This paper discuss the use of environmental sounds in musical
composition, specially in the so-called Soundscape music. The use of such
sounds in compositions created with technological support after the 60’s
have started a controversial discussion on the musical syntax that such
sounds can generate. The environmental sounds also raised important
debates related to theories of auditory perception. Related to this point we
present the processes of listening based on the ecological approach to
auditory perception, which comes from J. J. Gibson’s theory of direct
perception. This theory is taken as base to a new approach to environmental
sonic materials and its insertion in the compositional processes. Our goal is
to raise the issues that had lead to all those problems, and to briefly expose
the theory of direct perception of J.J. Gibson as well. We conclude showing a
possibility to use the notions of the ecological approach to perception as
alternative analytic tools for soundscape music