The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts

Contributors

contributors Composer John Luther Adams lives outside Fairbanks, Alaska. His works are heard throughout the world, and his recordings include The Far Country (New Albion Records), Earth and the Great Weather, and Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (New World Records). John Cage (1912–1992) was the one twentieth-century composer to have as much influence outside music as within it. Although celebrated (or berated) for his completely silent piece “4'33",” Cage should be most remembered as a musical and poetic philosopher who continually taught us to listen and to let go. His book Silence is among the most important books on music of the last century. Taiwanese author and illustrator Tsai Chih Chung’s cartoons are world renowned . His books include a series of cartoon adaptations of classic Chinese writings by Zen masters, Confucius, Lao-tzu, Zhuangzi, and Sunzi. David James Duncan is the author of The River Why (Bantam, 1988) and The Brothers K (Bantam, 1996). He lives, writes, and plays the tin whistle and piano on a Montana trout stream. Composer, sound artist, and philosopher David Dunn is the author of Why Do Whales and Children Sing? (EarthEar, 1999) and Harry Partch: An Anthology of Critical Perspectives (Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000). His cds include Angels and Insects (oodiscs, 1998) and Music, Language and Environment (Innova , 1997). He is a professor of music at the College of Santa Fe’s Contemporary Music Program. Evan Eisenberg has worked as a synagogue cantor, a music critic for The Nation , and a gardener for the New York City parks department. His writing on nature and culture has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic, and Natural History. He is the author of The Recording Angel (McGraw-Hill, 1986) and The Ecology of Eden (Knopf, 1998). Brian Eno is “a mammal, a father, a European, an inventor, a celebrity, an improviser, an employer, a producer, a grumbler, a ‘drifting clarifier.’” Combining sound, sculpture, and lighting eVects, his installations of environmental soundscapes create ambient spaces within which music can reside. Steve Erickson is the author of the novels Rubicon Beach, Days between Stations , and The Sea Came at Midnight, along with the political campaign memoirs Leap Year and American Nomad. Steven Feld is a professor of anthropology at New York University. He is the author of Sound and Sentiment (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990) and Music Grooves (University of Chicago Press, with Charles Keil, 1994); the editor, with Keith Basso, of Senses of Place (School of American Research Press, 1996); and the recordist of Voices of the Rainforest (Rykodisc, 1991). Tim Hodgkinson is a self-taught composer whose musical endeavors over the years have included involvement with the groups Henry Cow, The Work, and [ 249 ] Momes. Pragma (ReR) is his most recent cd of new works. His writing has covered topics ranging from music and shamanism, to technology in music, to aesthetics of improvisation, in publications including Contemporary Music Review , Musicworks, Resonance, and ReR Quarterly. Alan Hohvaness (1911–2000) was a most distinctive and prolific composer who melded Western and Asian musical styles. He wrote more than 400 works, from pieces for various solo instruments and chamber ensembles, including Asian instruments, to large orchestras and choirs. Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) was born in India. A great Sufi mystic and musician, he gave up music to spread his spiritual teachings. Out of his lifework arose the International Sufi Movement, which takes care of his legacy and works in the service of the Message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty. Bernie Krause has recorded natural soundscapes all over the globe and has fought tirelessly for their preservation. He has done sound design for over 135 Hollywood films and has produced or collaborated on over fifty recordings, one of which, Bayaka, is featured on our audio cd. His book and cd, Notes from the Wild (Ellipsis Arts, 1996), describes his life in the field. Anatoli Kuular is one-fourth of the internationally known Tuvan ensemble Huun-Huur-Tu, which tours the world. Steve Lacy, masterful improviser and composer in contemporary jazz music, has worked with such musical visionaries as Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk. His collaborations over the years have included myriad musicians and artists from diverse creative disciplines, many of whom are acknowledged in his book Findings: My Experience with the Soprano Saxophone. Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author. He coined the term “virtual reality” and was a principal pioneer in the scientific, engineering , and...