The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: With much of Wisconsin underwater from historic flooding, Britten’s opera “Noah’s Flood” seems timely. Can you think of other works inspired by floods and natural disasters?
16 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Right now much of Wisconsin lies underwater.
This past week has seen record-setting rain and historic flooding along with high winds and tornadoes that have left many towns and counties declared official disasters.
Then yesterday, Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency for the entire state. More rain and thunderstorms are predicted for all weekend and next week.
The flooding is not on the order of the deadly and destructive wildfires out west. But the situation seems nonetheless the kind of emergency or natural disaster that usually draws some kind of attention of the national media — on a smaller scale something like Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria that devastated respectively, New Orleans, Houston and Puerto Rico.
But this time The Ear can’t recall seeing or hearing even mentions or 10-second spot reports about the flooding of a state capital on national news programs. Can you?
New programs always seem to focus more on weather stories when they occur on the coasts and in the south. And right now the media also appear preoccupied with offering ever more words about the deaths of Senator John McCain and singer Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul.”
But the situation got The Ear to thinking and searching.
Are there works of classical music inspired by flooding and other natural disasters?
And he doesn’t mean just music inspired by and celebrating calmer and less destructive water such as George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music” or Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony or Georg Philipp Telemann’s “Ebb and Flow” Music.
One important discovery that met the criterion was the children’s opera, “Noah’s Flood,” composed by British composer Benjamin Britten (below) in the wake of his own personal and home experience with floods – as you can see in the YouTube video below.
Can you think of other works composed in response to a natural disaster?
If so, in the comment section please leave the names of the work and composer and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #ArethaFranklin, #BenjaminBritten, #BritishComposer, #Children'sOpera, #EastCoast, #EbbandFlow, #FloodinginWisconsin, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #Gov.ScottWalker, #GreatBritain, #HurricanceMaria, #HurricaneHarvey, #HurricaneKatrina, #JohnMcCain, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #NationalMedia, #NaturalDisaster, #NewOrleans, #NewsProgram, #Noah'sFlood, #PacificNorthwest, #PersonalExperience, #PuertoRico, #QueenofSoul, #StateofEmergency, #StateofTexas, #StateOfWisconsin, #TheBible, #TheSouth, #WaterMusic, #WeatherPredictions, #WestCoast, #YouTubevideo, Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, Bible, Britain, Britten, Chamber music, children, choral music, Classical music, composer, conductor, counties, county, deadly, death, disaster, Early music, East Coast, emergency, England, flood, flooding, George Frideric Handel, Gov. Scott Walker, governor, Houston, Hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Maria, Jacob Stockinger, Louisiana, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Maria, media, Music, national media, natural, natural disaster, news, Noah, opera, Orchestra, Pacific Northwest, PastoralSymphony, prediction, program, Puerto Rico, queen, rain, Scott Walker, soul, south, storm, story, symphony, Texas, thunderstorm, tornado, towns, UK, underwater, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, weather, week, weekend, west coast, wildfire, Wind, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: What composers and what pieces give you shelter and sanctuary during troubled times?
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
A week ago, The Ear went to the inspired all-Mozart program given by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet with guest cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau (below center) and guest clarinetist Alicia Lee (below right), who was making her debut as a new UW faculty member.
He expected a fine performance and he was not disappointed. Indeed, he shares the same very positive reactions that critic John W. Barker expressed in his review for this blog. Here is a link to that review:
But something else happened too.
The sublime music of Mozart (below) – especially the Larghetto slow second movement of the late Clarinet Quintet, K. 581, but also the other movements and the String Quartet in G Major, K. 387 -– took The Ear into another world, into a parenthesis in time.
(You can hear a live performance in Japan by Yo-Yo Ma and others in the Larghetto movement, plus the rest of the Clarinet Quintet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For a brief time – perhaps a total of about 80 or 90 minutes – The Ear was totally transported. He temporarily blocked out the political strife in Washington, D.C. and the Trump White House; the government turmoil here in Madison and around the world; and the terrible, deadly natural disasters of floods, hurricanes and wildfires in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe.
He just let the transcendent music and the performances wash over him, refreshing him with their beauty before he reemerged onto the street and into the painful reality of current events after the concert ended.
So The Ear offers a deeply felt thank you to the performers for planning and playing such a timely and therapeutic program. He needed that more than he knew. And he hopes more such concerts are in store. The times demand such balm, not as escapism but as a reminder of great good things that endure.
So here is The Ear’s question: What other composers and what other pieces or works do you find offer the same kind of sanctuary or shelter?
Leave a COMMENT with a link to a performance on YouTube if possible.
Tags: African-American music, Alicia Lee, America, Arts, Asia, balm, beauty, blog, Campus, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Clarinet Quintet, Classical, Classical music, composer, critic, curent events, current, current events, D.C., dead, deadly, debut, Donald Trump, endure, escape, escapism, event, faculty, flood, global, globe, good, good thing, good things, government, great, Hurricane, inspiration, inspired, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, John W. Barker, late, live, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, movement, Mozart, Music, natural disaster, New York City, parenthesis, performance, piece, planning, play, political, Politics, positive, President, President Donald Trump, President Trump, Pro Arte Quartet, program, Quartet, quintet, review, sanctuary, shelter, strife, String quartet, sublime, terrible, therapeutic, therapy, time, timely, times, turmoil, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, video, Viola, Violin, Washington, White House, wildfire, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, world, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 