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.
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"Is an interesting point of view on the world. Watching the world under the aspect of the sound is possible uncover some aspect of it that we are not able see or hear." — Adriano (5 out of 5 stars)
"Is an interesting point of view on the world. Watching the world under the aspect of the sound is possible uncover some aspect of it that we are not able see or hear."
“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.”
“[Krause] is a man with a calling…He is high on hippo grunts and insect drones, having spent decades recording and archiving wild soundscapes. he chronicles his life choices and epiphanies, guides us through nature’s sonic treasures, makes interesting assertions about the musicianship of animals (human and nonhuman), and begs us to pay attention…Krause wakes up your ears, gives you a desire to experience these wild soundscapes.”
“Movingly conveys his anger at the unseen toll that human-generated noise has exacted on the natural world—and why this matters.”
“Krause use the language of music to understand everything from birdsong to ocean waves to decimated habitats…Krause’s musical expertise allows him to hear the orchestral layering of different species in each biophony, an insight that explains group vocalization as an evolutionary survival mechanism rather than a purposeful chorus of noise.”
“Drawing together ecology, human-created environmental change, and the beauty of nature and music, Krause presents a perspective of our world that will bring readers a new awareness of their environment. Highly recommended.”
“An imaginative introduction to a new dimension of the natural world.”
" This one started with an intriguing premise, but goes downhill pretty quickly. There are a disturbing number of unsupported claims, and what documentation that exists is suspect to say the least. I'd skip pass this one by. "
" Clearly Dr. Krause has a great many interesting things to say. Unfortunately the title of this book does not match its contents. After 50 pages and some sampling from the rest, I am convinced he has no intention of addressing the subject in the title. "
" This book was interesting, but he made his point in the first 100 pages. The rest was just more of the same. "
" A number of interesting ideas struggling to get out of a text that doesn't quite focus on the subject at hand. "
" I listened to this on audio and wished there were more sound samples. After half the book, enough. "
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 forty years, Krause has traveled the world recording and archiving the sounds of creatures and environments large and small. He has recorded over fifteen thousand species. He lives in California.
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