David Rothenberg

Distinguished Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences

david.b.rothenberg@njit.edu

318 Cullimore Hall (CULM)

About Me

David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful and many other books, published in at least eleven languages. He investigates the musicality of animals and the role of nature in philosophy.

Education

Ph.D. ; Boston University ; ; 1991

B.A. ; Harvard College ; ; 1984

Website

http://davidrothenberg.net

2025 Fall Courses

COM 381 - ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN PRACTICE

STS 303 - INDEPENDENT STUDY

STS 403 - INDEPENDENT STUDY

Teaching Interests

interspecies music, environmental philosophy, philosophy of technology, music technology, globalization, medical ethics

Past Courses

COM 381: ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN PRACTICE

EPS 660: ETHICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

HSS 403: HUMANITIES SENIOR SEMINAR - LITERATURE

HSS 403: LIT SEM:

HSS 403: LIT SEM: ART AND EXPERIENCE

HSS 403: LIT SEM: LITERATURE OF MUSIC

HSS 403: LIT SEM: MUSIC,PERCEPTION AND EXPERIENCE

HSS 408: STS SEM:

HSS 491: HONORS SEM IN HUMANITIES

HUM 102: WRITING, SPEAKING, THINKING II

PHIL 351: BIOMEDICAL ETHICS-HONORS

STS 257: TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY I

STS 257: TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY I HONORS

STS 258: TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY II

STS 308: GLOBALIZATION

STS 308: TECH & GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

STS 325: ST:

STS 325: ST: THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS

STS 325: ST:SOUND DESIGN FOR VIDEO

STS 347: INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC

STS 347: MUSIC & TECHNOLOGY

STS 349: ADVANCED MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

STS 349: ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN PRACTICE

STS 490: PROJECT & SEMINAR I

STS 491: PROJECT & SEMINAR II

Research Interests

interspecies communication, music and technology, environmental philosophy, human computer musical interfaces

Chapter

David B. Rothenberg. "Making Music with Mysterious Species in Ponds." In Brianne Donaldson, eds., "Knowing Life," pp. 263-276. Routledge, 2025.

David B. Rothenberg. "Birdsong and the Transpecies Aesthetic." In Adrian Parr and Adam Zaretsky, eds., "Transpecies Design," Routledge, 2024.

David B. Rothenberg. "Undersound." In Hanna Mattes, eds., "Take Me to That Landscape," Living Stone Publishing, 2023.

David B. Rothenberg. "Among the Nightingales." In Etienne Turpin, eds., "These Birds of Temptation," pp. pp. 13-25. K Verlag, 2021.

David B. Rothenberg. "Zoo, Sound, Silence." In Marion Laval-Jeantet, eds., "No Man's Land," pp. pp. 127-137. Editions CQFD, 2019.

David B. Rothenberg. "The Body Speaks Whale." In Edwin Torres, eds., "The Body in Language," pp. pp. 83-90. Counterpath Press, 2019.

David B. Rothenberg. "Improvisation and the Image: What Graphic Notation Is For." pp. pp. 8-13. Byrdcliffe Guild, 2017.

David B. Rothenberg. "On the Path to the Music of Spiders." In Ute Mete Bauer and Anca Rujou, eds., pp. 70-75. NTU CCA , 2016.

David B. Rothenberg. "Why bring nature into your music?." In V.J. Manzo and Frederick Bianchi, eds., Oxford University Press, 2016.

David B. Rothenberg. "Making Music With Other Species." In Wallace Heim, eds., Ashden Trust, 2014.

David Rothenberg. "Avian Aesthetics / Semiotics of Animal Representations." In Kadri Tuur and Morten Tønnessen, eds., pp. 53-76. Rodopi, 2014.

David Rothenberg. " “Kysyä vai Tehdä?” {Ask or Do?]." In Heini Aho, eds., pp. 10 pages or so. Luovuuden Synti, 2014.

David B. Rothenberg. ""Playing Music with Whales", in ON LISTENING." In Angus Carlyle and Cathy Lane, eds., pp. 58-60. Uniform Books, 2013.

David B. Rothenberg. ""The cricket, the nightingale, the whale?." In Monique Buzzarté and Tom BIckley, eds., Deep Listening, 2012.

David B. Rothenberg. "Go There to Listen: Natural Music Wihout Natural Sounds." In Bernd Herzegonrath, eds., The Music of John Luther Adams, 2012.

David B. Rothenberg. "Moby Click." In Daniel Pinchbeck, eds., Toward 2012 / Penguin Books, 2009.

Broadcast Media

"Years of Fire and Rain"
Terra Nova Music, December, 2024.

"Lost Steps"
Terra Nova Music, November, 2024.

"Breathe. Earth"
Terra Nova Music, July (3rd Quarter/Summer), 2022.

"Faultlines"
Rattle, October (4th Quarter/Autumn), 2021.

"In the Wake of Memories"
Clermont Music, October (4th Quarter/Autumn), 2020.

Journal Article

David B. Rothenberg. 2024. "Touch the Screen, Wild the Sound." Live Interfaces Journal , vol. 2 .

David B. Rothenberg. 2023. "Pond Sound Mystery." Echo , no. 5 .

David B. Rothenberg, Tina Roeske, David E Gammon. 2021. "Mockingbird Morphing Music: Structured Transitions in a Complex Bird Song." Frontiers in Psycology , no. May 4, 2021 .

David B. Rothenberg. 2018. "Spider Music." Performing Arts Journal, MIT Press , no. 118 , pp. pp. 31-36.

David B. Rothenberg. 2017. "The Point is to Change It." Brill , pp. 1-17.

David B. Rothenberg, Eathan Janney, Hollis Taylor, Constance Scharff, Ofer Tchernichovski, Lucas Parra. 2016. "Temporal regularity increases with repertoire complexity in the Australian pied butcherbird's song." Royal Society Open Science .

David B. Rothenberg, Michael Deal. 2015. "A New Morphological Notation for the Music of Humpback Whales." Art and Perception , vol. 3 , no. 3 .

David B. Rothenberg. 2014. "The Concert of Humans and Nightingales." Performance Philosophy , vol. 1 .

David Rothenberg, Tina Roeske, Henning Voss, Mark Naguib, Ofer Tchernichovski. 2013. "Investigation of Musicality in Birdsong." Hearing Research / Elsevier , no. 308 , pp. 71-83.

David B. Rothenberg. 2011. "Jamming With the Machine: Laptops Beyond Loneliness." Chronicle of Higher Education , no. Aug 21 2011 .

David B. Rothenberg. 2011. "Survival of the Interesting." Parabola , no. Winter 2010 .

David B. Rothenberg. 2010. "When Mammals Jam." Above , no. Spring 2010 , pp. 194-196.

Book Review

"Why the Mountains Are Black"
The Wire, August, 2023.

"Alien Listening"
The Wire, February, 2022.

"Rainforest V by David Tudor"
The Wire, June, 2015.

"Not the Same as It Ever Was"
Globe and Mail, September, 2012.

"Why We Need Music"
Globe and Mail, November, 2010.

Magazine/Trade Publication

"Do Whales Have Culture?"
Nautilus, June, 2023.

"Mockingbirds Are Better Musicians Than We Thought"
Scientific American, June, 2021.

"Emerging from Darkness: Why I Make Music with Cicadas"
New York Times, May, 2021.

"Whale Songs Decoded"
National Geographic, April (2nd Quarter/Spring), 2021.

"This Rescue Moose Was Also 2020"
New York Times, January (1st Quarter/Winter), 2021.

"My Big Night Out Playing With the Nightingales of Berlin"
Pacific Standard, December, 2015.

"Survival of the Prettiest"
New Statesman, March, 2012.

Book

David B. Rothenberg. "Whale Music." Terra Nova Press / MIT Press, 2023. ISBN 9781949597257.

David B. Rothenberg. "Invisible Mountains." Terra Nova Press, 2022. ISBN 978-1949597318.

David B. Rothenberg, Stephen Nachmanovitch. "From This World, Another." 104 pp. Terra Nova Editions, 2021. ISBN 978-1-949597-24-0 .

David B. Rothenberg. "Stadt der Nachtigallen." 255 pp. Rowohlt, 2020. ISBN 978-3-498-00156-8 .

David B. Rothenberg. "The Possibility of Reddish Green." 191 pp. Terra Nova / MIT Press, 2020. ISBN 9781949597073.

David B. Rothenberg. "Nightingales in Berlin." University of Chicago Press, 2019. ISBN 978-0226467184.

David B. Rothenberg. "Vs. Interpretation: Selected Works on Improvisation." 180 pp. Agosto Foudnation, 2015. ISBN 978-80-905021-2-3.

David B. Rothenberg. "Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise." St Martins Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1250005212.

David B. Rothenberg. "Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, Evolution." Bloomsbury Press, 2011.

David B. Rothenberg. "THOUSAND MILE SONG in paperback." Basic Books, 2010. ISBN 0465018890.

Other

"Tablatun"
April (2nd Quarter/Spring), 2019.

"Nightingale Cities"
February, 2019.

"Bird Saw Buchla"
Clang, August, 2018.

"Red Mountain, Gold Mountain"
Terra Nova Music, July (3rd Quarter/Summer), 2018.

"Grenseland"
Drolehåla Music, April (2nd Quarter/Spring), 2018.

"Trio Senza Rete"
Terra Nova Music, March, 2018.

"New Cicada Trio Live in Beacon"
Terra Nova Music, August, 2017.

"The Terrible Uncertainty of the Thing Described"
Terra Nova Music, February, 2017.

"The Line"
Station Hill Press, March, 2016.

"And Vex the Nightingale"
Terranova Music, March, 2016.

"Berlin Bülbul"
October (4th Quarter/Autumn), 2015.

"You Can't Get There From Here"
Monotype Records, June, 2011.

"Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast"
Terra Nova Music, May, 2011.

Newspaper

"How to Make Music with a Whale"
New York Times, October (4th Quarter/Autumn), 2014.

Translation or Transcription

"Is It Painful to Think published in Korean"
Korean Book Service, May, 2010.

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