biomusic

Biomusic is a form of experimental music which deals with sounds created or performed by nonhuman living things. The definition is also sometimes extended to included sounds made by humans in a directly biological way. For instance, music that is created by the brain waves of the composer can also be called biomusic. Biomusic can be divided into two basic categories: music that is created solely by the animal (or in some cases plant), and music which is based upon animal noises but which is arranged by a human composer. Some forms of music use recorded sounds of nature as part of the music, for example New Age music uses the nature sounds as backgrounds for various musical soundscapes, and ambient music sometimes uses nature sounds modified with reverbs and delay units to make spacey versions of the nature sounds as part of the ambience.

Forms of biomusic

Bird song in music

The incorporation of bird song in music is one of the most widely studied forms of biomusic. Notable in this regard is the French composer Olivier Messiaen who began incorporating accurately transcribed bird songs into his music in 1952. One obstacle facing the use of bird songs in music is their complexity and usually very high register. Nevertheless, Messiaen included a variety of bird songs in many of his mature works including his Catalogue d'oiseaux ("Bird catalogue"), piano (1956–58) which incorporated songs from thirteen different birds. Recordings of bird songs have also been used in numerous works, including Laurie Anderson’s O Superman.

Whale song in music

Recorded whale song also frequently inspire 20th century experimental music. One example is in George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), a composition for electric flute, electric cello, and amplified piano.^[1] However, as Vox Balaenae does not included actual recorded whale songs, it is not a pure biomusic composition. Another similar piece that could be considered true biomusic is And God Created Great Whales, a piece written in 1917 by American composer Alan Hovhaness. This work for orchestra and whale songs brings the recorded sounds of humpback, bowhead, and killer whales directly into the concert hall.^[2] Another piece utilising recorded whale song is the Earth Mass (Missa Gaia) by Paul Winter which is performed at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine each year to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis. One of the movements uses a four note motive derived from a recorded humpback whale song that opens and closes that segment of the work.

Neurofeedback

Music created by neurofeedback relies on the brainwaves of a human subject to create music. An Electroencephalophone (a musical instrument that converts brain waves to sound) was first designed by Erkki Kurenniemi in the 1960s. American composer David Rosenboom further pioneered work with neurofeedback music as has Brazilian composer Eduardo Reck Miranda.

Other examples

Biomusic can take many other forms. These can include the simple amplification of animal sounds, or the creation of music through the fluctuation of electric current in plants. More unusual still is the use of animal notation: music scores created by animals, often in the form of paw prints. Biomusic can also take the form of animals trained to perform specific behaviors as part of a musical performance (birds trained to sing for instance).

Notes

^ Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) The official George Crumb home page (Retrieved 10 October 2007)
^ And God Created Great Whales (1970) for Orchestra and Whale Songs Artist direct (Retrieved 10 October 2007)

Bibliography

Baptista, L. Gray, P. M. Krause, B. et al. The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music. Science: January 5, 2001.

Cope, David Techniques of the Contemporary Composer (ISBN 0-02-864737-8)