Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIs Birdsong Music? is an absorbing and delightfully written field diary as much as it is a technical analysis of sound and a philosophical discussion of the concept of music . . . Hollis Taylor's book encourages us to recognise the importance and interconnectedness of all species. She challenges the dominant view that humans represent the pinnacle of all life and can act independently of the environment. The cultural connection between species is integral to environmental connection.
* RealTime *
Is Birdsong Music?, a ground-breaking study of the songs of the pied butcherbird, is intellectually engaging and also very entertaining as a fieldwork memoir.
* The Music Trust *
"This book, for me, was a revelation: so much careful, vivid observation and description from all over Australia. It shows our bird life to be unique, talented, and above all, surprising. Music to my eyes."
* ABC-Radio National *
Table of ContentsForeword by Philip Kitcher
1. An Outback Epiphany
2. Songbird Studies
3. The Nature of Transcription and the Transcription of Nature
4. Notes and Calls: A Taste for Diversity
5. Song Development: A Taste for Complexity
6. Musicality and the Art of Song: A Taste for Beauty
7. Border Conflicts at Music's Definition
8. Facts to Suit Theories
9. Too Many Theories and Not Enough Birdsong
10. Songbirds as Colleagues and Contemporaries
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
Notation and Supplement Conventions
Bibliography
Index
