Great Animal Orchestra Finding the Origins of Music in the Worlds Wild Places

Bernie Krause's The Great Animal Orchestra offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of bioacoustics, soundscapes, and the evolution of music. Krause, a naturalist and recording artist (he was formerly a member of The Weavers and is noted for his pioneering and influential work with synthesizers and in film), developed his niche hypothesis to describe the unique "sound signatures" made up of varying nonhuman animal voices that define a particular time and place (which may shift in response to other environmental factors, including man-made noise). This "biophony," as he termed it, can reflect the staggering diversity and density of biological sounds found within wild habitats and stands in contrast to both geophony ("nonbiological natural sounds" — wind, water, etc.) and anthrophony ("human-generated sound" — e.g., jet engines, automobiles, sonar, and that most abhorrent of human inventions, the leaf blower).

Much of The Great Animal Orchestra contains autobiographical elements that recall Krause's trajectory from musician to soundscape field recorder. Krause provides a history of the specialized subject, as well as some requisite background into the elements and composition of sound. Having recorded in a variety of remote regions throughout the world, he recounts a number of formative experiences that helped shape his interest in and knowledge of his chosen pursuit.

In his explorations, Krause has immersed himself within multiple indigenous cultures, in part, to glean some of the collected wisdom and attitudes that inform these cultures' relationships to sound and the natural world. As the human species was a relatively late development, evolutionarily speaking, they arrived in a world already rich in biological soundscapes. Krause postulates that the human inclination towards music may well have derived from observing, listening, and mimicking the abundant biophonic and geophonic sound sources that made up their habitats.

As with any recent book relating to the earthly sciences, Krause spends a fair amount of time considering the often ill effects modern humanity has wrought upon its nonhuman neighbors. Upon revisiting particular settings and locales where he had previously recorded, he finds, time and again, a marked decrease in both the diversity and density of his acoustic subjects. In two chapters, Krause considers the deleterious effects noise has had on myriad species (our own included), such as the much-publicized cases involving sonar and whales. He decries our "adversarial relationship with the natural world" and advocates for reassessing our disassociation with the planet's wild elements.

The Great Animal Orchestra is an intriguing book likely to appeal to most anyone with an interest in the sciences, nature studies, and biomusicology (specifically evolutionary musicology). While Krause's book may, at times, be a bit heavy on the autobiography and somewhat light on the science, it is, nonetheless, an easily accessible and readable addition to the sparsely populated literature on the subject. The Great Animal Orchestra ought to, at the least, encourage its readers to rethink the role sound and soundscapes have played, and continue to play, as part of our everyday lives — surrounded as we are by a veritable wealth of aural treasures, the likes of which often go entirely unheard. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com

Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause is one of the world's leading experts in natural sound, and he's spent his life discovering and recording nature's rich chorus. Searching far beyond our modern world's honking horns and buzzing machinery, he has sought out the truly wild places that remain, where natural soundscapes exist virtually unchanged from when the earliest humans first inhabited the earth.

Krause shares fascinating insight into how deeply animals rely on their aural habitat to survive and the damaging effects of extraneous noise on the delicate balance between predator and prey. But natural soundscapes aren't vital only to the animal kingdom; Krause explores how the myriad voices and rhythms of the natural world formed a basis from which our own musical expression emerged.

From snapping shrimp, popping viruses, and the songs of humpback whales-whose voices, if unimpeded, could circle the earth in hours-to cracking glaciers, bubbling streams, and the roar of intense storms; from melody-singing birds to the organlike drone of wind blowing over reeds, the sounds Krause has experienced and describes are like no others. And from recording jaguars at night in the Amazon rain forest to encountering mountain gorillas in Africa's Virunga Mountains, Krause offers an intense and intensely personal narrative of the planet's deep and connected natural sounds and rhythm.

The Great Animal Orchestra is the story of one man's pursuit of natural music in its purest form, and an impassioned case for the conservation of one of our most overlooked natural resources-the music of the wild.

Featured in The New York Times Book Review's Paperback Row

"The Great Animal Orchestra is about the symphony of beasts that surrounds us, a vast orchestra in the process of being silenced....A fascinating life, and devotion to a fascinating topic...Krause wakes up your ears, gives you a desire to experience these wild soundscapes." -- Jeremy Denk, New York Times Book Review

"Forty years travelling the world to record more than 15,000 species have given Krause a rare insight into the importance of 'biophony'." -- Nature

"This passionate amalgam of science and autobiography argues that in the wild, animals vocalize with a musicianly ear." -- New York Times Editors' Choice

"Krause...has recorded the sounds of more than 15,000 animal species and their natural ambience. This often poetic and thoroughly entertaining book reflects his passion." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"The Great Animal Orchestra speaks to us of an ancient music to which so many of us are deaf. Bernie Krause is, above all, an artist. I have watched him recording the calls of chimpanzees, the singing of the insects and birds, and seen his deep love for the harmonies of nature. In this book he helps us to hear and appreciate the often hidden musicians in a new way. But he warns that these songs, an intrinsic part of the natural world and essential to human well being, are vanishing, one by one, snuffed out by human actions. Read The Great Animal Orchestra, tell your friends about it. And as Bernie urges, let us all do our part to preserve the age old sounds of nature." -- Jane Goodall

"This fascinating book awakens our ancient ears to the source of all music. Read it, and you'll yearn to muffle our din-and hear anew." -- Alan Weisman, author of THE WORLD WITHOUT US

"Bernie Krause and his niche theory are the real thing. His originality, research, and above all basic knowledge of the sound environments in nature are impressive. The idea of music originating in the sound communication systems of wild animals is a sound and provocative hypothesis. I admire also his attention to the preservation of ancestral-level cultures for their own value but also as a testing ground for theory on human behavioral evolution." -- E.O. Wilson

"Krause always reveals wondrous stories of the meaning of music and sounds of our natural environment. Bernie's research into the subtleties of animal and insect sounds is unparalleled, but it is his description of the radical changes that are taking place on this planet that really makes on stop and wonder... Listen carefully, for the sounds you hear may never be the same again." -- Sir George Martin

"Krause shows us the music of the natural world - long may his work continue!" -- Pete Seeger

"Bernie Krause has admirably produced not only a comprehensive overview of the art of nature recording, but also shows his heartfelt understanding and appreciation of natural soundscapes, a threatened heritage in our modern world." -- Dr. Roger Payne, author of Songs of the Humpback Whale

"This book will get you to wake up and listen to the natural world." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a sound recording worth? Perhaps much more... We say we want peace and quiet, but Bernie knows better. What we really want is something worth listening to. There is plenty of it out there. Nobody knows how to find it better than Bernie Krause." -- Jean Michel Cousteau

andldquo;Bernie Krause hears things the rest of us donandrsquo;t even realize weandrsquo;re missing. But if we listen carefully, starting with him, we just might resurrect some sweet sounds weandrsquo;ve lost.andrdquo;andmdash;Alan Weisman, author ofandnbsp;Countdownandnbsp;andandnbsp;The World Without Us

andldquo;Bernie Krause is a hero to many of us. In a deafened world, he hears, records and explains the parallel universes around us. In Voices of the Wild, he delves deeper into soundscape ecology, into philosophy and spirit, and the use of technology as way to open passageways into those universes. Voices of the Wild is fascinating, urgent, filled with sound and fury and beauty.andrdquo;andmdash;Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods

A visionary and pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology explores the ways in which the voice of the natural world informs many subjects, and also offers a glimpse into how we might apply these insights going forward

Since 1968, Bernie Krause has traveled the world recording the sounds of remote landscapes, endangered habitats, and rare animal species.and#160; Through his organization, Wild Sanctuary, he has collected the soundscapes of more than 2,000 different habitat types, marine and terrestrial. With powerful illustrations and compelling stories, Krause provides a manifesto for the appreciation and protection of natural soundscapes. In his previous book, The Great Animal Orchestra, Krause drew readersandrsquo; attention to what Jane Goodall described as andldquo;the harmonies of nature . . . [that are being] one by one by one, snuffed out by human actions.andrdquo; He now explains that the secrets hidden in the natural worldandrsquo;s shrinking sonic environment must be preserved, not only for our scientific understanding, but for our cultural heritage and humanityandrsquo;s physical and spiritual welfare.

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Krauseandrsquo;s narrativeandmdash;supplemented by exclusive access to field recordings from the wildandmdash;draws on a compelling range of personal anecdotes, histories, and examples to document his early exploration of this field and to lay the groundwork for future generations.

A pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology explores the ways in which the voice of the natural world informs many subjects

Dr. Bernie Krause is both a musician and a naturalist. During the 1950s and 60s, he devoted himself to music and replaced Pete Seeger as the guitarist for The Weavers. For over 40 years, Krause has traveled the world recording and archiving the soundsof creatures and environments large and small. He has recorded over 15,000 species. He lives in California.