Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #297350 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Synopsis
The richness and variety of birdsong is both a scientific mystery and a source of wonder. David Rothenberg has a unique approach to this fascinating subject, combining the latest scientific research with a deep understanding of musical beauty and form. Can the standard explanations of territoriality or sexual selection account for so many species' astonishing inventiveness and devotion to singing? Whether playing the clarinet with the white-crested laughing thrush in Pittsburgh or jamming in the Australian winter breeding grounds of the Albert's lyrebird, Rothenberg touches the heart and soul of birdsong, offering an intimate look at the most lovely of natural phenomena.

Customer Reviews

Quirky but heavily flawed
You might imagine that a man with no literary experience or indeed any in depth knowledge of the avian world would tread carefully when attempting to persuade us that the ornithologists and scientists are wrong and that birds in fact sing for pure joy. But you'd be wrong.

From page one Rothenberg attempts to convince the reader that the scientific approach is flawed because the scientists mind is filled with preconceptions while the musicians minds are not. So far this is fair, many of the major scientific breakthroughs of the last few hundred years have come against the grain of scientific beliefs. Where he comes unstuck is his failure to confront issues which cause those scientific conclusions. He simply sidesteps these problems with the `why not' approach.

He is also guilty of severe anthropomorphism. He places our thoughts and values in birds, without considering other factors. He concludes that if humans could sing like a bird they would when they were joyful. But he makes preconceptions of his own such as assuming that birds find their song as pleasurable as we do. He also fails to realize that unlike us birds have predation risks and a tight energy budgets which prohibit song. In short if we were birds we would sing out of joy. But he fails to realize that we simply aren't.

Rothenberg has clearly undertaken profound research for this book and has spoken to numerous experts and scientists. So what is written as fact in the book is in all likelihood accurate. It is the forced interpretation of his research to fit in with his theory that is flawed. Unfortunately this leads to the continuous repetition of the same flawed message.

Its not that Rothenberg is bullish or arrogant in his disagreements with the scientific side of bird-song study. Its more that he treats them with much the same comical patronization that they (and most of us) treat his own views. And this is rather appealing. I did not for one moment believe that what he was writing was true, but I did find myself wishing he could find some indisputable proof that it was, just so this plucky theorist could win the day! And that, in essence, is the appeal of this book.