A celebrated figure in myth song and story the nightingale has captivated the imagination
for millennia its complex song evoking a prism of human emotions --from melancholy to joy
from the fear of death to the immortality of art. But have you ever listened closely to a
nightingale's song? It's a strange and unsettling sort of composition--an eclectic assortment
of chirps whirs trills clicks whistles twitters and gurgles. At times it is mellifluous
at others downright guttural. It is a rhythmic assault always eluding capture. What happens if
you decide to join in? As philosopher and musician David Rothenberg shows in this searching and
personal new book the nightingale's song is so peculiar in part because it reflects our own
cacophony back at us. As vocal learners nightingales acquire their music through the world
around them singing amidst the sounds of humanity in all its contradictions of noise and
beauty hard machinery and soft melody. Rather than try to capture a sound not made for us to
understand Rothenberg seeks these musical creatures out clarinet in tow and makes a new
sound with them. He takes us to the urban landscape of Berlin--longtime home to nightingale
colonies where the birds sing ever louder in order to be heard--and invites us to listen in on
their remarkable collaboration as birds and instruments riff off of each other's sounds.
Through dialogue travel records sonograms tours of Berlin's city parks and musings on the
place animal music occupies in our collective imagination Rothenberg takes us on a quest for a
new sonic alchemy a music impossible for any one species to make alone. In the tradition of
The Hidden Life of Trees and The Invention of Nature Rothenberg has written a provocative and
accessible book to attune us ever closer to the natural environment around us.
