The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Antonio Vivaldi and Joshua Bell evoke the summer storms that Wisconsin now waits for and fears for the next week
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By Jacob Stockinger
So much of Wisconsin is already so flooded after the past week or 10 days that an open-ended state of emergency has been officially declared for the entire state.
And now the weather predictions for the next week or so are for more rainstorms and thunderstorms every day — complete with watches, alerts and warnings from the National Weather Service.
Will those storms swell the rivers and lakes even more?
Will more streets be closed and bridges destroyed?
Will more basements and even whole homes and buildings be ruined?
Will more businesses be forced to close?
The Ear knows a lot of music about water, especially by Claude Debussy. But so much of the water music from Handel and Smetana to Wagner and Debussy seems restorative or calm or redemptive or simply descriptive.
But the water Wisconsin faces makes us edgy and nervous while we wait to see what happens because the weather could bring more devastation and destruction.
The closest music comes to the right mood is the frenetic and even violent quality of the summer storm in “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi and the energetic violin playing by Joshua Bell.
If you can think of a better piece, let The Ear know.
In the meantime, let’s all hope for the best and here is Vivaldi’s musical summer storm in a YouTube video:
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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?
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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.
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