RAUSCHEN The German word Rauschen is full of meaning: it describes the sound of leaves rustling in the trees, waves beating against the shore, the flutter of flags, the whisper of silk, or the patter of rain. Not coincidentally, Rauschen and the word Rausch—meaning, a state of intoxication—share the same origin. As a verb, rauschen not only describes the audible information produced by external movement, it also characterizes an internal frame of mind. In the dictionary compiled by the Brothers Grimm there are twelve main definitions of the word Rauschen, the last one being the Rauschen of a rutting sow. Blood rushing through veins is audible as the Rauschen heard in the doctor’s stethoscope. Music and parties rauschen. Internal passions are reflected in audible externalized motions, and even generate them. More narrowly summarized, and more scientifically precise is the definition that Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm discovered in the writings of Johann Gottfried Herder: ... As opposed to the klang (sound), the musical note, the geräusch (noise): It is obvious that all the external grooves of the ear and even the tympanum cannot properly be the instrument of sensation. They are there to purify, to amplify, to modify the sound. They are the microcosm that simply prepares and as it were forges tone from what was hitherto mere noise, mere undulations of the air.
