The Book of Music and Nature

by Rothenberg, David; Ulvaeus, Marta

• ISBN13: 9780819569356
• ISBN10: 0819569356
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-13
• Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr

Summary

This innovative book and online CD, assembled by the editors of the renowned periodical Terra Nova, is the first anthology published on the subject of music and nature. Lush and evocative, yoking together the simplicities and complexities of the world of natural sound and the music inspired by it, this collection includes essays, illustrations, and plenty of sounds and music. The Book of Music and Nature celebrates our relationship with natural soundscapes while posing stimulating questions about that very relationship. The book ranges widely, with the interplay of the texts and sounds creating a conversation that readers from all walks of life will find provocative and accessible. The anthology includes classic texts on music and nature by 20th century masters including John Cage, Hazrat Inrayat Khan, Pierre Schaeffer, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Toru Takemitsu. Innovative essays by Brian Eno, Pauline Oliveros, David Toop, Hildegard Westerkamp and Evan Eisenberg also appear. Interspersed throughout are short fictional excerpts by authors Rafi Zabor, Alejo Carpentier, and Junichiro Tanazaki. The virtual CD at http://www.wesleyan.edu/wespress/musicandnaturecd/ includes fifteen tracks of music made out of, or reflective of, natural sounds, ranging from Babenzele Pygmy music to Australian butcherbirds, and from Pauline Oliveros to Brian Eno.

Author Biography

David Rothenberg is a composer and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 1996, he founded Terra Nova: Nature and Culture, a literary and artistic quarterly that looks at the cultural possibilities of environmentalism. Marta Ulvaeus received a PhD from NYU in Performance Studies. She was Assistant Editor of TDR (The Drama Review) for three years before becoming Associate Editor of Terra Nova.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Does Nature Understand Music?

Roots of Listening

The Music of the Spheres

Primal Sound

Happy New Ears

Diary: Emma Lake Music Workshop 1965

An Interview with Peirce Schaeffer

Deus ex Machina

Music and the Soundscape

The Music of the Earth

Wild Echoes

From The Bear Comes Home

Sax Can Moo...

From Piano Pieces

Music, Nature, and Computers: A Showdown

Nature, Sound Art, and the Scared

My one Conversation With Collin Walcott

From Coming through Slaughter

The Landscape of Sound

From Rubicon Beach

The Sharawadji Effect

Sonic Images

The Poetics of Environmental Sound

Ambient Music

Speaking from Inside the Soundscape

Toothwalkers

Blind Listening

From Exotica

From Brother of Sleep

Many Natures, Many Cultures

The Place Where You Go to Listen

Nature and Music

Lift-Up-Over Sounding

Sweet Singer of the Pine Barrens

Where the Sounds Live

From "A Portrait of Shunkin"

The Disc of Music and Nature

Contributors

Permissions

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.