Ear to Earth is a network of ecologists, environmental activists and composers who strive to teach awareness about the human connection to earth through sound.  One of the association's founders, Joel Chadabe, will be discussing the philosophies of this group at the Common Ground symposium at Ramapo College Thursday afternoon. He is a composer known for his interactive music system and environmental advocate who enlighten the Common Ground audience about how worldly frequencies connects humans with nature. 

With concepts as heady as organic sounds as a musical bridge to human's natural state, I thought today of all days was perfect to provide another type of Green Playlist. On the Ear to Earth website you can listen to a variety of environmental compositions including samples of bird songs, ocean tides, rainforest animals.

Ear to Earth artist, David Monnachi almost fuses these samples as if the forest made it's own mash-up. You can listen the audio files here, which may even more enjoyable celebrating the holidays, I'm speaking of Earth Day of course.

Watch the trailer for No Impact Man: The Documentary, a 2009 film following environmental activist Colin Beavan and his family through a year long experiment to live in New York City completely sustainably. That includes no consumption except for locally grown organic food, no waste aside from compost, no meat, no plastic, no toilet paper, no t.v., no gas-guzzling transportation. It's enough to drive a person crazy, particularly Beavan's wife, but meanwhile makes for an entertaining and enlightening film. 

Though critics touted this as a gimick to promote Beavan's book, the experiment takes a lot of heart to complete  and is probably the least efficient way to market anything. Going to the extremes is great for the drama and quirks that ensue, however, it does shine a light on how human's are capable of impacting the earth postively even on a much smaller, less eccentric, scale.

The award winning documentary No Impact Man will be screened on April 22 at Ramapo's Common Ground symposium, a FREE Earth Day celebration!

Diego Stocco is a sound designer and composer with a long resume soundtracking across big name media such as the blood and guts video game Call of Duty and Hollywood blockbuster Sherlock Holmes. Known for using experiemental instrumentation in his arrangements, such as deriving sound from blow torches, clothes lines,  light bulbs and more, Stocco takes it back to the grassroots with these organic pieces. 

If you enjoyed that, you can expect discussions and similarly styled performances at Common Ground on April 22 and 23 at Ramapo College in Mahwah NJ.

David Rothenberg is a musician, author and naturalist-philosopher, who's work has linked humanity's artistic aesthetics to the environment for years. His research writing Why Birds Sing and Whale Music, aims to bridge the gap between different species and expand, "our understanding of what counts as musical sounds." Though the idea of  environmental "noise" as music was once hard to accept, Rothenberg notes that through experimenting with music in nature, "we are going to appreciate it more, we'll have a more integral way in fitting into our natural world."          

As a jazz clarinetist particularly interested in the environment, Rothenberg created  an anthology called The Book of Music and Nature in 2001, the first publication of its kind. After being invited to  Pittsburgh's National Aviary to play clarinet among the birds, Rothenberg noted that the white-crested laughing thrush was particularly engaged. "It was a defining moment... and got me interested in the whole process, why would a bird want to play along with this strange foreign sound, what kind of music was made between species?"  

Rothenberg noticed that though people have experimented with animal sounds before, they often did not let the animals guide the performance. When studying whale songs, Rothenberg approached the musical collaborations by allowing the whales to take the reigns and bent his music in this direction. Though the duet may not be as comfortable or familiar to neither humans nor the whales at first, with patience and observation of the whale's natural scale an accessible pleasing performance is entirely possible. "You can create music across species lines and you can create something interesting. It takes time and effort," notes Rothenberg.

Humans, whales and birds, are among the few species that  are proven to learn from sound. Scientific studies of birds show that learning sounds create new connections and brain cells, concluding that learning music makes you smarter.

Here David Rothenberg discuss humans' and birds' brain development through music.

The evolutionary significance of sound and music is contested in science. Evolutionary biologists usually try to explain the animal songs as necessary to survival alone, such as with mating calls. However, Rothenberg is willing to debate that it is a "narrow view of evolution to say that everything is adapted to its environment in some precise way... it's more survival of the interesting than survival of the fittest. Nature produces all these cool things not just as a big designed and efficient machine. I prefer to think of it all as art, as an essential part of life."      

Rothenberg says, "Hearing music in nature is a window to these issues," which he discusses in his upcoming book that focuses on the aesthetic evolution in animal species. This is as important to survival in the animal world just as music is a powerful component in humanity. Rothenberg will dive further into this topic at Ramapo during the Common Ground symposium on April 23, as well as perform with recorded animal sounds.

Within the weeks leading up to Earth Day, The Get Down will be featuring a series about the Common Ground Symposium at Ramapo College. Common Ground  is a two day event held on April 22 and 23  featuring a variety of speakers and musical performances to showcase how humans connect to nature through music and art.

Among the panelists is David Rothenberg, an esteemed writer and ecological authority, also known for his experimental music with natural elements. Incorporating his improv jazz clarinet peices with recordings of whales, birds, and more, he bridges the world between the earth and the electronic. His release, Whale Music, was recently remixed with other noted electronic artists such as Scanner, DJ Spooky,  Robert Rich, and Ben Neill. Rothenberg and Neill will be performing their improv pieces on April 23 at 3:30.

Also on the panels is Joel Chadabe, a professor at  Manhattan School of Music and  Director of Ear to the Earth, a network of environmental activists incorporating natural music to promote their cause. Chadabe has a long history in improv music, and avant garde composition. He recently arranged electronic interactive symphonies generated by environmental sounds, and will be speaking about his work at 3 pm on April 22.

The event is entirely organized by Emmy Black, who felt compelled to address the idea "that if we're destroying our natural world are we destroying our human psyche as well?  Common Ground's goal is to reconnect humans to nature with music and art . Humans experience everything through frequencies and vibrations so music is an inherent part of how we relate to our world." With this in mind, the Common Ground Symposium will be one of the most unique and eye opening Earth Day celebrations.

Follow up posts on The Get Down will also feature interviews with the panelists, so check back for more.