Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Maybe music is part of nature itself a hypothesis philosopher and musician Rothenberg has put to the test in his quest to create interspecies music. He recapped his avian adventures in Why Birds Sing (2005) and now recounts his far more complicated meetings with whales. A warmly inquisitive writer who makes technical information as entertaining as tales about nude whale watchers, Rothenberg tells remarkably dramatic and funny stories of his musical encounters with whales in Chicago, British Columbia, Hawaii, and Karelia, Russia (a breathtaking CD accompanies the book). He also revisits a neglected chapter of the environmental movement: the electrifying impact of the first recordings of the haunting songs of humpback whales released in 1970. Rothenberg meticulously analyzes the long, epic rhymes of the humpbacks, sperm whale click trains, and the cacophonous free jazz of belugas and the kinship whistles of orcas, explaining how whale songs change, travel great distances, and embody emotion. Rothenberg's unique study is particularly sharp in its analysis of the mysticism whales evoke and the findings and blind spots of scientific inquiries. As he rekindles whale awe, Rothenberg calls for a revitalized commitment to protecting these great singers of the sea. --Seaman, Donna Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Biologists know that whale songs, which may carry for hundreds of miles, change over time and are passed on from one generation to the next, but they don't fully understand what these complex sounds are for. Philosopher and musician Rothenberg (Why Birds Sing) proposes that music played by humans can help us find answers. He tested this theory by playing his clarinet into an underwater speaker and recording the whales' responses on an underwater hydrophone. His intriguing book includes sonograms and a CD demonstrating that the orcas, belugas and humpbacks he played for seemed to interact with his music. He also includes much information about whales and accounts of attempts to discover rhythm, shape and form in their songs; colorful descriptions of the whale scientists he has worked with; and a chapter on composers who have incorporated whale songs in their pieces. As Rothenberg points out, it was a recording of whale songs in the 1970s that led to the whale conservation movement. His paean to the beautiful music these great mammals make should lend further support to attempts to save the whales at a time when they are increasingly threatened. Illus. and CD. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Exploring the connections between human and animal intelligence, Rothenberg (philosophy & music, New Jersey Inst. of Technology; Why Birds Sing) has played his clarinet to communicate with whales in Canada, Russia, and Hawaii aboard boats equipped with microphones, underwater speakers, hydrophones, and headphones. His belief that "we are not the only musicians on the planet" has been reinforced through a study of the sound patterns and rhythms resulting from the whales' responses. The accompanying CD is an unusual mixture of songs, cries, gurgles, and clicks combined with the author's clarinet, guitar, percussion, and violin played by other musicians. Rothenberg traces the history of whale-sound research from the navy's interest in the 1950s through the work of Roger Payne, who produced the 1970 recording Songs of the Humpback Whale. He attributes the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 to the growing popular consciousness of whale intelligence; ironically, however, this act considers playing music to whales a form of harassment. Enhanced by acoustic diagrams and a fine bibliographical essay as well as bibliographical footnotes, this intriguing book will capture the imaginations of music and nature lovers and is suitable for high school, public, and college libraries.--Judith B. Barnett, Pell Marine Science Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Kingston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A joyful ride among the orcas, belugas and humpbacks, aimed at enticing these behemoths into a jam session. In his seventh book, Rothenberg (Philosophy and Music/New Jersey Institute of Technology) reprises the approach he took in Why Birds Sing: A Journey Through the Mystery of Bird Song (2005). There, he sought to understand the practical and transcendental aspects of birdsong, as well as engage birds with his wind instruments. Here, he turns his clarinet to a microphone attached to an underwater speaker in hopes of playing music with whales and finding some common ground through sound. Humans may have scant understanding of what whale song is all about, Rothenberg writes, but as an accomplished jazzman once said, "sometimes the real music only comes when you have absolutely no idea what is going on." The author gets as much understanding as he can into the mix before he attempts any session work. He covers the scientific work done on whale song, the role whales played in the growth of the environmental movement and the various musicians, from Pete Seeger to Paul Winter, who have sought to bring the whale into their work. The book's meat-and-potatoes sections chronicle Rothenberg's encounters with whales in Canada, Russia, the Caribbean and Hawaii. His ruminative yet rather merry prose only occasionally tips into fruitiness ("where whale and human songs wash together over distant leagues"), and his sheer enthusiasm is remarkable. Even when a hard-bitten scientist upbraids him for a project that "doesn't really yield anything except a gratuitous level of self-satisfaction," he holds faith in musical communication. He may "have no idea what is going on" in a clarinet/whale duet, but for a few minutes, playing with the humpbacks, he "entered their wild world of sound." Approaches the stirring border of interspecies contact with dignity and glee. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
