Zoomusicology

"Insect music" redirects here. For other uses, see Insects in music.

Zoomusicology (/ˌzoʊəmjuːzɪˈkɒlədʒi/) is the study of the musical aspects of sound and communication as produced and perceived by animals.[1] It is a field of musicology and zoology, and is a type of zoosemiotics. Zoomusicology as a field dates to François-Bernard Mâche's 1983 book Music, Myth, and Nature, or the Dolphins of Arion[2] (published in English in 1992), and has been developed more recently by scholars such as Dario Martinelli, David Rothenberg, Hollis Taylor, David Teie, and Emily Doolittle.[3]

Zoomusicology is a separate field from ethnomusicology, the study of human music.

Zoomusicologists in a wide range of fields including music, semiotics, philosophy and biology conduct zoomusicology research. This is because the field of zoomusicology is so broad and reaches many disciplines. Musician and zoomusicologist Hollis Taylor has conducted an extensive study of the Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis) over the past 15 years, including interdisciplinary research with philosophers and scientists.[4] Clarinetist, and philosopher David Rothenberg plays music with animals, and has written books on the relationship between bird, insect, and whale song and human music.[5] Composer Emily Doolittle has written numerous pieces based on animal songs, and has published interdisciplinary music-science research on the hermit thrush[6] and the musician wren.[7] Heavy metal bands such as Hatebeak, Caninus, Naegleria Fowleri, and Boar Glue have released music fronted by a grey parrot, a pit bull, an Amazon parrot, and a guinea pig, respectively.[8][9][10] Susan Belanger has also contributed to the field of zoomusicology, with her work on soft song in the Asian corn borer moth (Ostrinia furnacalis) and its relationship to the initiation of mating behaviour.[11] Researcher Patricia Gray has examined the music that can be seen in whales and songbirds.[12] This list is by no means all encompassing, but simply lists some notable members of the zoomusicology research community.

  1. ^ Doolittle, Emily; Gingras, Bruno (October 2015). "Zoomusicology". Current Biology. 25 (19): R819–R820. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.039. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 26439331.
  2. ^ Mâche, François-Bernard (1992). Music, Myth and Nature, or the Dolphins of Arion. Taylor & Francis. p. 205. ISBN 978-3718653218. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  3. ^ Taylor, Hollis. "Introduction to Zoömusicology Google". Zoömusicology. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  4. ^ TAYLOR, HOLLIS (March 2014). "Whose Bird Is It? Messiaen's Transcriptions of Australian Songbirds". Twentieth-Century Music. 11 (1): 63–100. doi:10.1017/s1478572213000194. ISSN 1478-5722. S2CID 161706821.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Doolittle, Emily; Gingras, Bruno; Endres, Dominik; Fitch, Tecumseh (2014-11-18). "Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song: Unexpected convergence with scale construction in human music". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (46): 16616–16621. Bibcode:2014PNAS..11116616D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1406023111. PMC 4246323. PMID 25368163.
  7. ^ Doolittle, Emily; Brumm, Henrik. "O Canto do Uirapuru" (PDF).
  8. ^ "Animal-Fronted Bands Hatebeak and Boar Glue Release Split LP". Decibelmagazine.com. 28 February 2019.
  9. ^ "Meet Caninus, the Dog-Fronted Grindcore Band". Vice.com. 28 May 2013.
  10. ^ "Naegleria Fowleri, 'Prognosis Dire'". Sevendaystv.com.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Gray, Patricia M.; Krause, Bernie; Atema, Jelle; Payne, Roger; Krumhansl, Carol; Baptista, Luis (2001). "The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music". Science. 291 (5501): 52–54. doi:10.1126/science.10.1126/SCIENCE.1056960. JSTOR 3082167. PMID 11192008. S2CID 191315741.