The first bird I searched for was the nightjar, which used to nest in the valley. Its song is like the sound of a stream of wine spilling from a height into a deep and booming cask. It is an odorous sound, with a bouquet that rises to the quiet sky. In the glare of […]
Tag Archives: nature
What appeals to us in being near to nature is nature’s music, and nature’s music is more perfect than that of art. It gives us a sense of exaltation to be moving about in the woods, to be looking at the green, to be standing neat the running water which has it’s rhythm, its tone […]
I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, And accrue what I hear into myself . . . . and let sounds contribute toward me. I hear the bravuras of birds . . . . the bustle of growing wheat . . . […]
Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground. Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, Whose flocks supply him with attire; Whose trees in summer yield him shade, In winter, fire. Blest, who can unconcernedly find Hours, days, and years […]
Mile 60 of the C&O Canal Towpath At times, we need to stop to listen; other times, we need to keep moving. Andrew Forsthoefel experienced the latter truth when he walked four thousand miles from Philadelphia to the Pacific Ocean. He was twenty-three and after losing his first post-college job he “hoped to find some ingredients in an experience that would […]
Walker Evans, Alabama Tenant Farmer Family Singing Hymns, 1936 Outside, from near, there is a new sound. It happens every night, and it is most sorrowful. It is the voice of a blond, fat, and craven rooster, a creature half-frightened of his own wives; and in this poor voice of his, lugubrious, almost surreptitious, he is […]
Hear the subtle mimicry of the lyrebird recorded by ornithologist K.C. Halafoff.
Divided into Natural, Musical, Location, and Manmade Sounds, this recording conjures our primal moods through a singular aural experience.
Does every musical genre boast “fathers,” “grandmothers” and “kings?” Sure, pop has its legends, classical its masters, and funk, “the hardest working man in showbusiness,” but if the esoteric wasteland of academia follows suit, then acoustic ecology has Raymond Murray Schafer. Schafer on a soundwalk. Born in Canada in 1933, R. Murray Schafer is a man […]
Compare the calls, chirps and trills of the chickadee, phoebe, wood thrush, mockingbird, and others all recorded in a Maryland.
