A proposal of criteria for evaluating music as an urban soundscape element

In urban soundscape studies, music frequently appears as a prominent sonority amidst multiple sonic stimuli perceived by individuals and collectives. In the contemporary city, music emerges from either acoustic or electroacoustic sources, of human or non-human origin, assuming different motifs in an almost ubiquitous disposition in the urban landscape. However, it is noticed that a frequent generalization of musical objects occurs when characterizing their insertion in the soundscape, as opposed to the possible cultural specificities and relationships with the listeners. On the other hand, musical elements produce different reactions in space, promoting attraction, integration, and separation, as a result of users' emotional reactions, cultures, and identities. Thus, to widen this discussion, it is necessary to extend urban soundscape research to fields such as musicology and cultural studies, delving into the reasons why determined musical elements induce different reactions in the city's ears. The main objective of the present research is to investigate the relationship between music and landscape, proposing and structuring criteria to evaluate the role of musical elements in the experience of different urban actors. As the basis for defining the respective criteria, a tripartite semiotic approach was chosen, which proposes the simultaneous analysis of the musical object in its materiality, the poietic process of actors involved in the musical (re)production, and the listener's esthesic process. This tripartite model is linked with a fourth layer, correlating the previous criteria with factors from the acoustic environment and landscape, thus inserting the musical element in the urban context. At this stage, the present work aims at exhibiting a general structure of the criteria, creating a discussion between the semiotic approach, the factors of influence, and the considered theoretical framework.