Saltmarsh Sparrow
Extinctions can be hard to think because we often turn attention aside when we feel we cannot respond, or because the fraying of ecological meshwork can be hard to notice. Ecoacoustic composition can aid our ability to attend to difficult relations and discover ourselves capable of responding.
Commissioned by Conservatory for a PhD computer music student, who developed it through months of dialogue with VCR researchers and an environmental ethicist, this piece debuted in a 2023 live performance at the Eastern Shore Community College, prefaced by the scientists' presentation and followed by audience reflection. You can add your own reflection at the bottom of the page.
"On The Strangest Sea"
by Kristin Hauge (UVA Music)
This piece is both a sonification and a composition, as I had two goals in mind: to represent data and to create music inspired by the saltmarsh sparrow. I used for my starting point a graph that depicts projected population decline of female saltmarsh sparrows. By the year 2050, the species is predicted to have gone extinct.
The changing population is represented through changes in the music's textural density. The tracks mirror the shape of the graph. The music is denser when there are more sparrows. So when all 14 tracks are layered, that corresponds to the peak in the projected population.
Then fewer and fewer tracks remain as the population decreases, and the piano music eventually dies away. The number of tracks at any given point is proportional to the population at that point on the graph (7 seconds of music elapsed = 1 year has gone by in the graph).
I recorded individual tracks, each comprising a different set of pitches from one overarching collection, to represent the birds. I listened to previously recorded tracks while I played, improvising with myself to mimic the unpredictability of the birds. They are quiet and shy, so much of what they do is left to the imagination. A pulse, which I recorded on my electric violin, is heard every 7 seconds to denote each year that passes on the graph.
SALS Conservation Research
Bridget Re
(Virginia Tech,
Conservation Biology)
The Saltmarsh Sparrow (SALS) is a threatened tidal marsh obligate songbird endemic to the salt marshes of the narrow Atlantic coastal strip from Maine to Florida. Historically, the southern extent of their breeding range ran along the western shore of the lower Chesapeake Bay. Beginning in the early 1990s, Saltmarsh Sparrow's breeding range began contracting northward as a result of rapid loss and degradation of high marsh breeding habitat. We think the southern extent of SALS’ breeding range is now the bayside and seaside marshes of Accomack County on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Alongside habitat loss, Saltmarsh Sparrow populations are also threatened by increased tidal flooding due to sea level rise. They are extremely vulnerable because nests are built in marsh grasses only a few centimeters above the marsh platform and can be inundated. Along their range, mean sea level will continue to between 0.36-0.54 mm/yr. The implications of losing high marsh habitat is extremely serious: they are predicted to face extinction by 2050 if conservation efforts are not enacted.
Information on site selection and nesting success of SALS is needed for effective management strategies. Whether it is better to allow marsh migration to happen naturally, intervene with habitat creation, maintain existing marsh elevation by sediment deposition, or control the population of common nest predators depends on the nesting success and survival rates in these areas. Our research aims to establish a demographic profile for the species to understand the current and future productivity of suitable marshes along the Eastern Shore. This research will aid the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their decision on Endangered Species status for Saltmarsh Sparrows and provide information on how to manage Virginia’s breeding population.
Consider the Sparrow
What does Saltmarsh Sparrow ask of the stories we inherit? Through this project UVA environmental humanities scholar Willis Jenkins wrote an essay on how extinctions challenge religious thought, from the symbolic role of the sparrow in Christian thought to cultural metaphors for extinction and hope.
Writing can be a way to hold attention, let relations unsettle thought, and find a flightway of meaning.
Your Reflection
After science briefing and live performance, audiences are offered three minutes of silence and an invitation to write a response. Some from the Eastern Shore Community College audience:
“so this is what extinction sounds like…probably more effective at provoking thought and emotion than any graph ever will be”
“the end was so haunting and really drives home to me how these birds are likely to go extinct within my lifetime….how tragic it will be to lose this species.”
“so much more powerful than words alone”
We continue to archive reflections to this project; you can add yours through this form: