Synopses & Reviews
The astonishing variety and richness of birdsong is both an aesthetic and scientific mystery. Biologists have never been able to understand why birdsong displays are often so inventive and why so many species devote so many hours to singing. The standard explanations, which generally have to do with territoriality and sexual display, don't begin to account for the astonishing variety and energy that the commonest birds exhibit. Is it possible that birds sing because they like to? This seemingly naive explanation is starting to look more and more like the truth. In the tradition of classic works by Bernd Heinrich, Edward Abbey, and Terry Tempest Williams, Why Birds Sing is a lyric exploration of birdsong that blends the latest scientific research with a deep understanding of musical beauty and form. Based on conversations with neuroscientists, ecologists, and composers, it is the first book to investigate why birds sing and how, and what effect their music has on other animals particularly humans. Whether playing the clarinet with the white-crested laughing thrush in Pittsburgh, or jamming in the Australian winter breeding grounds of the Albert's lyrebird, Rothenberg journeys to the heart and soul of birdsong. Why Birds Sing offers an intimate look at the most lovely of natural phenomena with surprising insights about the origin of music.
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"This lovely amalgam of science and music will appeal to both left- and right-brained readers." Booklist
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"Impressive and stimulating: an enticing exploration, from the artist's perspective, into the largely unanalyzed subject of birdsong." Kirkus Reviews
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"[D]elightfully odd little book..." Library Journal
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"Why Birds Sing is a witty, insightful, intrepid, and delightful meditation on the limits of science and reason to comprehend not only birdsong but all of nature's mysteries." John Horgan, author of The End of Science and Rational Mysticism
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"This book is exuberant! Exuberantly intellectual, exuberantly alive. And when you are finished with it the world will seem more alive as well, which is an awful lot for one book to accomplish." Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home
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"Rothenberg stalks the mystery brilliantly, but in the end it eludes him. Perhaps, he suggests, that like us, birds sing for joy, simply because they can." Los Angeles Times
About the Author
David Rothenberg is a writer, musician, and teacher. He is the author of four books and his articles have appeared in Orion, the Nation, Wired, and Sierra, among others. As a musician, he has composed and produced six CD's. Rothenberg is currently a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.