In Tune With Nature
Music from Nature
The Sound & Spirit program "In Tune With Nature" features a compact disc that we first received as an accompaniment to the "Music from Nature" issue [Volume 2, Number 3 Summer 1997] of the journal Terra Nova: Nature & Culture. You can get more information about this magazine by visiting The MIT Press online catalog.
Inside the back cover is a pocket with a compact disc also titled "Music from Nature" (a Terra Nova compilation). The CD includes the three pieces used in the Sound & Spirit program, i.e. "Dawn Solo from Pied Butcherbirds of Spirey Creek" by David Lumsdaine, "Slow Motion Blackbird" by Chris Hughes, and "Women Gathering Mushrooms", the BaBenzélé Pygmies recorded by Louis Sarno and Bernie Krause, as well as twelve other cuts. The magazine contains good notes for the recording.
Or you may want to find the CD packaged by itself: It's available as Music from Nature - A Terra Nova Compilation TN9701.
An Update:
Since Sound & Spirit first aired the program "In Tune With Nature" the editors of Terra Nova have put together a new collection of essays, illustrations, sounds and music celebrating "our relationship with natural soundscapes while posing stimulating questions about that very relationship."
The Book of Music & Nature should be of interest to those who wish to further explore the relationship of music and the natural world.
Something Extra:
Coincidentally, Sound & Spirit received a new recording by one of the contributors to both Terra Nova: Music from Nature and The Book of Music & Nature— Rainforest Soundwalks, ethnomusicologist Steven Feld's recording of ambient sounds of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea.
"Bosavi" is both the name for an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea, and the name the native people give to the land and to themselves. Here is what Feld says about the recording:
Since 1976 I've been a regular visitor here, learning how Bosavi people create a sense of place in the rainforest ecology. I've studied how birds are named and known by their sounds. I've been taught how poetry creates maps of forest trails, and why these song paths hold memories of people and land. I've realized that sound deeply shapes the Bosavi world, and that listening is a vital way of participating in it. I've given my ears to this Bosavi acoustemology, this sonic way of knowing, and on Rainforest Soundwalks you'll hear a touch of what I've encountered and tried to absorb.This is the latest of a number of soundscape style recordings offered by EarthEar. If this kind of artistry and music is of interest to you, you ought to visit the EarthEar website. Check out their Online Sound Center where you can sample everything from "straight nature sounds, to urban soundscapes, transformed field recordings, and music inspired by nature."
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