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

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.