Nature-Symphony 47
— Enchanting dark-forest glade

Basic details

• Instrumentation — Part of field recording of a duo of metal wind chimes, part of a separate recording of a solo small bamboo chime, and a separately recorded natural soundscape for its hum of the flies (mostly hoverflies).
• Original field recording locations / dates: metal chimes 26 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 chime 11 December 2023, isolated oak tree just below Hunter's Path, on Piddledown.  Flies recording 28 June 2023, on Lower Deer Stalker's Path, just off the steep Fingle Bridge to Cranbrook Down byway track, on south side of Teign Gorge
• Processing and deployment: Seven layers (2 metal chime, 3 bamboo chime, 2 hum of flies) were used, with different speed / pitch reductions, and different degrees of cathedral acoustic — except that the only processing of the flies recordings was the lower layer being half-speed and thus an octave lower. For fuller details please see the Freesound page for the work.
• Distinguishing features — The work opens quite abruptly to the hum of the flies, heard through a fairly stiff gust of wind, with an almost immediate call-to-attention from a terse gesture of the bamboo chime. The metal chimes recording used is the one also used in Nature-Symphony 45, but it's deployed rather differently here; added reverb is minimal, so the chimes sound more percussive than usual in my Nature-Symphonies. Their sound, however, is generally on the gentle side, even when sounding relatively loudly, while the bamboo chime in its three layers rather steals the show in its sharp and incisive skitterings around all over the place. The overall effect of the bamboo chime reminds me of the play of sunlight flecks moving about pm the forest floor as the breeze moves the trees' foliage, and also the little dancing swarms of various ‘gnats’ and other small long-legged flies, while the metal chimes suggest the unknowns hidden within a dense forest's deep shade. I included the flies recording to reinforce and extend a beautiful low sustained tone that often sounded from one of the metal chimes (the Davis Blanchard The Blues). It always struck me as very meaningful musically, not least because of its creating or emphasizing the interval of the minor seventh, which, at least in my hands, is always musically potent and not just a transient tension point that has to be resolved asap. It's that sustained tone that is for me the core of the whole work, with its dynamo-like sense of driving the whole show and a whole lot more beside. My own inner inquiry on this indicates that this type of effect seems so meaningful because it puts sufficiently ‘open’ and aware people (especially no-soul people) in touch with their deepest aspiration for stronger and more open connection between one's ‘ordinary mind’ and ones deepest and universal aspects. It could be described thus as our ‘universal longing’, but the effect of such music, particularly when often heard, can be powerfully transformative, facilitating the progressive fulfilment of that longing.