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In an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview, program producer
Grant Sonnex reveals the secrets of putting together SONG OF THE EARTH.
A media professional for twenty years who began as a sound engineer, Grant is
currently a radio producer for the BBC's Natural History Unit. NATURE spoke with Grant in March, 2002.
SONG OF THE EARTH producer Grant Sonnex. |
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How did this project come about?
I made a radio series with David
Attenborough a few years back about nature's use of sound in general. One of the
programs was about animal song, and it kind of ended with a question: What could
be the connection between all of this going on in the animal world and human music?
And this was the question I tried to find an answer to in the program.
And having produced the program, what do you think about the connection between animal and human music?
People think of human music as being
a cultural construct, but with any behavior that you find in humans in every culture
all around the planet throughout history, chances are there's more to music than
pure culture, that it goes back to some kind of biological root in the end. I
think there's no doubt that human music has its origins in biology, and I tried
to explore the details of this in the program.
For example, we all know that
animals use song territorially, and you can easily see examples of humans doing
that with national anthems and songs in sports stadiums where teams or fans are
essentially announcing: "We're different than you, we're stronger and better."
As far as using music to attract mates, you definitely see birds and whales engaging
in this. One might link this to human's use of romantic love songs -- think about
why many thirteen-year-old boys take up the guitar and then start playing them
in places where lots of girls hang out.
There's a fine line between what one might call animal sounds
or noises versus actual song or music. How do you differentiate the two?
If you're not careful, you start getting
into just the semantics of the issue. But in general there's a fairly clear distinction
between a grunt that says, "I'm hungry" or any noise that carries a single piece
of information and then the other extreme of complex bird song, full of frills
and ornamentation. With bird song, it's clear that it's not as though each element
in each song carries a different message; rather it's the overall impression and
emotional feeling given by the entire song that determines the meaning. And that's
the distinction that I've observed.
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Photo Essay
Discover the music animals make
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Interview
Go behind the scenes with the filmmaker
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For Teachers
View the SONG OF THE EARTH
Lesson Plan
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Resources
Links and books related to the program
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