“The great orchestra of
nature is, little by little, being silenced”
“LE MONDE
| Mis à jour le 01.04.2013 à 13h10 Propos recueillis par Marie-Béatrice
Baudet”
Musician from an early age,
American Bernie Krause, 74, remains one of the emblematic figures of electronic
music. He coined the term biophonie, the sounds made by living organisms. It is
an orchestra of nature which he has studied and loved throughout a lifetime. In
a recent interview he expressed his regret that the orchestra of nature is
falling silent.
Starting in the 1960s he
recorded the sounds in nature of more than 15,000 species of animals over 4500
hours. “Nature lives in acoustic harmony. Temperate or tropical forests each
generate their own acoustic signature, which is an organized expression of
insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Each creature occupies a slot
in the sound spectrum, blending with the background sounds of nature, wind in
trees, the sounds of flowing water, or rain. Whatever the purpose of a signal -
mating, hunting, home defense, game - to fulfill its function, it must be
audible and without interference. It is this natural voice and collective
harmony to which I am referring when I talk about the animal
orchestra”.
The contemporary world of
human sound has disrupted the orchestra of nature. Mining, logging, urban
sprawl, and the resulting pollution, reduce the area
of wildlife
habitat. Similarly, by
embedding the natural sounds under our cacophony, we disrupt or destroy nature
itself. When birds can no longer hear the song s of other birds, they cease to
sing.
Some animals, such as
insects, are more affected than others. In tropical forests, predators try to
adapt because it is more difficult to hear their prey. Human noise can also
weaken the immune system of mammals and fish, reducing their resistance to
disease, natural physiological result of high levels of stress hormone. In the
most serious cases, when tolerances are exceeded, it can be
fatal.
“The sad truth is that
almost 50% of the habitats listed in my archives collected during these
forty-five years are now so severely degraded that many of these natural sounds,
once so rich, can no longer be heard today even approximately, in their original
form.”