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- Title
Animal Ecologies: Laurie Spiegel's musical explorations of urban wildlife.
- Authors
FEISST, SABINE
- Abstract
Animals and their songs have inspired humans throughout the centuries. In Western classical music, artists have paid tribute to animals in many compositions and often focused on animals popular among humans such birds such as the nightingale, cuckoo and bullfinch and such domesticated mammals as the cat and dog. Few have felt inclined to give voice to animals regarded as pests: rodents, pigeons and geese. New York City-based composer and animal rights activist Laurie Spiegel has distinguished herself in showcasing underprivileged animals in urban environments through music and other media and raised the issue of 'speciesism', constructions of hierarchies of living beings grounded in specific species memberships. This paper sheds light on animal hierarchies and portrayals of rodents and Columbidae in the arts. It provides background on Spiegel's compositional career and aesthetic ideas, her environmental concerns and philosophies, and her involvement in animal welfare. Three of her works will be explored in detail: Cavis Muris (1986), an electronic piece composed with Spiegel's software program 'Music Mouse' and inspired by real mice in her loft; Anon a Mouse (2003), a ten-minute opera about mice and a dog, a work drawing on animal sounds; and Ferals (2006), an audiovisual installation dedicated to New York City's pigeons. This paper is based on published and unpublished materials including interviews I conducted with Spiegel. It is also indebted to musical, environmental and animal studies by such writers as Joanna Bosse, Jody Castricano, Emily Doolittle, Amy Fitzgerald, Greta Gaard, Kyle Gann, Linda Kalof, and Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner.
- Subjects
ANIMAL songs; SPIEGEL, Laurie; ANIMAL ecology; ANIMAL rights; URBAN ecology (Sociology); COLUMBIDAE; ANIMAL sounds
- Publication
Social Alternatives, 2014, Vol 33, Issue 1, p16
- ISSN
0155-0306
- Publication type
Article