Discuss: Serenading Belugas in the White Sea

I really enjoyed the article, and , because I am both a musician (singer, keyboardist, composer), and poet, I decided to send you this poem I dedicated to a friend of mine, who is a mezzo-soprano, in 1988. Both she and I love animals. It was her personality shown in her behavior, which enabled me to compare her to a beluga. We are both of an age now, where we have noticed great changes in the way   voice students are taught to be professional singers. Yes, there are some good strategies used, especially with the emphasis on much more sight reading, but, learning to really integrate material is often , now, not stressed. We mourn this, and I believe young singers will never achieve integrity , as the belugas do, in their ‘inner song’, unless they go on th e personally ‘spiritual’ journey of listening to every other singer’s ‘inner song’, and learn to remember it.
So, here is my poem.
If you decide to publish it, please let me know what format to send it in.
Thank you for your wonderful article.
Diane Stevenson Schmolka.

Requiem for a Beluga

There is before me a tundra
which will likely remain barren

the ocean which has become
the cistern of time
has known only grief since you left

I see you now
a figure beneath the moon
presiding over your children

I remember when we created language
which biologists could only cite with
  dashes and bleeps

your lips pressing against warm currents
met the trough at surfaces they could never reach
while we chased paradigms of shadow
creating a whirlwind of new phrases
krill and algae your applause
in the vibrations of fresh water

now you are ordered into the aquaria of culture
barred and observed as each movement
changes your dimensions
contracts them into statues

they see now only a specific foreshortening
to them you are merely an emblem
of what real dance was before

you are my presence your swiftness
sweeps the carcasses of bears aside
and lion -hearted you stalk the hidden places
of your dwelling to sustain
the ballet of sequences

your mind swims continually
through bannisters and windows
in salt and sunny air

though you cannot now return home
a fragment of song emerges
continually reworking your positions
to skip in living waters recycled
to complete apothegms for new heirs

around my neck I will wear you always

Diane Stevenson Schmolka (copyright 1988)

That’s beautiful Diane.

Check out this video from the same journey,
made by Gari Saarimaki:

youtube.com/watch?v=ILPzkze3RHw

David, we met many years ago - here in Marin County. This was before I was really involved in the Ocean Noise Pollution issue. (http://www.OCR.org) It is funny how my focus on the problems of noise pollution had (negatively) sensitized me to folks playing music to marine animals. This is probably a result of the US Navy’s insistence that all noises are equal, thus their incredibly nasty mid frequency sonar, or the oil industry’s pounding, pounding, pounding of seismic surveys have the same bio-acoustic value as the whale’s own vocalizations at equivalent energy levels.
Of course this is not the case, and distinguishing the biological differences between various sounds has become the crux of my work. Nonetheless I found it fuinny - particularly my being a musician - that I needed to wrap my head around your project and come to terms with it. (I guess I hang around these Navy folks too much.)

I also find it amusing that I am much more comfortable with a jazz improviser playing with the whales than with the idea of playing them tapes of Tony Orlando.  My bias - I’m sure not shared by the whales.

Hi Michael:

Great to hear from you, glad to learn you’re not too worried that my sounds would unnecessarily disturb the whales!

DR

Having the time, money and inclination to play music to whales? Affluent white people obviously have too much time on their hands.

Hi Eli:

It really doesn’t cost too much to play music with whales.

Hopefully the results will inspire more people to value and to care about them.

DR

very interesting.  The music is pleasant and although it’s impossible to know for sure whether they are trying to communicate, it does seem like the whales are interested in your clarinet sounds. 
Question, could the whales see you? Perhaps by bobbing above the water?  Also, I was thinking about some article I read about traveling in a foreign country and how not to insult people inadvertantly by using gestures that are inappropriate to that culture.  Perhaps a little silly to think about in this context, perhaps not. That made me wonder, did you study or listen to beluga sounds prior to making your own sounds through the hydrophone?  I understand that the scientists know very little definitively about beluga whale communication or any whale communication but do they associate any sounds with anything in particular? For example, a certain whistle for danger?  Or mating calls?  Do you know how close to you the whales came to you/shore while you were playing?  Was it closer than they usually come to shore in that area?

Thank you for your article.  Any attempt to understand whales is wonderful.  I hope you discover interesting things on your next journey.

Hi Kathy:

Thanks for your comments.

I could see the whales, but only their white backs above the water in the distance.

I did study the sounds in advance and practice with captive belugas in Chicago beforehand.

No, humans don’t know much about what the many complex beluga sounds are all about,
though the Russians think they have individual vowel-type sounds that are expressive of different emotions.

There’s more about all this in my book THOUSAND MILE SONG, which should be out in late April.