Listening “deep down things”: The Dark Ecology of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered

Abstract

This article brings the influential work of literary theorist and ecophilosopher Timothy Morton into dialogue with (eco)musicological discourse through interpretive analysis of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s choral-orchestra work Mass for the Endangered (2018). Specifically, I examine two key concepts in Morton’s work, the ecological thought and dark ecology. I read both through the lens of object-oriented ontology (OOO), a contemporary philosophical movement that has shaped Morton’s thinking about environmental issues for more than a decade. While Morton’s ideas have gained some recognition within music studies, their application as tools for thinking about music remains largely unexplored, and this article addresses that gap. I argue that whatever ecological awareness Snider’s Mass bestows on its listeners stems from the ecological thought and that the work stylizes this awareness in the mode of dark ecology. I demonstrate how Morton’s concepts and OOO can meaningfully contribute to thinking ecologically about music.