Content area
Full Text
Animals and their songs have inspired humans throughout the centuries. In Western classical music, artists have paid tribute to animals in many compositions and often focused on animals popular among humans such birds such as the nightingale, cuckoo and bullfinch and such domesticated mammals as the cat and dog. Few have felt inclined to give voice to animals regarded as pests: rodents, pigeons and geese. New York City-based composer and animal rights activist Laurie Spiegel has distinguished herself in showcasing underprivileged animals in urban environments through music and other media and raised the issue of 'speciesism', constructions of hierarchies of living beings grounded in specific species memberships. This paper sheds light on animal hierarchies and portrayals of rodents and Columbidae in the arts. It provides background on Spiegel's compositional career and aesthetic ideas, her environmental concerns and philosophies, and her involvement in animal welfare. Three of her works will be explored in detail: Cavis Muris (1986), an electronic piece composed with Spiegel's software program 'Music Mouse' and inspired by real mice in her loft; Anon a Mouse (2003), a ten-minute opera about mice and a dog, a work drawing on animal sounds; and Ferals (2006), an audiovisual installation dedicated to New York City's pigeons. This paper is based on published and unpublished materials including interviews I conducted with Spiegel. It is also indebted to musical, environmental and animal studies by such writers as Joanna Bosse, Jody Castricano, Emily Doolittle, Amy Fitzgerald, Greta Gaard, Kyle Gann, Linda Kalof, and Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner.
Animals and their sounds have inspired many human musicians throughout the centuries. In rural cultures, humans have often and closely communicated musically with a wide variety of animals. In urban cultures, especially those in which Western classical music was developed, humans have also related to animals in their music, albeit differently and less frequently. In urban environments, humans have focused on fewer species, preferring birds and domesticated mammals. Moreover, they have often used animal songs in a highly stylised fashion in their compositions. Such an approach points to what animal rights supporters would call 'speciesism' (by analogy to racism or ethnocentrism)2.More recently however, motivated by environmental philosophies, an increasing number of musicians have recognised the genuine value of animals and their sounds and taken...