Music from Another Species

Hollis Taylor is a Research Affiliate at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is a violinist, composer, zoomusicologist, and author of Is Birdsong Music? Outback Encounters with an Australian Songbird.

• Acknowledgments1. Transcription2. Side-by-Side: Solo Songs in the Red Centre3. Side-by-Side: The Neighbors up North4. The Art Star at a Single Site across Time5. Additional Solo Songs at a Single Site across Time6. Elegance and Complexity from subspecies Cracticus nigrogularis7. Elegance and Complexity from subspecies Cracticus nigrogularis picatus8. Duets and Larger EnsemblesAppendix 1: Audio TracksAppendix 2: Notation ConventionsBibliographyIndex

"A stunning collection of pied butcherbird song transcriptions, revealing an avian musical culture of virtuosity and communal artistry. Hollis Taylor invites deep listening that reimagines creativity, culture, and life's shared fabric."—Liza Lim, Sydney Conservatorium of Music"Hollis is a medium whose forensic listening has transformed into a totemic communion with the pied butcherbird."—Jim Denley, musician and composer"Like any great musician, this bird's exceptionalism partly lies in its ability to exceed expectations."—John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald"The innovative and arresting aspect of this book is the way in which it presents birdsong in a manner more similar to published musical repertoire, as in the work of a human composer. . . . As a resource for studying the capacity for sonic communication of this species, Taylor breaks new ground."—Nicholas Bannon, author of Music, Language, and Human Evolution"It sounds like the boy soprano's voice rising over the top of the choir."—A fellow camper