David Rothenberg - Nature is Music

David Rothenberg (*1962) is, as stated on his own website, a musician, composer, author, and philosopher-naturalist that creates music by implementing animal sounds. His central theme is the communication between humanity and nature. His music can be seen as pieces that are created by and with the sound of animals. 

Rothenberg’s pieces are created in nature and recorded in the natural habitat of the animals he composes his pieces with. This way of recording makes his music very unique and in a way unrecreatable. 

His most famous works are Why Birds Sing and Whale Music, which are pieces created by either bird or whale sounds and their communication between each other. Rothenberg then accompanies the animal music with alike sounds playing his clarinet. Another work by Rothenberg is the Insect Choir. In this piece, he creates music with the sound of the cicada. As he states his aim is to make the music, which is often seen as unwanted and unpleasant noise, heard and seen. Moreover, it is necessary for the cicada and also a fascinating nature concept of communication. Especially in this piece, due to its title Insect Choir and the, what feels like, an infinite amount of insects creating a loud powerful sound, it is shown that Rothenberg is not the main artist of his pieces but the animals are and that he only is “one part of the choir”. 

What is astonishing is that animalsdistinctive do have a natural rhythm, in their sounds and communication, however it is questionable if they perceive their sounds as rhythmic. With his work, Rothenberg emphasizes these rhythms and creates pieces of art, or better said the animals create pieces of art that Rothebergs highlights. 

Personally, I find Rotheberg’s approach very fascinating and distincitive, and even scientific. I enjoyed listening to the natural sounds of the animals, especially listening to whales communicating is extraordinary, almost absorbing to me. As well as soothing and satisfying at the same time. What I like most about Rotheberg’s approach is that his work focuses and emphasizes the animal sound and he accompanies it either very carefully and well-thought-out or just lets it stand by itself. This, even more, accentuate the fascinating, almost incomprehensible beauty and power of animal sound and communication and makes me as a human listener feel humble and deeply respectful of the fauna of this world.