Nature and classical music - 08/29/13 11:29 AM
As a lover of the outdoors and classical music and piano (- an odd combination, I know , but there is a great precedence in Ansel Adams, who was a concert pianist before he saw Yosemite..), I've often wondered if there's been any music composed for piano and sounds of nature.
Among my greatest natural experiences are standing on the summits of great 8000m mountains, with clouds far below me, and (slightly more easily attained ) waking up to the sound of the dawn chorus after sleeping out under the stars overnight - in Yosemite, Yellowstone, Denali NPs, Canadian Rockies etc.
The only classical music I know of that use natural sounds (on tape) mixed into actual performance are Rautavaara's Cantus arcticus (Concerto for birds and orchestra) and Hovhaness's And God Created Great Whales. There are lots of contemporary compositions that use taped recordings as well as real instruments, of course, and even one for piano and iPad, but they employ mostly synthesized electronic sounds, not sounds of nature. Messiaen, as far as I know, never used real birdsongs; Beethoven had to resort to the woodwind for his birds .
I have a (commercial) CD recording of Cage's 4:33 which has the sound of birds singing from outside the open window, bouncing off the Blüthner grand's soundboard and into the microphones , but I'd love to know of more classical music that's been composed that specifically uses the sound of nature - it can be that of a flowing river, or waterfall, or thunderstorm, or any animal or bird (including dinosaurs) or reptile....
Among my greatest natural experiences are standing on the summits of great 8000m mountains, with clouds far below me, and (slightly more easily attained ) waking up to the sound of the dawn chorus after sleeping out under the stars overnight - in Yosemite, Yellowstone, Denali NPs, Canadian Rockies etc.
The only classical music I know of that use natural sounds (on tape) mixed into actual performance are Rautavaara's Cantus arcticus (Concerto for birds and orchestra) and Hovhaness's And God Created Great Whales. There are lots of contemporary compositions that use taped recordings as well as real instruments, of course, and even one for piano and iPad, but they employ mostly synthesized electronic sounds, not sounds of nature. Messiaen, as far as I know, never used real birdsongs; Beethoven had to resort to the woodwind for his birds .
I have a (commercial) CD recording of Cage's 4:33 which has the sound of birds singing from outside the open window, bouncing off the Blüthner grand's soundboard and into the microphones , but I'd love to know of more classical music that's been composed that specifically uses the sound of nature - it can be that of a flowing river, or waterfall, or thunderstorm, or any animal or bird (including dinosaurs) or reptile....