With current trends in climate science and ornithology, it is increasingly important that the public be made aware of risks to the world around us and given concrete measures by which individuals can have a positive and observable impact on their surroundings. Musicians and artists have an important responsibility to appeal to audiences’ ethos and inspire positive change. This dissertation discusses the role of music in bird conservation, based upon the foundational work done by ecomusicologists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and considers the methods by which performers and composers can fulfill their ethical duties through music. It draws upon the existing classical canon, considering bird-centric works by Amy Beach and Olivier Messiaen, and examines a new work, Avifauna (2024), commissioned from Matthew Schultheis by the author. This dissertation also examines the work being done by recent composers and performing artists and proposes interdisciplinary collaboration with local ecologists as a method of presenting “ornithological music” than can bring awareness to the threats facing birds and provide tangible methods that audiences can use to act in responsible, sustainable, and immediately impactful ways.
