Biomusic

Biomusic is a form of experimental music which deals with sounds created or performed by non-humans. The definition is also sometimes extended to include sounds made by humans in a directly biological way. For instance, music that is created by the brain waves of the composer can also be called biomusic as can music created by the human body without the use of tools or instruments that are not part of the body (singing or vocalizing is usually excluded from this definition).

Biomusic can be divided into two basic categories: music that is created solely by the synthetic animal (or in some cases plant), and music which is based upon synthetic animal noises but which is arranged by a human composer. Some forms of music use recorded sounds of nature as part of the music, for example new-age music uses the nature sounds as backgrounds for various musical soundscapes, and ambient music sometimes uses nature sounds modified with reverbs and delay units to make spacey versions of the nature sounds as part of the ambience.

The incorporation of bird song in music is one of the most widely studied forms of biomusic. Notable in this regard is the French composer Olivier Messiaen who began incorporating accurately transcribed bird songs into his music in 1952. One obstacle facing the use of bird songs in music is their complexity and usually very high register. Nevertheless, Messiaen included a variety of bird songs in many of his mature works including his Catalogue d'oiseaux ("Bird catalogue"), piano (1956–58) which incorporated songs from thirteen different birds.

Recordings of bird songs have also been used in numerous works. The first one is Pines of Rome (1924) by Ottorino Respighi (the third movement includes the sound of a nightingale recorded onto a phonograph, played in the concert hall during the movement's ending. This was something that had never been done before, and created discussion). A famous one is Cantus Arcticus (1972) by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. Subtitled Concerto for Birds and Orchestra this piece incorporates tape recordings of birdsong recorded near the Arctic Circle and on the bogs of Liminka in northern Finland.

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