Episode 22: Music Beyond Humanity — A Profile of Inter-species Musician David Rothenberg
Clarinetist, author, and philosopher David Rothenberg has spent his life making music far removed from the usual contexts of performance stages or recording studios. Rothenberg's collaborators have included cicada swarms, katydids, nightingales, lyrebirds, warblers, whales, and dolphins. His experiences have given him a unique and valuable perspective on our human musicality and how it relates to the totality of Earth's ecosystems. In this episode we hear David interacting musically with his non-human collaborators, and thinking aloud about what they have to teach us in a time of climate transformation. Featuring videos by Lewis Rapkin along with underwater footage and interviews from 2021 and 2025.
Music & Video
"Summer Symphony — Bug Music"
Video produced by Lewis Rapkin, Oscillator Media
"Helsinki Nightingale Clarinet Dawn"
Video produced by Lewis Rapkin, Oscillator Media
Paul Winter Consort
"Wolf Eyes", Living Music CD LD0018
R. Murray Schafer
"Music For Wilderness Lake", Kalvfestivalen 2014, Sweden
"Bug Music: David Rothenberg's Insect Choir"
Video documentary by Jennifer Berglund & Ian MacLellan
"Sago Beetle & Mouth Resonator"
Mahisu, Wam Tribesman, Warengema Village, East-Sepik, New Guinea
Recording by Robert MacLennan, 1961
"Cicadas and Clarinet" — Princeton, NJ, June 2, 2021
Video produced by Reuters
"Dawn Chorus Plus One"
Video produced by Lewis Rapkin
"Live with Humpback Whales in Hawaii"
Directed by François Noulens, Produced by Christophe Cosse.
"Whale Muse Seek" — Film by Maria Batlle, 2017
All other video and audio material by David Rothenberg.
