Pictures of the changing seasons, the rustling of leaves, bird voices, the splashing of waves, the murmur of a stream, thunderstorm peals - all this can be conveyed in music. Many famous composers were able to do it brilliantly: their musical works about nature became classics of the musical landscape.
Natural phenomena, musical sketches of flora and fauna appear in the instrumental and piano works, vocal and choral works, and sometimes even in the form of program cycles.
"Seasons" by A. Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Four three-part violin concertos dedicated to the seasons by Vivaldi are without a doubt the most famous pieces of music about the nature of the Baroque era. Poetic sonnets for concerts are written, as is believed, by the composer himself and express the musical meaning of each part.
Vivaldi transmits his music and thunder peals, and the sound of rain, and the rustle of leaves, and bird trills, and dog barking, and the howling of the wind, and even the silence of the autumn night. Many remarks of the composer in the score directly indicate this or that phenomenon of nature, which should be depicted.
"Seasons" by J. Haydn
Joseph Haydn
The monumental oratorio "The Seasons" was a peculiar result of the composer's creative work and became a true masterpiece of classicism in music.
Four seasons consistently appear before the listener in 44 pictures. The heroes of the oratorio are the villagers (peasants, hunters). They know how to work and have fun, they have no time to indulge in despondency. People here are part of nature, they are involved in its one-year cycle.
Haydn, like his predecessor, makes extensive use of the capabilities of various instruments to convey the sounds of nature, such as the summer thunderstorm, the chirping of grasshoppers and the frog choir.
In Haydn, music about nature is connected with the life of people - they are almost always present in his "pictures". So, for example, in the final of the 103rd symphony, we seem to be in the forest and hear the signals of the hunters, for whose images the composer resorts to a well-known means - the golden course of the horns. Listen to:
"Seasons" by P. I. Tchaikovsky
Peter Tchaikovsky
The composer has chosen for his twelve months the genre of piano miniatures. But the piano alone can convey the colors of nature as well as the choir and orchestra.
Here are the spring exultation of the skylark, and the joyful awakening of the snowdrop, and the dreamy romance of the white nights, and the song of the boatman swaying on the river waves, and the field work of the peasants, and the hound hunting, and the disturbingly sad autumnal sinking of nature.
Carnival of the Animals by C. Saint-Saens
Camille Saint-Saens
Among the musical works about nature, Saint-Saens' big zoological fantasy for the chamber ensemble stands apart. The lack of seriousness determined the fate of the work: Carnival, whose score Saint-Saens even forbade publishing during his lifetime, was completely performed only among the composer’s friends.
The original instrumental composition: in addition to the string and several wind instruments, this includes two pianos, celestos and such a rare instrument in our time, like a glass harmonica.
In a cycle of 13 parts, describing different animals, and the final part, combining all the numbers into a whole piece. It is funny that the composer also included novice pianists, who diligently play the gamma, among the animals.
The comic character of Carnival is emphasized by numerous musical allusions and quotations. For example, "Turtles" perform the Offenbach cancan, only slowed down several times, and the double bass in The Elephant develops the theme of Berlioz's "Ballet of the Sylphs".
The only number of the cycle, published and performed publicly during the life of Saint-Saens, is the famous "Swan", which in 1907 became a masterpiece of ballet performed by the great Anna Pavlova.
The sea element of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Russian composer knew about the sea firsthand. A midshipman, and then a midshipman on a diamond clipper, he traveled a long way to the North American coast. His favorite sea images appear in many of his creations.
Such, for example, is the theme of the "ocean-sea of blue" in the opera "Sadko". Literally in several sounds, the author conveys the hidden power of the ocean, and this motif permeates the entire opera.
The sea reigns in the symphonic musical picture "Sadko" and in the first part of the suite "Scheherazade" - "The Sea and Sinbad Ship", in which calm is replaced by a storm.
"The rosy dill covered the east ..."
Modest Mussorgsky
Another favorite theme of nature music is sunrise. Here immediately come to mind the two most famous morning topics, something in common with each other. Each in its own way accurately conveys the awakening of nature. This is the romantic "Morning" by E. Grieg and the solemn "Dawn on the Moscow River" by M. P. Mussorgsky.
At Grieg, the imitation of the shepherd's horn is picked up by stringed instruments, and then by the whole orchestra: the sun rises over the harsh fjords, and the murmur of a stream and the singing of birds are clearly heard in the music.
Mussorgsky's dawn also begins with the shepherd's melody, the sound of bells interweaves into the growing orchestral sound, and the sun rises above the river, covering the water with golden ripples.
It is almost impossible to list all known classical musical works in which the theme of nature develops - this list will be too long. This could include Vivaldi's concerts (The Nightingale, The Cuckoo, The Night), the bird trio from Beethoven’s sixth symphony, The Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy’s Goldfish, Spring and Autumn, and Winter road "Sviridov and many other musical pictures of nature.
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