Musical Submersion in Anthropocene Seas

Oceanic Aesthetics in Björk and John Luther Adams

Bibliographic Data

ID21728396
AuthorsTore Størvold (0009-0007-6036-1026, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume22
Issue3
Pages299-324
Publication date2025-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
Venuetwentieth-century music (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1478-5722 • E-ISSN: 1478-5730
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1478572225000027
OpenAlexW4408995703
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited34

This article explores the relationship between musical aesthetics and evolving submarine imaginaries in an age of unprecedented threats to the ocean. The discussion is structured around two case studies: Björk's performance of the song ‘Oceania’ at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics, and John Luther Adams's 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning Become Ocean for orchestra. In these examples, culturally and historically situated visions of the ocean are modulated by compositional and sonic devices that ground oceanic imaginaries in bodily sensation. Björk and Adams cultivate an oceanic aesthetics: musical sensations that align with the phenomenology of submersion or that address the materiality and ecology of the undersea. Throughout the article the author asks what music and musicology can offer to the interdisciplinary endeavours dubbed the ‘blue humanities’. A turn to music foregrounds listening as a mode of perception and scholarly enquiry less defined by terrestrial categories. Music and sound-based art can be an intellectual resource in cases where visual terms and frameworks have a tough time accounting for the specificity of the oceanic environment

Aesthetics · Anthropocene · Art · Environmental ethics · Musical · Visual arts · Diverse Musicological Studies · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · History · Mathematics · Music History and Culture · Philosophy

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Open DOIOpen Access