David Rothenberg: Communication with Nature

David Rothenberg has a very special approach on music which is very unique in comparison others composers. Actually, being a professor for philosophy and music, Rothenberg has a very special interest in music as a form of duet with nature. Concerning nature, his special interests are animals or mainly the sounds they produce which can be perceived as music in his opinion. He duets with all kinds of animals such as whales, birds but also insects. Furthermore, Rothenberg defines these duets as a special form of communication with animals. Therefore, he explores a whole different kind of relation between humanity and nature through sounds.

During my research on Rothenberg, I came across a picture of him standing on a boat in the ocean playing the clarinet. Since he is a clarinetist, playing the clarinet probably feels usual to him. However, what is completely unusual is the whole setting; probably for him as well. I have never seen a composition like this before. This setup was meant to be his whale music duet with whales. Being honest, he firstly came across to me as a bit of a weirdo, but digging deeper into his approach, I kind of understood his thoughts and the fascination he has for these duets. Since animals have their languages as well, it is quite fascinating that they can easily communicate with each other without any human being ever being possible to understand what exactly they are saying. Rothenberg’s approach actually tries to communicate with animals through instruments which is an interesting and unusual way to do this. Even though he is still not able to understand them, he is able to communicate with them somehow which brings the two entities nature and humans closer together. Moreover, he creates duets which are interesting to listen to and probably new to most of the listeners. This experimental aspect was quite refreshing for me.

Even if I like his approach, listening to his music was not that easy for me. In my opinion rather sounds like random sounds thrown together than music. This probably comes from the aspect that Rothenberg hears the animal sounds and kind of responds to them as a form of reaction. Consequently, it sounds like random sounds arranged in a very chaotic way. In addition to the sounds caused by instruments, one can also hear the animal sounds which, for example in “Whale Music” are also quite chaotic and random. 

Altogether, listening to Rothenberg’s compositions was a rather exhausting experience for me. Nevertheless, I like his approach and what he tries to express with it.