Music
From Birtwistle to Beethoven, the Music pages are about composers, sound artists and musicians who share their love and fascination for the natural world through their music. We launched with a full-length feature on Harrison Birtwistle's Moth Requiem, complete with a full performance on video and recorded interviews.
Nature at the Proms is a feature series running throughout the BBC Proms season, with interviews and articles on pieces that take nature and the environment as their inspiration.
Previews and reviews, interviews, articles and extended news features will all appear on these pages.
Nature at the Proms is a feature series running throughout the BBC Proms season, with interviews and articles on pieces that take nature and the environment as their inspiration.
Previews and reviews, interviews, articles and extended news features will all appear on these pages.
Words
We launched NATURAL LIGHT on June 29 with an appropriately summery theme - moths. To celebrate we asked three poets to contribute a new piece.
Also on this page you can hear Robin Blaser reading the poem that forms the text for Birtwistle's Moth Requiem.
We look forward to featuring more new writings from emerging and established artists. Forthcoming themes will include the sea, migration, and rivers.
Also on this page you can hear Robin Blaser reading the poem that forms the text for Birtwistle's Moth Requiem.
We look forward to featuring more new writings from emerging and established artists. Forthcoming themes will include the sea, migration, and rivers.
Nature
It is surely not by chance that so many writers on nature refer to its rhythms, or its refrains, its music, or its poetry. Rachel Carson, one of the first environmental writers, dealt in the world and the language of organochlorides and mass bird deaths. “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” A scientist and campaigner she may have been, but her words inspired a first generation of environmentalists by reminding us of the deeper connection to nature that we all share.
Nor have artists refrained from declaring nature their primary muse. As if the Pastoral Symphony did not make Beethoven’s love of the countryside abundantly clear, we have his own words, in a letter to his friend Therese Malfatti to vouch for it: “How happy I am to be able to wander among bushes and herbs, under trees and over rocks; no man can love the country as I do. Woods, trees and rocks send back the echo that man longs to hear."
The Nature pages contain features on current and past themes and links to nature diaries, live webcam feeds and anything else we find inspiring.
Nor have artists refrained from declaring nature their primary muse. As if the Pastoral Symphony did not make Beethoven’s love of the countryside abundantly clear, we have his own words, in a letter to his friend Therese Malfatti to vouch for it: “How happy I am to be able to wander among bushes and herbs, under trees and over rocks; no man can love the country as I do. Woods, trees and rocks send back the echo that man longs to hear."
The Nature pages contain features on current and past themes and links to nature diaries, live webcam feeds and anything else we find inspiring.
