music and geography

In the canon of western classical music, one can easily stumble upon pieces where music and geography intersect. That is, music depicting place – a landscape, nature alive with water and animal sounds, an idyllic reminiscence of childhood, vacation spot, or utopia. For me, this music is the type where one can close their eyes while listening to it and paint their own picture of the geography being explored. When I think of this subsection of classical music, four pieces come to mind right away:

• Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, more commonly known as The New World Symphony. A Czech composer, Dvořák came to America in 1892 to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in America. The New World Symphony is inspired, in part, by the prairies he encountered during his summer visit to the areas in and around Spillville, Iowa. He wrote often of the “wide open spaces” of America.
• Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. This is a piece for solo violin and orchestra often described as “the composer’s love song to the British countryside.” The solo violin plays the part of the lark, singing out the bird’s song in the dizzying heights of the lark’s flight into the sky.
• Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. In a similar vein as the Vaughan Williams piece described above, this theme and 14 variations also depicts the English countryside, specifically the Malvern hills where the composer spent much of his time. The most famous variation – “Nimrod” – is a perennial audience favorite and easily recognizable in pop culture.
• Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England. The three movements in this orchestral suite all portray a specific place in the Northeastern United States: Boston Common, Putnam’s Camp (Redding, Connecticut), and The Housatonic [River] at Stockbridge [Massachusetts].

The two solo piano pieces offered in today’s worship service follow in this tradition. They come from a collection, An American Portrait: The Pacific Northwest, by a composer from that region, Valerie Roth Roubos. In addition to this collection, she has three other books with The American Portrait title – Scenes from the Great Plains, The Oregon Trail, and Views of the West. I hope you will consider closing your eyes while they are played and picture the Lavender Fields of the Olympic Peninsula and the majestic Mt. Rainier – two examples of God’s stunning beauty on the earth entrusted to our care.