RECOMMENDATION // Nature's Music
EXCERPT //
David Rothenberg, a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, came to Philadelphia in April to drop one of his custom hydrophones into the Grand Concourse “Lake” (let’s be honest—it’s a small pond) in West Philadelphia near the Mann Music Center. To listen to bugs and plants. And play music with them.
Let me explain.
Rothenberg bills himself as an interspecies musician, and was planning to play improvised music with his clarinet and flutes to the sounds of plants photosynthesizing and fish whirring by. The free public concert had been set up by Bowerbird and the LandHealth Institute, who had independently contacted Rothenberg to play in Philadelphia; they partnered on the concert instead and drew to the side of the water a slowly gathering crowd, outfitted in wool socks, Wellies, and duckboots, jackets zipped and scarves tightened. Curious dog walkers and parents with strollers wandered past. While we waited, some skinny kids gnawed on soft pretzels, and people lay out blankets and yoga mats. Across the pond, a lonely stand of yellow daffodils bloomed.
“The whole idea is we want to hear what’s in the pond, which, of course, today, is almost nothing,” Rothenberg told the crowd. But he’d anticipated the quiet early spring showing from the flora and fauna. “I’ve come prepared with sounds of other ponds! I’m not going to lie to you,” he told us. “Some have suggested I do that.” (One wonders who may have suggested lying to us about bugs, but we’ll leave it.) //
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