the same boat and we would all like to sit around and listen to stuff, some of it a lot longer than what we would listen to today. Anybody who was uncertain about something new would have a sounding board to sort out what would please themselves, and what would communicate best to others.鈥�  

Truax is still committed to the theory and practice of soundscape studies and has recreated these small group meetings into online classes, now teaching from his home studio. He especially enjoys the collaborative nature of his courses and staying relevant in the field that he helped establish. His multi-channel soundscape compositions are frequently presented in concerts, lectures and master classes around the world.

鈥淚 get amazing support from people who have taken my courses, from undergraduate students to senior people in the field, artists, teachers, and all sorts of people. The fact that I represent this 50-year history with the World Soundscape Project Database and the whole history of it is something that people still really respond to, and I鈥檝e found a delivery method that is comfortable for me,鈥� he says.

Teaching has long been a passion of his, for which Truax was recognized with SFU鈥檚 Award for Teaching Excellence in 1999. In 2020, Truax created a tutorial from his teaching experiences as a 鈥渓ockdown project鈥�, which has been used in his online courses by people from around the world. He has also taken audio recordings of his webinars and placed them online as a tutorial commentary, so that anybody with access to the Database can follow along easily.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to satisfy new generations of young artists and scholars with this interdisciplinary sound repertoire,鈥� says Truax.

Philanthropy is another important area for Truax, who continues to give back to the university. After his retirement in 2015, he taught Soundscape Composition pro bono at SFU. He and his partner, Dr Guenther Krueger, established the Glenfraser Endowment Fund at 51社区黑料in 2009, which has awarded over $63,000 for student awards and research projects. They also established the Glenfraser Endowed Professorship in Sound Studies, a position which was filled in the School of Communication by School Director Milena Droumeva. Truax sees this as a continuation of the legacy of soundscape studies that he and Schafer helped establish.

The new Certificate in Sound established within the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology also shows the continued importance of sound studies within the faculty. Through this certificate, students are encouraged to take courses in sound studies offered by other schools in the faculty.

鈥淚 hope that the history and initiative that we鈥檝e had within the faculty that鈥檚 represented in the Certificate in Sound can integrate all three Schools,鈥� says Truax.

>>> Full access to the World Soundscape Project database can be accessed by reaching out to Truax for a guest password (truax@sfu.ca).