Animal Orchestra

The NYT Book Review has a fascinating review of Bernie Krause’s The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places , which argues that “the healthier the habitat, the more ‘musical’ the creatures, the richer and more diverse their scores. Sound complexity is a measure of health. Animal music plays various roles: Krause writes that “gibbon male songs, while rarely repeated, nevertheless follow strict rules of modulation and delivery in order to successfully attract females,” and the reviewer adds “I couldn’t help it; my mind ran to Justin Bieber.”

Musical mating is well-known, but Krause explores other uses of animal music: “female gorillas, ‘singing’ soothingly to themselves while grooming, interrupted by the ‘loud screams’ and ‘chest beats’ of the males; sperm whales emitting ‘high-pitched bursts of sound’ to get imaging not unlike medical ultrasounds; crickets, expressing the temperature through the speed of their stridulations; and spadefoot toads, chorusing together to confuse predators as to any individual location . . . . the toads’ music is a communal shelter. Music is expression, communication — but also protection.”

The reviewer also notes how animal music has entered human music: “As the 20th century dawned, a number of composers began to allow for nature’s unruliness, its cragginess: Gustav Mahler, Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles. But unruly nature has its detractors, and so does 20th-century music.” He also notes the “Pygmie-inspired” piano etudes of Ligeti, and could have mentioned Messiaen as well.