David Rothenberg - Interspecies Musician

David Rothenberg is a self-proclaimed "interspecies musician," meaning that he uses music to communicate with and be part of nature in what can be described as interspecies improvisation. His intention is that there is more music than language in the animal world, and therefore, communication works best through music and melody. I find his approach fascinating, especially after getting familiar with John Luther Adams and his way of becoming nature through music. Whereas Adams tries to musically explore the environment, Rothenberg resorts to living beings, and many of them communicate via sound.

This also feels like coming "full circle" music history-wise, as most instruments were created to resemble and accompany some kind of voice - mostly the human voice, of course, but many classical composers tried to imitate animals like the chirping of birds through music. Advancing this idea one step further and trying to become part of the animal world instead of only representing it through music seems to be a logical next step.

Apart from his musicianship, Rothenberg's knowledge of animal sounds astounded me. The fact that birds and whales are able to learn new songs, but all other animals are not, did not cross my mind before. Especially after listening to him talking about the various songs and melodies that different bird species use, I expected his music to be kind of the same. Contrary to that, it felt like free jazz sometimes.

Especially in the context of animal studies, the Anthropocene, and environmental criticism, trying to communicate with other species on this planet seems like an important task that was ignored for too long. Still, I wonder if it is actually possible in a bidirectional sense. I believe Rothenberg is able to "get his message across" - at least the videos show that some of the birds he plays to actually react to his playing - but there seem to be no answers to the questions he is posing. Nevertheless, his idea of interspecies connection through sound is intriguing.