Do Whales Have Culture?

Emerging From Darkness

Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song

Spider Music

The Point Is to Change It: Can Philosophy Address Climate?

Temporal regularity increases with repertoire complexity in the Australian pied butcherbird's song

A New Morphological Notation for the Music of Humpback Whales

The Concert of Humans and Nightingales

From This World, Another

The Possibility of Reddish Green: Wittgenstein outside Philosophy (Terra Nova Press)

Nightingales in Berlin: Searching for the Perfect Sound

Sudden Music: Improvisation, Sound, Nature

The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts (Music / Culture)

Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise

Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution

Stadt der Nachtigallen: Berlins perfekter Sound (German Edition)

David Rothenberg tosses a microphone into a pond and we read (and hear) about an entirely new realm: the unexpected and stirring rhythms of some of the smallest and loudest creatures on Earth.

Secret Sounds of Ponds 

The New Jersey Institute of Technology is a public research university in the University Heights neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. Centrally located in the New York metropolitan area, its campus is within walking distance of Downtown Newark.

New Jersey Institute of Technology

David Rothenberg is a distinguished professor of humanities and social sciences who investigates the musicality of animals and the role of nature in philosophy.

He is the author of Why Birds Sing, which was turned into a feature length BBC TV documentary, and Thousand Mile Song, which chronicles making music with whales and inspired a film on French TV.

As a composer and jazz clarinetist, Rothenberg has recorded more than a dozen CDs, including  On the Cliffs, One Dark Night I Left My Silent House, Whale Music and Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast.

Also a clarinetist, he loves to jam with cicadas, the hoards of whirring insects that arise every 17 years. He not only leads cicada jams with other musicians but can identify the three distinct sounds the bugs make during their massive mating call. So, for him, cicadas spark both his heart and brain. As he explains, "Playing along with these guys is like joining into a fantastic trove with millions of singers."

Bird Music

Humanity

Musicality of Animals

Human Computer Musical Interfaces

Environmental Philosophy

Music and Technology

Interspecies Communication

Nature

Cicada Music

NJIT Faculty Profile Page

Google Scholar Citations

Wikipedia Citations

Personal Website

Personal Podcast (Soundwalker) 

Composer and Ecopoet David Rothenberg

Best Field Recordings on Bandcamp Features NJIT's David Rothenberg

The Birdsong Project Is Now a Grammy Nominee

David Rothenberg Is An Interspecies Musician

David Rothenberg on Interspecies Music

Playing to the Beat of the Birds

Wild Voices: In Tune with the Animal Kingdom

Zoo Musicology

Music in Nature

Making Music with Birds and Bugs

Jamming with the cicadas in New Jersey: a once in 17 years event

This musician makes 'strange, but beautiful' music with Brood X cicadas

Music Professor David Rothenberg Makes Music With Cicadas

‘Bug Music’ man from Cold Spring joins in swirl of sound created by cicadas

The Hills Are Alive with the Sounds of Bugs

David Rothenberg Jams with the Cicadas

Nightingales in Berlin

Rothenberg cicada closeup

2013 Brood II Cicada Emergence

Rothenberg Recording

music-in-nature-from-birds-and-cicadas-to-whales

Distinguished Professor

When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described music as the “universal language of mankind,” he was only partially right. Why? Because the roots of music trace all the way back to nature, specifically the animal kingdom, which uses it to communicate or simply commune. Author Michael Spitzer goes even further, describing music as our “umbilical cord” to Mother Nature, noting, “The very simple answer to where music begins is in animals, because birds sing and whales sing.”NJIT’s David Rothenberg knows this first-hand, as a composer and jazz clarinetist who jams with fish large and small and hordes of whirring cicadas – insects that spark both his heart and brain. As he explains, “Playing along with these guys is like joining into a fantastic trove with millions of singers.”As a researcher who investigates the musicality of animals, Rothenberg speaks authoritatively and animatedly about the music of fish, birds and yes, cicadas, identifying three distinct sounds they make during their massive mating call every 17 years. In short, if you want to know what makes nature sing, why and how, he’s your source.To interview him, simply click on the button below.David's Profile  

Music in nature: from birds and cicadas to whales

Bug Music: David Rothenberg's Insect Choir

Nightingales in Berlin Teaser

In which we explain how the mockingbird structures his song, using techniques of timbre change, pitch change, stretch, and squeeze, and similar strategies in Tuvan throat singing, Beethoven, Broadway musicals and hip hop are compared. Released as a supplement to the paper "Mockingbird Morphing Music" by Tina Roeske, David Rothenberg, and Dave Gammon, published in Frontiers in Psychology: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630115/full

Mockingbird song examples slowed and pitched down to make it easier for humans to hear them. Mockingbird footage from GoTrails and Stoil Ivanov.

Mockingbird Song Decoded

Animal-music specialist and musician, David Rothenberg teamed up with umru, his son and successful Splice sound designer to create Splice Explores: Whale Sounds. This pack features hydrophonically recorded whale sounds processed and unprocessed into rhythmic and melodic samples. Rothenberg has traveled to the far reaches of the world to submerge mics and capture the diverse and expansive sounds of belugas, sperm whales, humpbacks, and more.

Portions of the proceeds of this pack will be donated to Whale Trust (whaletrust.org), an organization on a mission to promote, support, and conduct scientific research on whales and the marine environment.


Get the sounds: 
https://on.splice.com/2CljPeR


#whalesounds
#samplepack
#sounddesign
#splice
#electronicmusic
#beatmaking
#beats
#beatmaker
#producer
#samples
#sampling
#sounds
#whales

Recording whale sounds for a sample pack

An excerpt from a French documentary, showing how one plays clarinet live with humpback whales in Pacific waters in winter.

Directed by François Noulens, Produced by Christophe Cosse, this edit by Umru Rothenberg

David Rothenberg plays live with humpback whales in Hawaii

MUSIC IS: David Rothenberg
by Soukizy

"Music is not this rare thing to be found like that. It's just as rare and important but it's just out there to be plucked from places. We usually don't tend to look, there's so much you can listen to it anytime. Many people still feel like all they hear is the same music, it suggests some kind of lack of imagination or fear of something a little bit unknown. People are still mostly afraid of things. They can't explain. They don't know. And I'm trying courage people in my writing and music any teaching to open up to the unknown and realize it can be really interesting and accessible and right there in front of you can bring you and this joy, possibility, knowledge, interesting. It's right there. Don't be afraid to listen". David Rothenberg

David Rothenberg, a New York-based musician, philosopher, and Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, is a versatile artist and author. With his books published in multiple languages, including the notable works Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Whale Music, and Nightingales in Berlin, Rothenberg delves into the profound connection between humans and nature. He has performed or recorded with esteemed artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Marilyn Crispell, and Peter Gabriel. Rothenberg's visionary approach to music and sounds unveils a remarkable fusion of artistic brilliance and an unwavering passion for delving into the depths of our extraordinary relationships with the elements that surround us.

About MUSIC IS:
Read the full story here: https://www.soukizy.com/home/music-is/

David Rothenberg: http://www.davidrothenberg.net/ 

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Music theme: Thomas Park

MUSIC IS: David Rothenberg

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