Whidbey’s Saratoga Orchestra is putting on a show that is sure to satisfy music- and plant-lovers alike.
In celebration of Earth Day, musicians from the orchestra will present “Rhythms of Nature,” a program that showcases the natural world through percussion music, poetry, prose and multimedia presentations.
Performances will take place at 3 p.m. April 23 at The Little Brown Church in Clinton and 3 p.m. April 24 at Oak Harbor Methodist Church.
The idea for the show came from Erica Montgomery, a Saratoga Orchestra musician and one of two featured percussionists.
Montgomery said she’d had a list of nature-themed pieces she wanted to perform, and with Earth Day approaching and COVID-19 restrictions loosening, she decided the time was right to put the show together.
Some of the pieces Montgomery selected defy traditional constraints to incorporate unusual instruments. For example, the concert opens with “To the Earth” by Frederic Rzewski, a percussive piece played on four flower pots and interspersed with the spoken word.
Another selection, “Child of Tree” by John Cage, is composed entirely of amplified plant sounds, such as plucking cactus needles or rustling leaves.
The final piece, “Kingdoms,” features a snare drum accompanied by audio files of insects and other natural sounds.
Orchestra musician Larry Heidel said the variety of materials used as instruments in this concert is a testament to the ubiquitous nature of music.
“You can find music anywhere you look,” he said. “You don’t necessarily have to be in a concert hall or have what we think of as traditional Western instruments to play on.”
Montgomery concurred.
“Spring music is all around us,” she said. “The Earth has music for those who listen.”
Besides being a time to honor the planet, April is also National Poetry Month, and the music will be interspersed with poetry and prose readings from Four Voices, a group comprising local writers Dallas Huth, Janice O’Mahony, Dianne Shiner and Faith Wilder.
The performances will also be accompanied by images of Whidbey Island’s nature.
To Montgomery, nature and art reflect each other in many ways. Both inspire peace and calm for those who experience them.
“It’s sort of a quality that it’s hard to put your finger on. It’s intrinsic,” she said. “It just touches your soul.”
Heidel added that music and nature are both constantly changing. The same way nature goes through continuous cycles of life, death and rebirth, emerging in a new form every time, a piece of music, performed live, only exists in that iteration in the moment it is being played. Like the life of a blossom, the life of a bar of music is fleeting — and that’s part of what makes each so special.
Heidel and other local musicians, Eva Nelson, Rumiana Drumeva, Anna Edwards, Sebastian Serrano-Ayala, Jon Small and Gary Wittlich, will join Montgomery and her fellow featured percussionist Brandon Nelson in next weekend’s performances. Admission to the concerts is free, though donations are welcome.
