Jon Gallant wrote:

>Charles Dalmas reports:
>
>>I had one girl ask me during a study of Beethoven how a dog could write
>>music.  I am not kidding.
>
>This girl has carried this thread into an interesting area.  Are the
>"songs" of hump-back whales and other cetaceans classifiable as music?
>And, if so, where do they belong in the spectrum of Classical-to-Popular?
>(Someone, of course, will suggest that they belong in the category of
>"World Music".)

A litmus for what is or is not music. Recall Respighi's use of a
nightingale recording in Pines. Not same as Messiaen, who made melodies out
of birdsong.  These whale sounds are used both as musical material (like a
sound effect) and as a reminder that all life is one. It is offered for our
reception, that is all. Of course it is to some extent a political
statement and that can complicate things.

>In this connection, recall that an elephant at a zoo (in Arizona IIRC)
>made sketches of sufficient artistic quality that Villem de Kooning, to
>whom they were sent, was impressed.  The zoo authorities did not bias De
>Kooning by informing him of the artist's address, gender, or species.

Neither the elephants nor the whales know they are creating "art"--or do
they? The difference is that the whales are doing what they always do, but
the elephants aren't. Chimps paint too. De Kooning was probably imposing
his own order on what he saw, like we may do when confronted by Cage. In
the absence of relationship, we supply it. We can't know the extent to
which animals perceive relationship, or imagine the creation before it's
created.  It's been said that the latter is what separates our thought from
those of (other) animals.

One can create "music" from inanimate nature as well. I recall a
composition based on Earth's Magnetic Field, by Charles Dodge. I'm sure
there have been many such musics. I used to amuse myself by creating
acoustic Brownian motion on an 8086 computer. Xenakis uses the mathematics
of nature to write some pieces. The value of such experiments is
indeterminate, except in cases where it earns one a Guggenheim.

Chris Bonds