Music has long been a medium for activism and the efforts of Earth Day are no exception. In honor of Earth Day we have added a selection of pieces to this special playlist from our catalog that highlight the beauty of the Earth and represent what some artists are doing to raise environmental awareness.
Listen on the following platforms:
Absent an Adjustment from soprano Katherine Jolly’s PREACH SISTER PREACH is a work based on David Wallace-Wells’s climate change article “The Uninhabitable Earth.” The piece by composer Katherine Bodor meditates on urgency in the face of ecological disaster.
“a remarkably contemplative work in places, yet with an urgency that grips the attention.”
Gramophone Magazine on Absent an Adjustment from soprano Katherine Jolly’s PREACH SISTER PREACH.
Composer Margaret Brandman wrote Firestorm Symphony after surviving bushfires that surrounded her Australia home. She says, referring to this locale and inspiration, “My creativity is often sparked by nature and as such I would spend more time in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.” Stay tuned for a brand new video from Brandman, but in the meantime, check out her Inside Story here:
AND THE SNOW DID LIE, an EP from “nature composer” Hilary Tann, interprets the natural elements of literary lithographs by André Bergeron, expertly performed by Sirius Quartet. Always inspired by representations of nature in words and art, Tann says in her Inside Story, “The natural world that appeals to me is the one which has been in place for centuries — the silence of old hills, wind over grass, the play of light at the water’s edge.”
In addition to this Earth Day playlist, you can see the full performance by Sirius Quartet here:
Hilary Tann – …And The Snow Did Lie – performed by Sirius Quartet
George Palmer’s work Time Out is a series of short pieces for oboe, illustrating the beauty of a moment taking in various scenes. Read more about Palmer and his work in his Inside Story, in which he talks about his dream of composing music while in Kakadu National Park. “I would take time to immerse myself in the place, listening to its sounds and silences, feeling its shifts and nuances of mood, surrendering to its ancient magic. And eventually, music would come – music unlike anything I have written before.”
Jamie-Rose Guarrine and Seth Keeton’s TRANSPARENT BOUNDARIES explores the beauty of the Earth with musical works based on poetry by Emerson, Dickinson, and Whitman. Guarrine says of the collaboration, ”All of us wanted to share this message of peace and solace and beauty. Creating art contributes to the beauty in our world.”
