Nature has always been a source for inspiration for those in the arts, especially for musicians. You have your classic examples of Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven (1770-1827) and Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) but I have noticed a growing trend as of late of musicians taking their inspiration of nature to a whole new level. In the case of Canadian musician Rebecca E Trip, whom I've worked with, had put together an entire collection of waltzes where each one was meant for a different type of flower. She then put together videos, with the permissions of 100+ artists, that combined her music to art that featured that particular flower. A labor of love to say the least but was certainly a wonderful passion project to be a part of. Swiss composer Adrian von Ziegler, though has a wide range of music genres that he creates but there are some such as Spring Charm, Autumn Forest, and Evening Breeze which combines Celtic tunes with the sounds of nature.
Recently onYouTube, I became aware of a fascinating video created byBACARDIwhere a small team of musicians and technicians who joined forces to make music from the movement of bats that were migrating through Austin, Texas.
Completely mesmerized by what they had done, I was fascinated when at the end of the video, they suggested that if you were interested to hear the track they had created to go onto SoundCloud. Well it actually took me a little bit in order to find it, discovering it under the title of BACARDI #BatBeats. Though only 2:09 minutes in duration, it is still a wonderfully captivating track to listen to.
The whole situation actually reminded me of another video I had seen recently by composer Jarbas Agnelli who had seen a picture of birds sitting on a power line and made music from their placement. According to Jarbas:
"Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.
I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper."
I have a feeling that with the access to new technology and the ability of trading ideas more easily, we will be seeing more amazing works from musicians that were either inspired or pays tribute to nature. It will be fascinating to see what is waiting for us in the coming future.