The Bird Within Us

I'm always noodling around with new story ideas about nature and place. Here's one I'll work up as work and life allow the time to do so. Which they seldom do (I'm looking for a nice writing grant that will buy me that most valuable of resources: time. Let me know if you've got good ideas).

Thrush Credit: Alex Berryman, MacCaulay Library

I'm frequently struck by how humans and other animals relate music to place. Areas I would like to explore include human folk music traditions, where songs are often a marker of place.  For example, I regularly play music with a friend who recently composed a ditty about the Potomac River, where he's spent much of his life paddling a canoe. Old-Time and folk music are filled with songs of meaningful locations and the events that happened there. The well-known bluegrass song "Rocky Top" is just an extension of this tradition. 

Likewise, birds also use song to mark territory and place, in addition to finding mates and more. Music is just another common trait between humans and our feathered friends, it would seem, despite the fact they are closer to dinosaurs than we apes. Looking deeper, birds also seem to share major musical components with us such as harmony, pentatonic scales, and so on. In fact, the idea of harmony itself -- a word that evokes such strong emotions about ecology and nature -- may become a future essay. And I'm curious what other creatures -- insects, amphibians, and so on -- are our musical peers? 

I see a Potomac Creek book chapter in all this, too.