Works » By Title » W » Whale Song No. 1 (14:30 / 1982)

In this piece, I attempted to compare two musical elements of song in nature; the music of birds and that of whales. The music of birds has fascinated composers throughout history. Birds do not compose as such. They merely repeat various melodies and sounds. Whales however are the only mammal, other then man, that actually composes songs and constantly modifies them in performance. The overall situation of this piece occurs in the two environments native to the respective species. The birds in the forest are the first to be heard. As they sing their repertoire, each simulated bird changes its song to create a dense yet slowly evolving soundscape. Other sounds can be heard emulating the natural forest, sounds such as streams, winds, leaves flying about, etc. The whole soundscape descends into the ocean, halfway through the piece, creating the whales' environment. The whales are then heard calling back and forth to each other using a myriad of sounds which defines their songs. “Whalesong #1” was realized at the Kaya Music Studio using a Synthi synthesizer, and at the Concordia Electroacoustic Studio using an Aries Modular synthesizer. It was completed in June 1982. DL