Bug Music and the Songs of the Forest

How human sounds fit into the natural world.

  • event type:WOMEX 14 Conference
  • date:23 Oct 2014
  • time:12:00 - 12:45
  • city/area:Santiago de Compostela, Galicia
  • venue:Conference Room 2 Cidade da Cultura
  • country:Spain
  • event posted by:Piranha Arts

Presented by:

- David Rothenberg (USA)
musician/writer, Mysterious Mountain Music BMI, USA

Music can help humanity fit into nature. One of the best examples of a human culture musically integrated into the sounds of its environment is that of the Bayaka pygmies of the Central African Republic. Louis Sarno has lived there for nearly thirty years and has become totally immersed in the culture.

The film Song from the Forest won the top prize at the IDFA Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and has since played at nearly a hundred film festivals and been released in ten countries.

David Rothenberg, who has worked at making music with birds, whales and insects, was the music supervisor of the film and produced its soundtrack. In this session he will discuss why the sounds of insects and other environmental sources taught us our love of rhythm and noise. After all, bugs and birds have been making music for millions of years longer than human beings have even existed on Earth.

(Photo: Charles Lindsay)