In this Book
- The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Music Culture
This innovative book, 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 audio material for the book, available online 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.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-viii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- I. Roots of the Listening
- The Music of the Spheres
- pp. 13-20
- Primal Sound
- pp. 21-24
- Happy New Ears
- pp. 25-29
- Diary: Emma Lake Music Workshop 1965
- pp. 30-33
- An Interview with Pierre Schaeffer
- pp. 34-44
- Deus ex Machina
- pp. 45-57
- Music and the Soundscape
- pp. 58-68
- The Music of the Earth
- pp. 69-74
- II. Wild Echoes
- From The Bear Comes Home
- pp. 77-80
- STEVE LACY, Sax Can Moo . . .
- pp. 81-83
- From Piano Pieces
- pp. 84-90
- Nature, Sound Art, and the Sacred
- pp. 95-107
- My One Conversation with Collin Walcott
- pp. 108-115
- From Coming through Slaughter
- pp. 116-118
- III. The Landscape of Sound
- From Rubicon Beach
- pp. 121-122
- The Sharawadji Effect
- pp. 123-130
- Sonic Images
- pp. 131-132
- The Poetics of Environmental Sound
- pp. 133-138
- Ambient Music
- pp. 139-142
- Speaking from Inside the Soundscape
- pp. 143-152
- Toothwalkers
- pp. 153-162
- Blind Listening
- pp. 163-168
- From Exotica
- pp. 169-176
- From Brother of Sleep
- pp. 177-178
- IV. Many Natures, Many Cultures
- The Place Where You Go to Listen
- pp. 181-182
- TORU TAKEMITSU, Nature and Music
- pp. 183-192
- Lift-Up-Over Sounding
- pp. 193-206
- Sweet Singer of the Pine Barrens
- pp. 207-214
- Where the Sounds Live
- pp. 215-224
- From “A Portrait of Shunkin”
- pp. 225-228
- Contributors
- pp. 249-252
- Permissions
- pp. 253-254
- Further Information
- pp. 261-262