Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places
by Bernie Krause
Hardback
Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause (and guitarist with the Weavers) has spent much of his life discovering and recording Nature's rich chorus. He has sought out the truly wild landscapes of the world which exist virtually unchanged from when the earliest humans inhabited the Earth.
Enjoy his fascinating insights into how deeply animals rely on their aural habitat to survive, and heed his warnings about the damaging effects of extraneous noise on the delicate balance of Nature.
These natural soundscapes, with their myriad rhythms and voices, formed the basis from which our own musical expression emerged. From snapping shrimp, popping viruses, and the songs of humpback whales—whose sounds if unimpeded could circle the earth in hours—to cracking glaciers, bubbling streams, and the roar of storms; and from melody-singing birds and insects to the organlike drone of wind blowing over reeds, the sounds Krause experiences and describes offer a personal narrative of the planet's deep and connected natural sounds and rhythms.
Krause's research into the animate and inanimate music of nature is unparalleled, and his warnings of changes that threaten this beautiful soundscape are unequivocal. He tells that "these songs, an intrinsic part of the natural world and essential to human well-being, are vanishing, one by one, snuffed out by human actions" (Jane Goodall).
The idea of music originating in the sound-communication systems of wild animals is a sound and provocative hypothesis.
- E. O. Wilson (author of The Future of Life)
