Raymond Murray Schafer died at 88.

The Canadian composer, professor, music educator, ecologist and visual artist Raymond Murray Schafer, creator in 1970 of the term “soundscape” to refer to the recording of environmental sounds that allow us to appreciate the sonority of a place, died last Saturday at the age of 88. Famous for his experiments and reflections on a type of acoustic environmental research, he said that the world was a great perpetual composition, with no beginning and no end. Many of his creations were performed outdoors and incorporated sounds of nature, as was the case with his “Music for Wilderness Lake”, for twelve trombonists set around a lake. Since 2010, 18 July has been celebrated the World Listening Day, coinciding with the date of his birth.