The Music of Nature

Art embodies human response to the wonderment of our natural environment. Painting and sculpting are just two forms of art that bear witness to the profound influence of nature. We express our passion and strong emotions for the great outdoors through diverse creative pursuits. Music is one distinctive and powerful art form that communicates the critical impact of nature on humankind.

There are researchers today called ecomusicologists who study the intersections of music and nature. This scholarship explores how social values concerning nature are expressed through music, how music is composed to replicate aspects of nature, and how sounds produced within nature are used within musical composition. It doesn’t take advanced study, though, to recognize a few basic linkages between music and nature. Some of the earliest musical instruments by humans were gourds that were blown and animal skins that were stretched and beaten with sticks.

Classical music based on nature and pastoral themes can easily be identified. Most of us would quickly recognize the familiar opening notes of Beethoven’s ‘Pastorale’ Symphony Number 6 in F major. Beethoven was an outdoor enthusiast who frequently hiked many miles. He was inspired by nature, and often sought the peacefulness and lack of disturbance by others for his composition planning there.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is popularly known for his interlude, “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” from one of his operas. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote this composition as his orchestral interpretation of the sights and sounds of this spirited pollinator. Claude Debussy created nature-based works including his famous “La Mer” or “The Sea.” It’s an evocative work said to be drawn from his childhood visits to the seacoast. Another obviously nature-based composition that is often performed is Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” Written around 1716, the Italian composer expresses in the four violin concerti the contrasts of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Classical compositions that for me personally reflect much of the beauty and power of nature are Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini,” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.”

Cultures across the world developed their own unique folk music that expressed their fundamental appreciations and the sorrows of life. Nature provided sustenance for life itself, as well as occasions for great human distress. Music both celebrated the festive plenty and lamented loss of life and property.

Whether through instrumentals or narrative ballads, folk music explores human encounter with almost all aspects of nature. Those encounters might be as the sport hunter or the poacher, the prosperous farmer or the poor gleaner, and the reflective elderly or the youthful at play. The emotions in folk music can range from the exuberance of a giddy Irish jig to the solemnity of an American ballad for a lost child in the wilderness. Perhaps it’s a very small genetic factor in my case, but my favorite folk music is Native American wooden flute instrumentals. Red cedar was often used as their flute wood, and it creates warm and resonant tones that can offset some of the stressors of work and everyday life.

Folk music traces the history of cultures confronting crises such as environmental disruption and species loss. Woody Guthrie depicted the devastation of the Great Dust Bowl of the 30s. The 60s saw growing recognition of certain limits to industrial growth and increasing threats to flora and fauna sustainability. Pete Seegar released an all-environmental album, entitled "God Bless the Grass" in 1966. One of the cuts in the album, "My Dirty Stream," supported an environmental organization that Seeger formed called The Great Hudson River Revival that pledged to clean up that heavily polluted river.

The protest songs of the late 60s and 70s included artists who called for changes in our environmental policies and priorities. Joni Mitchell is one example with her “Big Yellow Taxi” and its familiar lyrics: “Don’t it always seem to go, That you don’t know what you’ve got, Till it’s gone, They paved paradise, And put up a parking lot.” Some of us prefer a more recent version of this song by the Counting Crows. One of my favorite blues artists, Hans Olson, wrote and performed the plaintive song, “The Radiation Blues.”

Among popular artists in different music genres who have made large artistic and financial contributions to eco-awareness are the Dave Matthews Band, Bonnie Raitt, Green Day, Willie Nelson, Phish, Don Henley, and Sheryl Crow. The massive concert called Live Earth was held in 11 venues around the world in 2007 to raise awareness of climate change and to provoke action. More than 150 music artists participated in the Live Earth Concert. It followed somewhat the models of earlier large concerts such as George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 and Live Aid in 1985 for relief for Ethiopian famine victims.

Inspired by the climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, the popular young recording artist, Billie Eilish, produced a music video just last year. The lyrics in her song focused on the effects of climate change. God and the Devil discussed how humans have made a mess of the planet. “Man is such a fool, Why are we saving him? Poisoning themselves now, Begging for our help, wow! Hills burn in California, My turn to ignore ya, Don't say I didn't warn ya.” The massive impact of wildfires in Pacific states this summer emphasizes concerns of Eilish and many others.

As much as I love music, I don’t choose to listen to music when I hike or spend time in the woods. The sounds of nature happening all around me can be more soothing or arousing than tunes crafted by human-made instruments.