Nature-Symphony 25
— Lament — My land is laid waste; we have nothing…

Opus 57 (2023) — Timing: 32'

derived from a field recording of a trio of metal wind chimes plus another of a solo bamboo chime

Nature-symphonies — a transformational discovery (background notes)…

It was in 2012 that I tentatively started recording natural soundscapes, and within a few months got the idea of purchasing some high-grade precision-tuned wind chimes to record out in the wilds, hung up on tree branches. …

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… I quickly found that not only was the sound of each set of chimes individually beautiful and to some extent inspiring in quality when recorded out in the wild like that (mostly high-up in the Teign Gorge, Devon, UK), but also, almost all of the combinations of different chimes worked out beautifully musically, though naturally some combinations made a more 'challenging' listen than others.

Much more recently I tried making a half-speed version of part of each of the most appealing or otherwise 'promising' chimes ensemble recordings. They were each a revelation — immensely beautiful, with quite dramatic transformation of the original sound. That is, not just a matter of being slower and an octave lower, but the whole musical and emotional effect changed.

But then, in late August 2023 I got this little urge to do something really stupid (all the world's 'sheep' know I'm stupid anyway, so I thought I might as well do it anyway!), and try putting a particularly evocative chimes ensemble recording in a virtual cathedral, of all things, just to see how crazy it might sound.

I tried that with a particularly usable and effective reverb VST plugin called Orilriver, and was bowled over by the results. Shivers up spine, and plenty of goose-bumps for good measure! I then did listening spot tests using Orilriver in preview mode on a wide selection of my half-speed chimes recordings, and every one was incredibly, amazingly, transformed.

It was clear that I'd sort-of unwittingly stumbled into producing powerfully beautiful stochastic / probability-driven music works that have a lot in common with the ethos and methods of Iannis Xenakis, but with a big practical difference. Whereas typically he worked out probabilistic structures and processes to shape many of his works, this lunatic composer instead left that task to 'Mother Nature', then transforming those sounds in a way that Xenakis did in most of his electroacoustic works, to enhance their ability to excite the listener's own inner creativity and to generate profound and powerful experiences in the process.

It can be no surprise, then, that in these new works of mine there would be passing (albeit partial) resemblances to certain Xenakis works — Bohor comes particularly to mind, and even, in a funny way, some aspects of Terretektorh.

It was then a real no-brainer to recognise each such piece of mine as one of my numbered public music compositions. For the purpose of a liberating simplicity I chose to classify ALL of this type of work that I produce as what I'm calling nature-symphonies. That hyphen is important, because they are not just symphonies about nature, but are a very specific type of composition — nature-generated symphonies.

The term 'symphony', although closely guarded with a very restricted meaning by small-minded traditionalists, actually just means 'sounding together', which apparently was its original meaning. For me to want to use that term, there need to be at least two contrasting elements that are in some way combined or worked together in some way that is much more effective and deeply inspiring than the sum of those elements.

Although, in terms of my own nature-symphonies, that would mean ensembles rather than solo chimes sets, I've found that certain of my recordings using just one chimes set still produce effective and powerful nature-symphonies because of some element of the natural soundscape within which the chimes were sounding. A weir or waterfall, for example, or the wind itself, or a liberal amount of bird sound (much of which latter sounds remarkably musical at half-speed).

As for title for each work, they won't all necessarily have a title beyond Nature-Symphony [nn]. I'll add an imaginative title only where the finished piece suggests one to me. — Well, er, except that I do have one title earnestly looking for a work for it to be applied to, but currently I don't see how it could fit any extant or future transformed wind chimes works of mine! Not telling why!

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Basic details

The Pluto and Gregorian chimes being recorded a week later than the trio recording, very close to the same spot — *The Pluto and Gregorian chimes being recorded a week later than the trio recording for this work, quite near to the same spot.*

*A different recording of the large bamboo chime, made a week or so later near the same spot.*

Instrumentation — Part of field recording of trio of metal wind chimes, used as 2 layers, and part of one of a solo large bamboo chime (longest tube 50cm).
Original field recording location / date:
- Bamboo chime recording: 13 December 2023, on Piddledown, just in the top of the open woodland high up on north side of Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK, just a little above the Hunter's Path.
- Metal chime recording: 16 February 2017, a little way further east, on steep ground just below the Hunter's Path, by Hunting Gate, at the highest point of that track.
Processing — The layers were processed as follows:
- Layer 1 (metal trio): Half-speed; pitch an octave below original;
- Layer 2 (metal trio): Speed reduced to give pitch an octave plus a fifth below original;
- Layer 3 (bamboo, large solo): half speed; pitch an octave below original
- Layer 4 (bamboo, large solo): Lower speed and pitch — omitted to keep a note;
- Layer 5 (bamboo, large solo): Still lower — at least two octaves below original.
I give some more specifics about the chimes used, and the subsequent processing, on my Freesound page for the work.
Distinguishing features — The particular combination of metal chimes (Woodstock Olympos, Gregorian Tenor and Pluto) gives the impression of an immense, profoundly sourced universal melancholy. I was intuited to make two layers from that recording, which, owing to their different speeds, get increasingly out of step, but the effect was so unremittingly painful emotionally that I doubted whether this could make a satisfying work. At least it needed a contrasting element.

Once I'd purchased and got recording some new bamboo chimes (having sold off all the chimes I'd been using for my recordings up to 2017), at last I had some options for that contrasting element. Just off the top of my head I decided to try first the one large bamboo chime that I'd managed to obtain. This looked unpromising because of its really curious selection of available notes, which sounded to be liable to clash in part with many other chimes. In the event, this chime did clash a bit in terms of pitches, but also it seemed to have a particularly antagonistic, combative tone, which seemed fitting in this context.

I was still wondering whether this could really be a worthwhile work to accept as one of my 'official' works, but then the title suddenly came to me and made sense of it. Yes, in this particular context the unremittingness of its anguish was just right! Even at the end no resolution is offered. In the subdued short epilogue the two 'metal' layers each become doubled at a fifth below, giving a darkening of tone, and somehow a sort of clarifying, but apparently no hope is there on the bleak horizon. — This is a work of empathy, not one for providing easy comfort!

Nature-Symphony 25— Lament — My land is laid waste; we have nothing…

Basic details

Nature-Symphony 25
— Lament — My land is laid waste; we have nothing…