The music of nature - how the songs of birds, water and the whispers of the forest inspire composers
We live in a time where music is more accessible than ever and we have made it a constant filter of the noisy urban environment. In this reality, it is easy to forget that nature is the greatest composer. Over the centuries and to this day, the sounds of the natural world have inspired thousands of artists, and it's time to take off the headphones and listen to the stories of the world around us.
The music of nature
In a conversation with Tobias Fischer, one of the authors of the book Animal Music: Sound and Song In The Natural World, Czech sound artist Slavek Kvi says there are two basic concepts about the relationship between music and nature. According to him, in Eastern culture human music is an interpretation of nature and thus remains a part of it. Western music, however, is more inspired by nature and thus remains outside its boundaries. Regardless of which interpretation you believe in, anyone who has been left alone with the sounds of animals, the roar of the stormy sea or the whispers of rivers and forests is not left indifferent. On the contrary, many composers continue to look for ways to express these moments in their music.
Bird hits
Humans have a huge affinity for bird songs and it was these that were the first animal sounds to be released on record in the early 20th century. According to pianist Matthew Schellhorn, one of the modern researchers of bird songs, people are interested in them because they are ‘the most musical manifestation of nature.’ According to Schellhorn, we are drawn to birdsongs by both their strangeness and their contrasts and consistency. Schellhorn is among the explorers of composer Olivier Messiaen, in whose works Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds) and Réveil d'oiseaux or Petites esquisses d'oiseaux (Awakening of the Birds or Small Bird Sketches) birdsong and the sounds of nature are major driving forces.
Natural Music
Inspired by the power and beauty of water, Claude Debussy composed the work En bateau (In The Boat) to recreate the feeling of floating on the surface of water. Perhaps the most familiar example of the relationship between nature and the musical imagination is Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which attempts to imitate the sounds of nature and the voices of animals through music. Unlike Vivaldi, who translated nature into musical language, Beethoven, through works such as the Sixth Symphony, attempted to recreate the feeling and emotions that life in nature brings. One of the founders of musical minimalism, Philip Glass created a work inspired by Vivaldi's Seasons. However, Glass's are ‘The American Four Seasons’ and remain unnamed in the work. The listener must feel for themselves which music corresponds to which season.
The new generation
With the advent of modern technology, it's becoming easier and easier for nature to be present in music. No longer do we just need to recreate the voices of animals and the sounds of the world around us. Field recordings allow us to record and add specific natural soundscapes to our work. Natural sounds are present in electronic genres such as ambient, chill out, lo-fi hip-hop, even dub and techno. Whole subgenres of extreme music also owe their inspiration to nature. Some good examples are atmospheric black metal bands like Wolves In The Throne Room, who spearhead the so-called Cascadian black metal subgenre that originated in the Pacific Northwest of America, which, as its name suggests, is directly influenced by the nature there.
No matter which genre you're most loyal to, nature has certainly left its mark on it as well. So leave the headphones on for a while, especially when you're out in nature, and keep rediscovering nature's music. As we explore its sounds we become better, more patient and sincere in our own music and connect more deeply with the real world.
