7 Ways Classical Composers Celebrate The Earth

Music associated with nature has long been a popular theme for composers. Here's a brief look at some nature inspired works by musical artists who created patterns in sound that somehow create inner pictures in us of the beauty, awe and majesty of the world around us. Many of us, I am sure, in our imaginations, have been on a walk through the countryside outside of Vienna with Beethoven, even stopping by a brook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRwU0JaykJQ Or, we've had thankful feelings after a storm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM8RlCZP0KQ Maybe we've gone to the top of an Alpine mountain with Richard Strauss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65byu3ztI8U Or, underwater with the sea creatures in "Aquarium" from "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsD0FDLOKGA Music has taken us to "The Steppes of Central Asia" with Alexander Borodin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SXDu3FkgwE Felix Mendelssohn has taken us to "Fingal's Cave" in The Hebrides in Scotland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyZ5cHUaiBI From there, we can come back closer to home and enjoy the scenery in Pennsylvania in "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDRWdNn_nLk We can travel far and wide through the music of great composers who took the time and trouble to express something about this marvelous world we have. Let's take good care of our collective home.