ABSTRACT
Island soundscapes are, for many who live upon islands, the basis and inspiration for the profound emotion associated with being intimately linked to nature. Island music, for instance, allows us to appreciate the way diverse influences and histories have come to exist in these small spaces; the way they have had to coexist with each other and create new languages for land and sea, as well as humor and creative resilience in the face of difficult challenges. Climate events, such as severe hurricanes, can precipitate awareness of the connections between music and the environment (as expressed in a diversity of disciplines), and the communications challenges that climate change presents, at local and global scales. This chapter proposes that such concerns can be ameliorated through musical and environmental dialogue — in other words, through the bonds of solidarity and understanding that are forged when strangers, soundscapes and ecosystems meet.
