Abstract
AbstractSonic botany is an ongoing project that I have been developing over the past few years. It incorporates natural artefacts: dry leaves, pods, flowers, branches, rocks, bones and other organic findings. These are used as musical instruments that are played on with a scientific/musical tool: tuning forks in various frequencies. The vibration from the tuning forks resonates through the natural artefacts which amplify the vibration and – via sound – reveal the texture, size, material and condition of the organic matter. This process generates new sonic material, new context and new forms of musical composition. The practice developed into several compositions and projects, a performance practice, a notation system and a way of listening. Here I share some of the insights I gained through this process, the tools and the compositional framework.
Highlights
Sonic botany was born the day I noticed that a dry Echeveria Gibbiflora leaf somewhat resembles the ear of a bat – the shape, the detailed veins, the terrain
Exploring every leaf and artefact as a micro-landscape is a way to generate and create new soundscapes derived from those sonic materials
Plants and other natural artefacts were some of the earliest musical instruments used by humans, whether a hollow papaya branch as a pipe, bamboo sticks as wind or percussion instruments, rattling pods, or a thin leaf vibrating and whistling between one’s lips
Summary
Sonic botany was born the day I noticed that a dry Echeveria Gibbiflora leaf somewhat resembles the ear of a bat (see Figure 1) – the shape, the detailed veins, the terrain It got me thinking about the leaf/ plant as an ear: noticing how the shape of a flower, a pod or a leaf is perhaps partially designed to absorb and direct sound into it. Plants and other natural artefacts were some of the earliest musical instruments used by humans, whether a hollow papaya branch as a pipe, bamboo sticks as wind or percussion instruments, rattling pods, or a thin leaf vibrating and whistling between one’s lips Many of those instruments were used to imitate the sounds of their environment. The focus is not on the sound that is carried through a resonating body but on the sonic and physical qualities of the body itself
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