WhaleSongs visualised..
Thanks to FlowingData for highlighting this link by Albert Cairo to the article by David Rothenberg and Mike Deal ” Whale Song Explained“.
The largest single pressing of any album of recorded music was not made by Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey, but by an animal the size of a city bus. Ten million copies of Songs of the Humpback Whale were inserted into the January 1979 issue of National Geographic, distributed around the world in 25 languages. The humpback’s cries are credited with inspiring the global movement of conservation measures to protect whales. But what is often overlooked is the true musicality of the sounds. The shrill wails, deep growls, rhythmic scratches, and spectral moans combine into repeating patterns so structured that they fit any conventional definition of music.
There are eleven populations of humpbacks around the world, each covering their own ocean-sized territory. These populations each boast not only their own dialect of song, but also their own anthem of sorts — each whale singing the same sequence of the same sounds. But week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year this song evolves, as the whales collectively create new phrases and patterns, totally in sync.
Links
- Whale Song Explained [ David Rothenberg and Mike Deal ]
- January 1979 issue of National Geographic [Internet Archive – flex-disc recording]
- Roger Payne
- National Geographic [Symphony of the Deep]
