Composers Supriya Nagarajan, Colin Riley and Angela Elizabeth Slater examine how music can tackle one of the most critical challenges of our time and reflect on the creative response to climate change.
Our thanks to Oliver Bolton, co-founder and CEO of social enterprise Earthly, for leading this discussion. Earthly connects businesses with high impact nature-based projects that remove carbon, restore biodiversity and improve the livelihoods of the communities most impacted by climate change. You can find our more about their work by visiting Earthly.org.
From the haunting soundscapes of melting glaciers to innovative music inspired by nature’s resilience, take a moment to experience some of the music discussed
Listen
Non Existent (2019) | Angela Elizabeth Slater
For soprano and chamber ensemble, Non-Existent is a work for voice and ensemble that juxtaposes the text of climate change scientists, activists and climate change deniers.
Roil in Stillness (2015) | Angela Elizabeth Slater
As the moon runs red (2016) | Angela Elizabeth Slater
The Year Round (2024) | Colin Riley
Exploring our relationship with the natural world and its rhythms, Colin’s concept album The Year Round is a celebration of the quiet, unique, and beautiful. Of the too-easily unnoticed things. Of the natural elements that keep ‘singing’ unselfconsciously.
Water Over Stone (2017) | Colin Riley
Watch
Meltwater (2022) | Supriya Nagarajan
Immersive music and performance event Meltwater looks at water as an environmental disruptor. The performance includes vocals, acoustic and electronic music, creating a unique experience that highlights both the destructive power and the awesome beauty of water.
Meltwater focuses on the melting polar ice-caps, using the amazing diversity of sound created by ice sheets turning back into water – from drips, to running streams and crashing ice – to create a haunting and evocative performance.
Delve further into the story behind Meltwater
Through the Fading Hour (2022) | Angela Elizabeth Slater
Angela’s piece – emerging from one of her own poems – explores both an actual twilight hour with the onsetting of darkness and the fading of light, and the twilight hour of existence on Earth as we know it as the realities of climate change become increasingly evident.
Water Songs | Colin Riley
From Colin’s Hearing Places, a 7-movement work for large orchestra, here performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
“The sound of a stream has been the source of inspiration for many composers over centuries. This musical meditation draws attention to the tiny hidden repeating melodies that you can often hear inside the sound of the trickles and eddies, if you take the time to listen.”
Colin Riley
The Louder the Birds Sing (2021) | Angela Elizabeth Slater
Though not directly related to climate change, Angela’s piece explores themes of strength and fragility and the impact of human presence on spaces. The title refers to the phenomenon people observed during lockdown, when less traffic and less noise made space for nature.
Read
Inspirational reading suggestions from the conversation include Losing Eden by Lucy Jones, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
Explore further
Learn more about the composers on the panel and discover the ways in which they connect with their Music Patron community.
Angela Elizabeth Slater
Supriya Nagarajan
Colin Riley
To connect with climate change expert Oliver Bolton head over to Earthly.org.
In case you missed it
Catch up on an earlier digital conversation Music Patron in Conversation: Music & Nature with nature-inspired composers Stuart MacRae, Emily Peasgood, and Lisa Robertson exploring the connection between music and the natural world, and hosted by celebrated nature writer and conductor, Lev Parikian.
