Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound - Hardcover

"The author of the brilliant Why Birds Sing returns with a study of whale music, revisiting the 1970 LP Songs of the Humpback Whale, talking to scientists, and emulating their sounds with his clarinet on the accompanying CD."

-- The Observer Music Monthly,August 10, 2008

'The author of the brilliant Why Birds Sing returns with a study of whale music, revisiting the 1970 LP Songs of the Humpback Whale, talking to scientists, and emulating their sounds with his clarinet on the accompanying CD.'

-- The Observer Music Monthly

Rothenberg is passionate and sincere, and there is something glorious about his quest.
-- New Scientist

Rothenberg's compositions can be heard on the CD that comes with his book: affecting and often moving pieces, aural evidence of his attempt to bridge emotion and rationality...By coming to a better understanding of these strange, beautiful and sentient animals, we begin to understand ourselves, too. -- The Telegraph, June 28, 2008

Rothenberg's jazz clarinet playing is really rather good. The whale samples add a spectral backdrop, sometimes forcing their way forwards, at other times remaining an echoey inspiration. One collaboration with a guitarist and a pod of "mammal-eating, transient killer whales" is particularly poignant...Rothenberg is right to recognise that deciphering the complex language of another intelligent species is one of the last great scientific frontiers.
-- FT, 26th July, 2008

'The author of the brilliant Why Birds Sing returns with a study of whale music, revisiting the 1970 LP Songs of the Humpback Whale, talking to scientists, and emulating their sounds with his clarinet on the accompanying CD.'