Update: 2/22/12 A second version of one of these has shown up in the Kindle store (see below), while two entries now exist for buying the full book (at different prices; no clues as to any differences, though):
The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places ($14.99) and
The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places ($15.99).
As a promotion for the forthcoming release of
The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places (
$15.99), by Bernie Krause, Hachette is giving away 4 eBook Shorts, each one containing a section of the larger text, but which are self-contained titles, similar to Kindle Singles (rather than just a defined length sample of the book).
Despite the titles on these, they are not A/V enhanced editions, so they should work fine on all Kindle devices and apps. I have no idea how large they may be, once released (all pre-orders show as 5K until the publisher uploads the actual files), but they shouldn't be all that large.
The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places
Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause is one of the world's leading experts in natural sound, and he's spent his life discovering and recording nature's rich chorus. Searching far beyond our modern world's honking horns and buzzing machinery, he has sought out the truly wild places that remain, where natural soundscapes exist virtually unchanged from when the earliest humans first inhabited the earth.
Krause shares fascinating insight into how deeply animals rely on their aural habitat to survive and the damaging effects of extraneous noise on the delicate balance between predator and prey. But natural soundscapes aren't vital only to the animal kingdom; Krause explores how the myriad voices and rhythms of the natural world formed a basis from which our own musical expression emerged.
From snapping shrimp, popping viruses, and the songs of humpback whales-whose voices, if unimpeded, could circle the earth in hours-to cracking glaciers, bubbling streams, and the roar of intense storms; from melody-singing birds to the organlike drone of wind blowing over reeds, the sounds Krause has experienced and describes are like no others. And from recording jaguars at night in the Amazon rain forest to encountering mountain gorillas in Africa's Virunga Mountains, Krause offers an intense and intensely personal narrative of the planet's deep and connected natural sounds and rhythm.
The Great Animal Orchestra is the story of one man's pursuit of natural music in its purest form, and an impassioned case for the conservation of one of our most overlooked natural resources-the music of the wild.
About the Author
Dr. Bernie Krause is both a musician and a naturalist. During the 1950s and 60s, he devoted himself to music and replaced Pete Seeger as the guitarist for The Weavers. For over 40 years, Krause has traveled the world recording and archiving the soundsof creatures and environments large and small. He has recorded over 15,000 species. He lives in California.
