Ecomusicology: A Study of Richard Powers’ The Time of Our Singing, The Echo Maker and Orfeo

Abstract

Richard Powers’ fiction is recognized for its inclusive and multidisciplinary approach to ecological studies. The paper contends to explore Powers’ The Time of Our Singing, The Echo Maker, and Orfeo through ecomusicological lens. Ecomusicology is a portmanteau of music and ecology, thus bringing sound studies, music, and ecological concerns towards new emergent fields of study. The paper employs Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s understanding of music in a thousand plateaus, Aaron S. Allen’s work on musicology and environmental sustainability, and R. Murray Schafer’s understanding of soundscapes to study Powers’ novels for using music both as a form and subject. Powers addresses issues like racial discrimination, identity politics, and capitalist ventures that are all linked together through a world of human and nonhuman music.