Hollis Taylor

Musicology seems a perfectly obvious word—how better to describe the study of music? However, as it became apparent that the field dealt almost exclusively with European art music, ethnomusicology was pressed into service. First, it was an umbrella term charged with the task of surveying all the rest of the world’s music. Later, the field expanded, at least in the minds of some, to include all music, even European art music. There was still a feeling that something of consequence was omitted, and zoömusicology was the word scratching the itch.

Coined in 1983 by French composer François-Bernard Mâche, zoömusicology could be considered as the study of the musical aspects of animal sounds. According to Mâche, "If it turns out that music is a widespread phenomenon in several living species apart from man, this will very much call into question the definition of music, and more widely that of man and his culture, as well as the idea we have of the animal itself."

NightinGala 2008

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of this word, Professor Dario Martinelli convened the world’s first conference devoted to zoömusicology, which he defines as the "aesthetic use of sound communication among animals."

The event was co-hosted by the Sibelius Academy at the Kallio-Kuninkala estate about thirty minutes north of Helsinki. Martinelli invited both musicologists and biologists to participate, with the focus all on one species, the nightingale. NightinGala was an eclectic event comprising a concert and a series of seminars. The time of the festival coincided with the period when nightingales migrate to Finland and can often be heard in the night singing their songs. (This time of year, “night” consists of just a few hours of twilight.)

Harri Viitanen (pictured above with Hollis) is known as Finland’s Olivier Messiaen, both because he is a composer who uses birdsong in his music and because of his expertise as an organist (Helsinki Cathedral). In studying astronomy, ornithology, and the latest data technology, Viitanen has developed an impressive personal compositional language. Four mounted speakers surrounded the audience for his evocative taped piece, Katharsis. Other participants included Dario Martinelli, David Rothenberg, Dietmar Todt, Henricke Hultsch, Constance Scharff, Marc Naguib, Ofer Tchernichovski, Emily Doolittle, Hollis Taylor, Andrew Whitehouse, Ann Ward, Lina Navickaitė, and Helena Telkänranta.

Click here to learn more about Zoömusicology.