The Music of Everything

May 5th -8th 2017

Welcome to a weekend of listening to the natural world, and tuning in with your own song.

As long time environmental educators at Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary we’ve been exploring ways to learn about the natural world, FROM the natural world. Our premise is: to be human and alive requires the company of non-humans. Our experience is: we return to the living world through participation and surrender; when we each find our unique creative connections with the myriad creatures around.
Natural history, begins in the broadest sense with listening. To listen to non humans and interpret their expressiveness and meaning is a skill that can be learned.

Modern life is dominated by the eye. We look, but rarely listen. The loudspeaker culture has deadened most of us to our soundscapes, which were once rich in texture and meaning.

During this weekend we will learn to discern nonhumans through our ears. We will listen far and listen close. We will listen to the tone and pitch of a bird call. We will explore webs of sounds relating to webs of creatures in different places on the land. We will explore the land through its speech and songs.

We will also vocalize in the company of birds and other creatures. Be prepared: you may return home, sounding different.

Mimicry and imitation are powerful movements in learning, both in natural history and in musical education. Both are rooted in acute behavioural observation. In the very attempt to imitate a gesture, a phrase, a whistle, a hoot, a posture, a shout or a song; in trying to come closer and closer to the expressiveness of other creatures, now soft, now impassioned, now alarmed, now busy, we may come upon a faint sense of what is to be like them.