Author Archives: Nell Shaw Cohen

What’s New? Fall 2015

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There’s been some exciting behind-the-scenes activity going on here at Landscape Music over the last few months, but the website has been deceptively quiet! So, I thought I’d share a few updates:

Concerts in 2016

The first-ever Landscape Music Composers Network concerts are in the works for Spring and Fall of 2016 in Boston and New York, respectively, with two different programs featuring music by members of the Composers Network. These events will commemorate the centennial of the National Park Service with new music celebrating National Parks. We’re partnering with some fantastic performers and venues to bring this to life. Watch this space and follow me on Twitter for announcements in the coming months.

Justin RallsJustin Ralls Joins the Composers Network

Justin Ralls, a composer based in Portland, OR, is deeply inspired by wilderness: from his opera dramatizing the meeting of Muir and Roosevelt to his vivid works for chamber ensembles responding to natural soundscapes. Learn more on Justin’s LM profile, then check out the rest of the Composers Network roster.

Cohen_Nell_Tools_of_the_Trade_2015_edited

Tools of the Trade. Photo by Nell Shaw Cohen.

Nell writes for NewMusicBox

I’m honored to have been invited to contribute six articles to NewMusicBox (where my writing energies are being temporarily diverted!). The first of these articles was published today: it introduces my four-part series on new music for learning, which will explore the learning potential of music inspired by visual art as well as Landscape Music. Follow NewMusicBox on Twitter and Facebook for announcements as these articles are published.

Evoking Place through Music: Three Modes of Expression

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Wanderlust

Wanderlust. By Nell Shaw Cohen, 2015.

The question of how composers evoke place through music is one that could fill a book, or several of them. At the risk of taking a cursory approach to the subject, I’d like to propose three “modes of expression” that composers have utilized to this end: 1) music as aesthetic response to place; 2) imitation of place-based sound; and 3) allusion to place-associated music and musical styles. I’ll then consider some examples of how three prominent place-inspired composers—Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, and John Luther Adams—took these approaches in their work.

The modes I’ve identified are inherently broad and very fluid: as we will see, composers and even individual works may combine them. That said, I perceive these three distinct approaches in many pieces of music—and I can’t think of any example of music strongly evoking place that doesn’t utilize at least one of them.
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The ecocentric rationale for wilderness

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Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Frazier NashI recently read Wilderness and the American Mind, Roderick Frazier Nash‘s influential landmark survey of the intellectual history of wilderness in the U.S. In the Epilogue of the fourth edition, Nash muses on possible futures for wilderness and explains why the attitudes and rationales that led to the preservation of wilderness in the past may not hold up going forward.

“Ecocentric” arguments for wilderness preservation, which are rooted in ethics—rather than aesthetics, politics, or economics—are becoming increasingly important. Such a shift in conversation necessitates an intellectual and moral transformation of attitudes about nature. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and Nash’s ideas have stimulated me to further contemplate how music might support the ecocentric perspective. Continue reading →