Sounding Whales
Adventures in Learning to Play Whale Song on the French Horn
About
I’m Abigail Sanders, a composer and french horn player from England. My work focuses on the cultural relationship between humans and animals; I am particularly interested in the transcription and performance of humpback whale song.
While studying horn at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, I met the pioneering baroque flautist, Stephen Preston, and was a member of his Ecosonics ensemble, exploring animal communication as a source of improvisation. I then discovered the resemblance between the sound world of the humpback whale and the sonorous timbre of the french horn.
I was active in the free improvisation and contemporary classical music scenes in Manchester until I moved to Berlin in 2013, attracted by the city's vibrant experimental music scene, where I continued to explore the sonic possibilities of the horn in various collaborative projects.
In 2019 I founded the "Sounding Whales" project, and thus far I have written four compositions for solo horn, horn and electronics, and horn and percussion that are closely based on hydrophone recordings of humpback whales. In 2020, I received the Musikfonds Neustart Kultur grant supporting my collaboration with marine mammal scientists in order to create a work based on contemporary whale songs recorded during the Corona Pandemic in the unusually quiet ocean waters of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska.
Some solo performance highlights for this project include the 2020 'Down to Earth' exhibition at the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin and the 2021 'Rethinking Environment' conference at the University of Augsburg.
Music
Whale Songs
Solo Humpback Whale
Listen
Score
This was the first whale song that I learned to play on the french horn. The score sources the first publication of recorded whale vocalisation: the 1970 album,"Songs of the Humpback Whale." This LP received wide distribution and contributed significantly to the the ‘Save the Whales’ movement, which resulted in new legislation that stopped global commercial whaling. As a result, the humpback whale population recovered from near extinction and headed toward healthy numbers until 2014, when warming ocean temperatures posed a new threat.
Glacier Bay May 2020
Listen
Score
The second whale song that I transcribed and learned to play is based on a hydrophone recording made in in May 2020 in the Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. It was kindly shared with me by the scientist, Chris Gabriele, MSc, who monitors humpback whales at the Glacier Bay National Park. The song is an unusual find because of the time of year in which it was recorded. Humpback whales do not normally sing until the Fall, and it was recorded in May 2020, a time when the oceans were suddenly quiet due to the Corona pandemic. The transcription, once worked through, became a five minute piece for solo french horn. The work was created with support from a Musikfonds Neustart Kultur grant.
Glacier Bay Nov 2020
Listen (Duo Version)
Listen (Short Solo Version)
Score
I wanted to transcribe another piece from the Glacier Bay National Park in 2020, but one very different from the May 2020 song. This piece was much more of a challenge to write down and perform. The original recording is 23 minutes long and can be heard here. In order to understand the song I catergorized the different sounds and created a graphic score, This work eventually became a duo for horns and percussion with electronics, and became more interpretive than descriptive. The work was created with support from a Musikfonds Neustart Kultur grant.
Whale-sized Horn
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Premiered in 2022 at the project space, Changing Room, in Berlin, this two-minute piece for horn and electronics. The original recording captures a humpack whale vocalising above the water. The source was a recording from the Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. The reference recording can be heard in this video, available on the GBNP website. It was named by the scientists “Whale-sized trumpet,” but I believe it sounds much more like a horn! The piece is a few notes and breath sounds, performed with electronic processing to imitate the large reverberant bay in which the sound booms around. A comparison between the source recording and my composition should clearly illustrate the matched sound worlds of the humpback whales’s vocalisations and the sound of the french horn.
Events
Upcoming Events
Performance at Blue Animal Aesthetics Conference, Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg, 23rd October 2025. More information to follow.
Previous Events
BLUE @ Dock11, Kastanienallee Berlin May 2025
Premiere of Blue: An immersive, multidisciplinary performance with dancer Nadja Haas and video artist Warja Rybakova to celebrate the release of Sounding Whales Volume I, my debut E.P. and result of my Masters Appled Project
Universität der Künste Berlin, Oct 2024
Gather Up: Symposium on Feminist Music and Art Practices. Short solo performance and lecture to open the one-day event.
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Oct 2024
Performance for the opening of "Hello Nature" Exhibition. Projected behind me in the photo on the left is Fischtafel by Johann Melchior Füssli (1709) and on the right is a bowhead whale shoulder bone, painted anonymously around 1650 with images of whaling that was common practice in the 17th Century. Whales were killed at close range with rowing boats, harpoons and spears for lamp oil, soap or cooking fat, and to make corsets. There is more information about this artefact in the exhibition catalogue.
Berlin Art Week @ MaHalla Berlin, Sept 2024
Conch Shell and French Horn Improvisation in a Pool
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, July 2024
FESTIWALLA: Der Turm stürzt ein!
Warschauer Brücke Berlin, Oct 2023
The musical happening DER TURM STÜRZT EIN! was a demonstration on 8 October 23 against the entry of Amazon at Warschauer Brücke.
Berlin Art Week @ MaHalla, Berlin, Sept 2023
Whale Music: Interspecies communication @Halluja.berlin, June 2023
Concert with Guitarist and explorer from the Netherlands Tristan Visser and ECM recording artist David Rothenberg – author of the book "Whale Music", and creator of the book and film Nightingales in Berlin
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Changing Room Project Space, Berlin, May 2022
Two musical performances and accompanying talks, "Sounding Whales,” at Changing Room in Berlin’s so-called African Quarter in the Wedding District on 7.05.21-08.05.21. First events in the series ‘More-than-human: Music from other species’, which explores the various relationships between humans, nature and music.
There is an accompanying podcast series, titled ‘In Conversation with Nature,’ which can be heard here.
University of Augsburg, October 2021
Presentation of whale songs at conference for the International Doctorate Program ‘Rethinking Environment’. World premiere of ‘Glacier Bay May 2020’, based on a recording kindly provided by Christine Gabriele of the Humpback Whale Monitoring Program at Glacier Bay National Park.
Sowieso Berlin, September 2021
World premiere of ‘Glacier Bay Nov 2020’, based on a recording from the Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska using a Morton Feldman-like graphic score. Performed on horns and percussion (Yorgos Dimitriadis) at Sowieso Berlin, an experimental music venue in Neukölln, Berlin on 24.09.21.
Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin August 2020
Exhibition, ’Down to Earth,’ explores how the agenda of a shift in climate policy affects our own “operating system”. Scene from the music and dance piece ’Velvet’ by Claire Vivianne Sobottke. Performance of ’Solo Humpback Whale’ on 30.08.2020.
Klangkeller (Kastanieinalle 77), Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin April 2019
World Premiere of ‘Solo Humpback Whale’ for french horn (arr. Abigail Sanders) at performance-based sonic art series Klangkeller on 12.04.2019. Based on the first track from the LP ‘Songs of the Humpback Whale’ (1970, Frank Watlington, Roger & Katharine Payne).
Contact Me
For bookings or enquiries, or if you are curious about any of my work please contact me by email at abigailevesanders (at) gmail . com