Music to Soothe
Savage Protozoans
While watching protozoa beneath my microscope, I like to listen to music, as well. These are a few of my favorite albums while doing so...I hope that you enjoy them, too!
My first suggestion is not an album at all, but when there's nothing in particular I want to listen to, I turn to KUSC, a local classical radio station which has introduced me to much beautiful music.
I tend to favor music about nature when engaging in this hobby, hence...
Gustav Holst's
The Planets is one of my favorite albums to listen to while I watch protozoa. Just as Holst’s moving symphonies show how vast is the universe, the world beneath the lens, like Borges’ "Book of Sand," or that house in Crowley’s Little, Big, keeps getting bigger the further in I go. And I know that I am anthromorphizing when I say that it seems as if the protozoa dance to “Jupiter”—but I say it nonetheless.
Alan Hovhaness'
Mysterious Mountain is a stirring symphonic vision of the beauty of the natural world. I also like to listen to
And God Created Great Whales and imagine that just as Hovhaness thought of the cetaceans as he wrote this composition, so too are the protozoans beneath my 'scope like miniature whales in a drop of water.
The title song for
The Mollusk features an Emersonian mollusk, a little light contemplating the larger light.
Michael Kamen's soundtrack to Terry Gilliam's
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is, because of its quirky bravado, a perfect accompaniment to protozoa watching.
Before Mrs. Miller became known for her quirky interpretations of popular tunes in the 1960's, she was recognized throughout the world as Elva Conn, a collector for natural history museums and private collections. No one matched her courage, her stamina, her virtu. In the early 1930's, she contracted with Mr. Petty, of the Law Offices of Petty, Smilodon, & Ruth, to bring back the strangest and most sought after protozoans from around the globe--and so she did! I had the pleasure of meeting her on a few occasions, and I always smile as I listen to the voice of this woman, who followed her own muse. A representative (but incomplete) record of her forays into pop music, showing her voice of quicksilver and her heart of steel, can be found on
Wild, Cool & Swingin'.
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
The creation, multiplication, competition, combat, procreation and death of millions of protozoa each spring is, like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, too terrifyingly fascinating not to watch. to turn away from. A near-infinity of protozoa divide and multiply, capture and devour each other, and are devoured in turn—nature’s spontaneity and invention are never more evident than in this competition and lovemaking among the protozoans every time the year comes into its own.
On my introduction to The Incredible String Band's
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, I received a dream of great power, in which a protozoa, bedecked with musical instruments from every land, gave rise to asymphonic atemporal tunes as it slithered across the world. As a result, I have always associated this music with protozoans. And "A Very Cellular Song" on this album is indeed about amoeba! 5000 Spirits is also a wonderful album, albeit without any references to protozoa.
Hangman also has the beautiful "Water Song" by Robin Williamson. Here are some other albums that feature music about bodies of water:
Handel: Water Music
Smetana: Ma vlast
Debussy: Orchestral Music contains "La mer".
And here are other musics that seem to set an appropriate ambience as I watch the protozoa, though I can't say why....
Blue Bell Knoll
White Winds
Pachelbel: Canon & Other Baroque Favorites
© 2002 Hermester Barrington
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