Nature-Symphony 36
— Surreal landscape of contradictory impressions!

Opus 70 (2024) — Timing: 59'

derived from field recordings of two solo metal wind chimes with large and small bamboo chime, plus a separately recorded solo small bamboo chime

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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

Recording location for the metal chimes — *This work's metal plus bamboo chimes recording taking place. The arrow points to the recorder. The bamboo chimes, particularly the small one, are too far back to balance well with the metal chimes.*

This work's solo bamboo chime recording taking place — *The separate small bamboo chime recording for this work taking place.*

Instrumentation — Part each of two field recordings: (a) two solo metal wind chimes plus large and small bamboo chime, and (b) a solo small musically potent bamboo chime.
Original field recording location / date:
- Metal chime recording with included bamboo chimes: 24 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.
- Bamboo chime recording: 21 November 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.
Processing and deployment:

Layer 1+2:
(one recording: two metal chimes plus large + small bamboo chime, with some birdsong):
1. Davis Blanchard Debussy Bells (8 tubes, tuned to the whole-tone scale, but with one or two clashing notes);
2. Davis Blanchard Twilight (8 tubes, tuned to a weird bunch of pitches, which give potent intervals and chords, notably augmented triad, minor major seventh, minor triad, major seventh).
3. Indonesian bamboo chimes, large and small, but the small generally not noticeable (6 tubes each; imprecise but very compatible tuning).
Layers 2+3:
(solo bamboo chime): Indonesian ornamented chime, small, longest tube c. 30cm (its 5 tubes being rather imprecisely tuned, but keying well with the metal chimes here).

Fuller details on the Freesound page for the work.
Distinguishing features — The title sums it up nicely. Here we have the same metal chimes as in Nature-Symphony 35, but in a different recording of them as a widely separated duo, together with bamboo chimes, and deployed differently here. A dreamy sort of soundscape suggesting various surreal appositions, not least the plaintive and autumnal Twilight chime against the brilliant dramatic sound of the Debussy chime (suggestive of sudden revelations of moonlight as clouds pass over), and again the singing birds, which I wouldn't expect ever to hear at night (well, apart from the odd rogue robin!).

Whenever the Twilight and Debussy chimes are more or less in balance we have a brief fog of amoeboid discord, which resolves into recognisable harmony again as one chime or other becomes dominant — obviously depending on the local wind gusts. That discord has its own beauty and 'meaning', much like the soil from which beautiful wild flowers and trees grow.

I used the separately recorded small bamboo chime to give more of a busy but quiet and unassuming foreground interest as a counter to the soporifically slow-moving (slowed-down) metal chimes. I picked one that has a beautiful musical potency in itself, and with its two layers a tritone apart, that potency is augmented. We really notice that at the ending, where the chimes of Layers 1+2 leave stage, leaving the foreground bamboo exposed at last, for a few seconds telling us just how beautiful it is, before it too bows out.

Nature-Symphony 36— Surreal landscape of contradictory impressions!

Basic details

Nature-Symphony 36
— Surreal landscape of contradictory impressions!