Aesthetics of Soundscape Ecology and Music Composition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v34i69.160664Keywords:
Soundscape Ecology, Ecoacoustics, Acoustic Ecology, Music CompositionAbstract
Soundscape ecology is a rapidly expanding field that seeks to examine our natural and urban ecosystems through the lens of sonic events. Musicians have explored the overlap between acoustic ecology and music through their own compositions and writing. Soundscape ecologists have shown that the acoustic dimension of an ecosystem is vital to understanding our environment and reveals details not visually apparent. My work builds on these thinkers and practitioners, exploring the bi-directional interplay between soundscape ecology and music composition. In this paper, I examine the aesthetic and ethical considerations of using recorded natural sound in music compositions with a particular focus on silence, ecomimesis, and acoustic ecology. The main vehicle for this discussion is the planning, recording, composition, and presentation of my composition, Ecosystem [512], which takes as its foundational material the sound recordings from a nine-month acoustic survey of Iceland’s National Parks.
References
1 Bryan C. Pijanowski et al., “Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape,” BioScience 61, no. 3 (March 2011): 203–16, https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.6.
2 R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape (Destiny Books, 1994); Barry Truax, “Acoustic Ecology and the World Soundscape Project,” in Sound, Media, Ecology, ed. Milena Droumeva and Randolph Jordan (Springer International Publishing, 2019), Palgrave Studies in Audio-Visual Culture; Hildegard Westerkamp, “Linking Soundscape Composition and Acoustic Ecology,” Organised Sound 7, no. 1 (2002): 51–56.
3 Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles, Patterns, Methods and Applications (Springer Science & Business Media, 2013); Bernie Krause, The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places (Little, Brown, 2012); Pijanowski et al., “Soundscape Ecology.”
4 Timothy Morton, Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (Harvard University Press, 2007); Allen Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture (Routledge, 2005).
5 Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment, 6.
6 Timothy Morton, Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence, The Wellek Library Lectures in Critical Theory (Columbia University Press, 2016), 5.
7 Morton, Ecology without Nature, 48.
8 Morton, Dark Ecology.
9 Morton, Dark Ecology, 5.
10 Recording available here, performed by Brooke Miller: https://youtu.be/woy69uuEZLM accessed August 14, 2025).
11 For another perspective on this piece where I examine the process and data from the passive acoustic monitoring surveys, see: Garrison Gerard, “Ecosystem [512]: Acoustic Ecology Surveys as Music,” Revista Vórtex 12 (December 3, 2024): 1–27, https://doi.org/10.33871/vortex.2024.12.9521.
12 Nathan D. Merchant et al., “Measuring Acoustic Habitats,” ed. David Hodgson, Methods in Ecology and Evolution 6, no. 3 (March 2015): 257.
13 Andrew P. Hill et al., “AudioMoth: Evaluation of a Smart Open Acoustic Device for Monitoring Biodiversity and the Environment,” ed. Nick Isaac, Methods in Ecology and Evolution 9, no. 5 (May 2018): 1199–1211, https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12955.
14 Mark Peter Wright, Listening After Nature: Field Recording, Ecology, Critical Practice (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), 22.
15 Schafer, The Soundscape, 90–91.
16 Morton, Ecology without Nature, 96.
17 Hildegard Westerkamp, Kits Beach Soundwalk (1989), in Transformations (DIFFUSION iMeDIA, 1996); David Kolber, “Hildegard Westerkamp’s Kits Beach Soundwalk: Shifting Perspectives in Real World Music,” Organised Sound 7, no. 1 (April 2002): 41.
18 Timestamps throughout refer to the recording of Ecosystem [512] performed by Brooke Miller.
19 John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings (Wesleyan University Press, 1961).
20 Erik Anderson, “Aesthetic Appreciation of Silence,” Contemporary Aesthetics 18 (2020): 7–12.
21 Anderson, “Aesthetic Appreciation of Silence,” 5.
22 Wright, Listening After Nature, 27
23 Anderson, “Aesthetic Appreciation of Silence,” 10.
24 Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment, 7–8.
25 Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment, 6.
26 Thomas Heyd, “Aesthetic Appreciation and the Many Stories About Nature,” British Journal of Aesthetics 41, no. 2 (2001): 132.
27 Hildegard Westerkamp, “Soundwalking,” in Going Out: Walking, Listening, Soundmaking, ed. Julia Eckhardt, (umland editions, 2022).
28 Westerkamp, “Soundwalking,” 216.
29 Westerkamp, “Linking Soundscape Composition and Acoustic Ecology,” 53.
30 Westerkamp, “Linking Soundscape Composition and Acoustic Ecology,” 54.
31 Morton, Dark Ecology, 160.
32 Alexandra Rodríguez et al., “Temporal and spatial variability of animal sound within a neotropical forest,” Ecological Informatics 21 (2014), 133–143.
33 Garrison Gerard, “Ecosystem [512]: Acoustic Ecology Surveys as Music,” Revista Vórtex 12 (December 3, 2024): 1–27, https://doi.org/10.33871/vortex.2024.12.9521.
34 Catharine H. Rankin et al., “Habituation Revisited: An Updated and Revised Description of the Behavioral Characteristics of Habituation,” Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 92, no. 2 (2009): 135–38.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Garrison Gerrard
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
