Vincent Johnson
      Staff Writer

Dr. Aaron Allen, an associate professor of musicology at UNCG’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance recently co-authored and published a book called “Current Directions in Ecomusicology,” which discusses the emerging science of ecomusicology. Known by many in the field as the “Father of Ecomusicology,” Allen first became interested in how music interacts with the environment during his undergraduate studies at Tulane University.

He reflected on a conversation that he had with school’s dean. “‘So let me get this straight,’ the dean said. ‘You want to play your flute out in the swamp?’” Allen recalled. “Even though I don’t play the flute, that was the way he interpreted the combination of those disciplines at the time. When I was an undergraduate, I kept them as separate worlds. It was once I came to UNCG that I really started to explore the field that is now known as ecomusicology.”

Although Dr. Allen is known as the “Father of Ecomusicology,” he is humble in giving credit to those who studied it before him. “I didn’t create it,” he explained. “It’s been going on for a long time. But environment and music have always been interests of mine. I think studying them both in college was the time when I started putting them together.”

Dr. Allen then gave some insight about some of the things that he had discovered through his studies. He also talked about the process of publishing the book, along with its challenges and rewards. “Our musical cultures — whatever it is you like: rock, rap, classical, bluegrass, etc. — can do good things to protect and preserve the environment and ways of life that depend on the environment,” Dr. Allen elaborated.

“But these cultures can all do negative things as well. For example, musical instruments can be made from sustainable materials in ways that respect traditions; they can also be made with endangered materials that don’t support people’s ways of life. The book took about three years from start to finish, and it was a collaborative affair between myself and another editor. We both wrote essays along with 19 other authors. The most challenging part was coordinating the efforts of so many people — 21 in total — to review each other’s work, provide feedback and make connections between the different chapters of the book. But the same thing that was very challenging was also very rewarding: collaborating with such a group of very accomplished and intelligent people was wonderful.”

Although Dr. Allen is already an established mind in the field of ecomusicology, with books, accomplishments and discoveries under his name, he is not done yet. He is already looking forward to more work in the future. He discussed some of the developments that he is looking forward to.

“As far as the future, I’m just ready to see continued collaborations across scientific and artistic disciplines, such as the ones we started between ecology and music in the book. I’m currently working on a variety of articles on ecomusicology, but there are a few book projects in the works. One is about the natural resources used for musical instruments, another is on historical approaches to ecomusicology (something that was lacking in “Current Directions in Ecomusicology”) and another is on the 19th century reception of Beethoven in Italy (completely unrelated to ecomusicology).”

Dr. Allen’s plans for the future of ecomusicology are going to be extremely important, because it still a fairly young science that isn’t understood by a lot of people. He encourages anyone looking to study the science to “listen, read and think.” He also talked about what he believes is the most important thing that he has learned on his journey as an ecomusicologist.

“You must listen to the entire world. Ecomusicology is the critical study of the relationships between sound and environment. Sound as a category includes music, and environment really means ‘everything’ but in this sense relates to what we normally include in the category of nature. I also like to ramp up and make that definition more complex by defining it as a three-way connection with synonyms: the critical study of the relationships between music/sound, society/culture and environment/nature.”

Dr. Allen’s new book, “Current Directions in Ecomusicology” is now available for check-out in the Jackson Library. Dr. Allen encourages anyone who is interested in the way music interacts with nature to check out http://www.ecomusicology.info for a lot of great resources, or to take his class on “Music and Environment” next time it’s offered!