Whales Alive

Paul Winter and Paul Halley

Released 1987

Run Time: 47 minutes, 55 seconds

Produced by: Paul Winter and Roger Payne

©℗1987 Earth Music Productions, LLC

A celebration of whales in poetry, prose and music, with original compositions by sax and pipe organ, based on melodies by humpback whales themselves.

Improvising in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in response to recordings of the whale songs, Paul Winter and Paul Halley extend the whale melodies in a way similar perhaps to the manner in which the whales themselves gradually change and grow their long, complex songs. Readings from the prose and poetry of D.H.Lawrence, Herman Melville, Gary Snyder and Roger Payne, Leonard Nimoy gives voice with the same awe for whales which inspired the plot for the film STAR TREK™ IV. The whole is a celebration of whales in poetry, prose and music.

Reviews

“WHALES ALIVE actually creates an astounding integration of musical voices, which serves to emphasize the raw, primal and intensely musical quality of the whales as they sing. These pristine, unadulterated voices of nature, subtly shaded by human instruments, have an eerie, haunting, irresistible quality.” – DALLAS TIMES HERALD