Nature-Symphony 42
— A springtime forest's passing cloud shadows

Opus 76 (2024) — Timing: 58'

derived from field recording of ensemble of three metal wind chimes, with birds, and separately recorded duo of large and 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

A different recording in the same session — without the Gypsy chime — *A different recording taking place in the same session — without the Gypsy chime.*

Instrumentation — Part of field recording of ensemble of three metal chimes and birdsong, and separately recorded large and small bamboo chime.
Original field recording locations / dates: metal chimes 11 April 2018, on steep ground just below the Hunter's Path (high up on north side of Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK, by Hunting Gate, at the highest point of that track. Bamboo chimes 18 February 2013, on the narrow Hunter's Tor ridge at west end of north side of Teign Gorge.
Processing and deployment: Four layers (2 metal, 2 bamboo) were used, with different speed / pitch reductions, and different degrees of back-of-cathedral acoustic.

For fuller details please see the Freesound page for the work.
Distinguishing features — In overall character this is quite similar to N-S 41, because this is derived from a field recording in similar conditions — though here it's a bit later in the season and the birdsong really comes to the fore. — Indeed, especially later in the work, it rather overwhelms the chimes when they're very quiet. For me, this one reflects what I creatively got to know of in my childhood as 'Mickey Mouse days' (no point in asking why!). They were those delightfully invigorating spring days with rather cold clear air and fairly strong sunshine, relatively deep blue sky and lots of tall cauliflower cumulus clouds blowing along on a brisk breeze — sometimes developing a bit more to deposit the odd sharp shower; a 'polar maritime airmass', as meteorologists would tell us, at least here in the UK.

Here we have three metal chimes, which are each at least somewhat dissonant in combination with either of the others, so we get moments of disconcerting discordant 'flying fur', quite often briefly achieving 'tone-cluster' status, but these soon resolve as the wind gusts change the balance between the chimes, and meaningful intervals and chords re-emerge. The big variations between the dissonant patches and the wide profusion of telling harmonic combinations and transitions make for a dramatically vivid atmospheric and evocative scene.

Nature-Symphony 42— A springtime forest's passing cloud shadows

Basic details

Nature-Symphony 42
— A springtime forest's passing cloud shadows