Music of the Sphere
Music of the Sphere
Musicians compose in response to the climate crisis
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MUSIC IS A SPECIAL MEDIUM that can motivate, inspire, and communicate to us emotionally. I recently searched for artists and composers who are responding to our rapidly changing climate in unique ways.
I found surprises, both in dramatically direct pieces that convey climate data as well as remarkable music compositions. Creative people are finding new ways of telling our evolving climate story, expressing their uneasy feelings or celebrating some aspect of Mother Nature. I’m sharing a few of these compositions here. Let the music communicate more than the words this time.
Note— Most YouTube videos will start with an ad, but you can close it by hitting the stop ad button. If you’re in a hurry, just hear the first video and the beginning of the last one.
The sound of a changing climate
CO2 is a clear “greenhouse” gas that’s responsible for some of the warming of Earth as it traps heat inside the atmosphere. How do you convey the rising amount of a clear gas when you can’t see it? How about hearing this invisible change through sound?
The video below shows both CO2 and temperature changes up through 2016. It resembles a buzzing of bees. Listen to what happens starting around the year 1960.
1:33 minutes
The pitch of the tone you hear represents CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, while the pitch and intensity of the plucked strings represents temperature averages.
Next, hear the incomparable Ludovico Einaudi play his beautifully moody Elegy for the Arctic, with a background of glaciers falling into the sea.
Elegy for the Arctic 3:14 minutes
Contrast that with music from Cosmo Sheldrake, playing in a field with recorded birdsong and the persistent musical imitation of a cuckoo bird (likely extinct now) in the background. It’s strangely compelling but also a eulogy for lost birds.
Cuckoo (Live in the Dawn Chorus) 3:11 minutes
Other young artists and composers have created music which expresses their climate feelings and eco-grief as they face an uncertain future: Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station singing Ignorance, and Weyes Blood singing Something to Believe.
Lastly, my favorite, a classical composition by Christopher Tin, from his album The Drop That Contained the Sea. He writes about the passage of a drop of water through all its incarnations on Earth.
Listen to the lyricism of the drop flowing through a river, tumbling over a waterfall, and evaporating into a cloud. Follow the drama of the water drop as it becomes part of a fierce hurricane, freezes into icy snow and sinks into the Earth to begin it’s cycle anew.
Notice the “call and respond” rhythm of this music, which reminds me of our human need to constantly call for water to sustain life.
The message is that in the coming century water, and water management, is going to be the most important global issue to all people and across all countries…Water is literally going to shape the way we draw our maps.
Christopher Tin, composer of the album The Drop That Contained the Sea
I’ve chosen to feature his remarkable song Waloyo Yamoni from this album. The words come from an old rainmaking prayer. It’s sung by three choirs in the Lango language, an African dialect.
Waloyo Yamoni 13:29 minutes
From celebrating water to conveying the dystopian situation that places life on Earth under threat now, musicians can help us awaken feelings and realize that we are all in this together.
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