The “New Age Philosopher”

David Rothenberg is a musician, composer, author, and philosopher-naturalist who specializes in inter-species musical creation. One of his most popular works Why Birds Sing received so much attention that it was eventually turned into a BBC special. There he claims that anything produced by animals that sounds like music, is music. Rothenberg emphasizes this in his following work Thousand Mile Song, which was turned into a film for French television.

Rothenberg’s approach to analyzing animal sounds fuels controversial discussions in the scientific community. Some scientists feel offended by Rothenberg’s interpretation as he seems to invalidate their research on animal sounds and animal behavior. Using the humpback whales as an example, scientists claim that since male humpbacks are especially musically inclined during mating season, creating whale songs is their form of engaging female whales and not something they do out of pure joy. Rothenberg, however, does not negate one or the other. Although he is sometimes considered a “New Age Philosopher,” he supports the idea that science and art can both contribute to reasonable explanations for certain usage of sound in the animal world. Since having done experiments with humpback whales himself by inserting a sound spectrogram into the ocean while playing clarinet on a boat to see if the whales would adjust their singing to the sounds of the instrument, he supports both views: the idealistic artistic side, interpreting that these whales are singing for fun, and the stern scientific side, claiming that its only purpose is to attract females. Hence, Rothenberg interposes that while one approach discovers certain things and misses out on others, combining these findings would be of great value for the artistic and scientific communities.

While Rothenberg’s experiments lack solid proof, they do suggest interesting new observations and interpretations for inter-species communication. Through art, through music, it seems possible to lift the communication barrier between species for a moment and make meaningful interactions possible – and who wouldn’t enjoy that interpretation of Rothenberg’s findings? Whether they are true or not: creating inter-species music is not only an incredibly valuable experience for the human musician but also immensely gratifying for its listeners who get to enjoy unique musical pieces combining technology and nature.