listen with your baby
by Úna Shea
Throughout time, the beauty and force of nature has served as inspiration for many musicians and composers. While listening to other’s interpretations of different natural phenomena, we, as the listeners have the opportunity to let our imaginations wander and create beautiful images in our mind of the natural world around us. Alongside spending time with your little ones outside, I invite you to also introduce them to works such as these three discussed below—three orchestral works inspired by nature.
Debussy’s La Mer, a set of three sketches for orchestra, premiered in 1905 in Paris. Born in France in 1862, Claude Debussy is known of one the first impressionist composers. A pianist-then-composer, Debussy joined the Conservatoire de Paris as a student at the age of 10, and was a prolific composer with music that was quite unique for its time. Throughout the piece, the listener has a nautical experience, be it through the sounds of the sea itself or the animals that live alongside it. Each of the three sections comes with its own description: firstly, “from dawn to midday on the sea” which is followed by “play of the waves” and finally finishing with “dialogue between wind and waves”. Have a listen and see what else you can hear!
Secondly, we have Aaron Copland’s orchestral arrangement of his ballet, Rodeo, entitled Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo. A New York native, Copeland embodies western Americana highlighting wind and brass in a distinctly “hollywood cowboy” way. Although this piece has four distinct parts (Buckaroo Holiday, Corral Nocturne, Saturday Night Waltz, Hoe Down), the final movement is well loved as a stand alone piece as well! While listening to this jaunty piece, why not close your eyes and imagine all the beautiful nature of midwestern America!
Our third and final work is a beautiful orchestral piece written by English composer, Sarah Francis Jenkins, entitled And the Sun Stood Still. This piece was commissioned by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and is described by Sarah as “Inspired by the winter solstice and the primal, prehistoric resonance that it holds. Images of bleached, mid-winter landscapes; crystal shafts of frozen light and an intense, bright, burning sun low on the horizon.” (https://www.sarahfrancesjenkins.com/compositions). Throughout, high sustained notes are constantly overlapping from section to section within the orchestra, creating a beautiful, glimmering, aura of sound which is interjected with sparkling rhymes passages. Because this piece is so recent in its composition, it is not yet available on streaming services, but can be listened to on BBC Sounds, which I have linked below. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06x3tc0
It is such a wonderful thing to experience phenomena in our minds eye through music, and to hear how artists from varying places and times have interpreted it into such beautiful creations. These are only a few of the countless musical works inspired by the natural world, listen, imagine and see what else you can find, or even what you might be inspired to create yourself!
Úna Shea holds a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and is currently studying for her AMI Assistence to Infancy diploma at the International Montessori Institute, Delft, The Netherlands.