music and nature .

K

Kevin the grey

Joined
Aug 26, 2005
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This is something I,ve wanted to do for a decade or two now . There is some music that just calls to be played outdoors . I,m not talking rock and roll or head banger music . I,m not knocking rock . I,ve blasted out a few windows in my day . I just don,t feel the need anymore . Reading hollow dwellers thread brought this desire back to me . There is some Irish flute music and Irish music in general that would sound perfect to me from a distance in a mountain hollow . It would be a little loud up close . From fifty yards away it would echo a little and just fit in with the land . I think it would follow the rolls and dips in a hollow and reflect off any hillsides . The wooden Irish flute is a simple instrument that may sing with the voice of the angels in the right hands . I have always thought that some good music rolling down the hills would be the perfect compliment to each other . The perfect harmony between man and nature .
 
I used to play the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin under a tree in a friend of mine’s backyard. Her house backed onto a beautiful little gully with a creek in the Adelaide Hills, and the music used to fit the environment perfectly.
 
Yup. There have been a few times that I was able to get quiet enough in my own mind to hear the songs of the Earth Mother. Having the added voice of a Flute or other soft instrument like a Violin playing the same songs would be a real harmony between man and nature and something I don't have the words to express.
 
Simple birds chirping,river flowing, wind whistling, leaves brushing sounds are good enough for me.
 
I'm back in one of these "hollers" (I call it a valley..hey I'm from CA ;) ) but 'ol Celt and,odd as it sounds,Bagpipe goes well with this land out here.
Also I've some Latvian traditional folk stuff that's pretty for back here too :D

Of course I listen to both the old stuff and "headbanger" 'zak,happen to love the Misfits :D

To any who're interested the Latvian CD I have is called Zobena Dziesma or Sword Song.
 
Sometimes, when life starts to get to me, I put in an R. Carlos Nakai disc. What an awesome way to relax and unwind.
His haunting native flute really brings me around to a grateful, spiritual place.

DaddyDett
 
Thanks guys I,ll check out the music as much as I can . I do like music that has a haunting or calling quality to it . It has a calming effect on my spirit .
While I especially like flute and whistle music there is something about some bagpipe music that does seem to blend with nature perfectly . I have to admit I,m wound a little tight and the higher pitched reedy sound pierces a little too much sometimes . When it is a tune I enjoy it takes me out of myself for just that little while to show me that life is great and when I return I am whole again . There is a legend in Irish /Celtic singing that speaks of this .
 
Some of my favorite outdoors music.

Tribal Winds- Native American Flute and Drum music
Chants- Ravi Shankar's album of traditional Indian chants w/ flute
The Reeltime Travelers- rollicking old timey
Tony Rice- Native American- Unit of Measure- Cold on the Shoulder.
Donna the Buffalo- The Ones You Love
Ozark Mt. Daredevils- The one with the quilt on the cover.
Solas - Seamus Egan's group anything they do
John Renbourne Group - Ship of Fools
 
Kevin the grey said:
While I especially like flute and whistle music there is something about some bagpipe music that does seem to blend with nature perfectly .
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Ever listen to the Tannahill Weavers or the Battlefield Band? Hard driving but excellent Celtic. Also Karen Casey who used to be with Solas has a couple great vocal albums.

Not Celtic but Dead Can Dance's album "Toward the Within" is awesome:)
 
Kevin the grey said:
Thanks guys I,ll check out the music as much as I can . I do like music that has a haunting or calling quality to it . It has a calming effect on my spirit .
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You should check out some of the ancient modes. Like the dorian, myxolydian, etc. Our major and minor keys are just two of the 7? modes. The others are rarely heard nowdays except in some old folk songs. Some of them do have a powerful haunting quality.

The old style of using accompanying drones, like the bagpipes you mentioned or the mountain dulcimer with drone strings, also produces a haunting effect. The use of drones has also pretty much fallen by the wayside in modern times.

Plato (that old facist) argued for outlawing certain modes in the Republic, due to their effects on the citizens. It seems that time has done what his political theories could not.
 
There are some modern groups doing instrumentals with South American Pan flutes. IngaPirga? is one I heard perform live. Their tape was disappointing though; as if they tried to do "popular" music, rather than the haunting acoustics of the flutes and basic drum rhythms.

Some woods, some hills...all empty of humanity...fill with old meanings -- hidden deep in our hearts -- when the sounds of some music are introduced.

More than primal, most certainly elemental. Like a calling-back somehow.
 
More than primal, most certainly elemental. Like a calling-back somehow>>>>>>>> Kismet

Credit where credit is due; that is an interesting observation by Kismet. But look at it; 'a calling back' it says. I wonder. Yes, I think we could concensus that such a connection, a comunication is 'calling back.' But examine this further. Sorry for all the words, I don't want them to get in the way of what I'm trying to say. But it is more than a calling back. Would I be wrong to say that it is a connection that we have, still have, and that playing music in the woods while listening to the Earth isn't something we 'used' to have, it is something ongoing we never lost. we are part of the Earth

I think this is an important distinction but maybe I'm just full of mud.

munk
 
What I'm trying to say; we are the voice of the Earth. No matter what dumb things we do, how ractious (I'll look that up and see what I'm trying to spell) disjointed or isolative, by definition, Man is part of the Earth, of the reality and experience of what is happening on that planet.

When you look at it that way, it's kind of funny to think of us as 'calling back' to a connection with Mother Earth, when like all living and even inantimate objects on Earth, we are a part of Earth. Course, maybe I'm just nuts to say so. Been nuts many times.


munk
 
Whatever you believe munk,God created us and the earth;plants;animals and all the other stuff as one...the "Christains" of today forget that because they're more interested in power and control over everybody and everything *sigh* some "pagan" ways are a bit out there,but God does pretty much seem to be saying that you mess with the world 'round you it will mess back.

Plus feeling a connection to nature isn't weird....God made it;he's in it;we're in it so we can feel that-if we listen.
 
Isn,t a dulcimer something like a zither ? I quite like that music though I confess to only have heard commercial tracks of it . I would certainly like to hear some nice music from such an interesting instrument . I understand drone notes a little . Seeing as I like wind instruments the most there is not too much droning going on except perhaps in some shahmanistic music where the drone would actually be the main notes played .You all as usual have given me lots to think about .
 
Kevin the grey said:
Isn,t a dulcimer something like a zither ? I quite like that music though I confess to only have heard commercial tracks of it . I would certainly like to hear some nice music from such an interesting instrument . I understand drone notes a little . Seeing as I like wind instruments the most there is not too much droning going on except perhaps in some shahmanistic music where the drone would actually be the main notes played .You all as usual have given me lots to think about .
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A lap dulcimer has a drone to it. One of the masters of the lap dulcimer is Alan Freeman. Mary Faith Rhodes also had several great lap dulcimer albums. Joni Mitchel uses it a lot on her best album IMO Blue.

The hammered dulcimer is like a piano without keys. Probably my favorite albums featuring it are the fantastic Trapezoid. They were one of the few bands that even as a young redneck would bring me to tears not with sad songs, but with the sheer beauty of their music. I think their classic is Now and Then on Flying Fish. They left the Elkins WV area and moved to VA and broke up, but their Lead Singer Lorraine Duisit did a fantastic solo LP with her husband Tom Espinola that featured her on mandolin and bowed psaltry and he on harp. They were planning to do a reunion and the other singer Freda Epstein was tragically killed in an auto accident. Trapezoid at their peak was played some of the most beautiful and music I have ever witnessed, and I have seen LOTS of live music.

I used to use the chorus of "there ain't nobody here but us chickens" on my answering machine.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...103-7034403-8441435?n=507846&s=music&v=glance
 
If there is a bow in there I am bound to like it . As for the dulcimer ? I had a crush on Joni Mitchel back in the day and I haven,t quite gotten over it . The fact that she plays the dulcimer just confirms my good taste ! L:O:L
Just the name Dulcimer speaks volumes . I wonder if anyone ever called them lap-harps ? One of the things I like about them is the image of a family gathered around the dulcimer player and all singing along .
 
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