In order to keep my mind from descending into hell with the arrogant political behavior of the current administration I am choosing not to dissent for a while. I need to clean my palette so to speak and go on and adventure musically. My summer job affords me the opportunity to listen to music on my ear buds while I mow, mow, and mow some more. Sometimes it is other yard maintenance, but primarily I turn in circles on any number of large commercial lawnmowers.
I’m a big fan of the work Sting, Andy Summer, and Stewart Copeland created as the band The Police. I have followed their careers post Police. Stewart Copeland has created some very interesting film scores and orchestral music. His latest recorded venture reminds me of some of John Luther Adams music, but in a pops orchestral vein rather than a recreation of Earth’s music using the orchestra. Listen to Become Ocean by John Luther Adams and you will get my drift. Anyway, I saw some little snippet on Stewart Copeland on my phone one day at lunch and I decided to go down a rabbit hole. I cued up the Wild Concerto on my Spotify App and away I went.
I found it intriguing. I had no clue what the process or motivation was for the creation of the piece. I just found it interesting that the recorded animal sounds were the Wild and the orchestra with percussion supplied by Copeland was the Concerto. It was about 50 minutes of music using biological sounds in a new way within music. It is wildly creative and very approachable musically. Copeland uses world music, jazz, rock, and classical idioms with the wildlife sounds to create some intriguing little musical portraits.
I call these movements of music portraits because they use specific animal sounds as the textural glue that holds things together. The accompanying music never exceeds the animal sound and the music grows organically out of the animal sound. The movements within the Wild Concerto are:
- White Throated Sparrow (Is Happy On the Glacier)
- Barred Owl and the Frog Brigade
- Blackfoot Albatross (Lands On the Sonoma Coast)
- Galapagos Seal (Meets Blue-Footed Boobies)
- Screaming Piha (Trolls the Titi Monkeys of the Andes Basin)
- Penguins in the Wind of Antarctica
- Indri and the Asian Barred Owl
- Kookaburra and the Marbled Frogmouth (on Cape Tribulation)
- Hyena Party On the Skeleton Coast
- Go Away Love (On the African Coast)
- Guillemot Serenades the Red Deer
- Coltrane Wolves in the Arctic Circle
Each portrait is between three and five minutes. There is a high level of repetition and gentle development similar to minimalism, but the percussion work and rhythmic development by Copeland lends the music a “pops” feel. Copeland’s use of cymbals, crotales (tuned metal discs,) kalimba, and other metallic percussion instruments really lends itself to biological sounds. Penguins and Kookaburra and the Marbled Frogmouth really bounce out of the earbuds thanks to the percussion writing. I especially enjoyed the Kookaburra solo break. It lent the biological sounds of the bird musical integrity. It is all a matter of perspective… one could say… whether a bird makes music or not… Listen carefully there is an ode to Wipeout subtly thrown in Kookaburra too.
Wild Concerto is full of varied musical influences and worthy of a listen. I would love to see this piece see some performances by “Pops” Orchestras with Copeland as the guest percussionist or even with the orchestra’s percussionists front and centered. My favorite portraits were Barred Owl and the Frog Brigade, The Tangoesque Galapagos Seal (Meets Blue Footed Boobies,) Penguins in the Winds of Antarctica, and Kookaburra and the Marbled Frogmouth (on Cape Tribulation.) You smiled when you read parenthetical title of Galapagos Seal didn’t you?
The sounds of the wildlife come from Martyn Stewart. He painstakingly recorded thousands of species of animal all over the world in all kinds of weather conditions. You can hear his work on nature documentaries. I’m sure his penguin recordings were used on the penguin documentary years ago. Seriously… These animal sounds are meticulously recorded.
These twelve portraits of music and sound are considered classical music, but in reality it is more popular sounding than Beethoven, Bach, or Mozart. Copeland’s approach to classical music composing is refreshing and innovative. His musical vocabulary transfers nicely into the realm of the classics. It appropriately offends the classicists and avant-garde equally. He just knows how to rock even with a bassoon.
Thanks for reading my escape into a creative space to avoid the ugliness around us. I’ve been finding these field trips into music quite stress relieving. Politics suck the soul from our lives. We need these creative ventures more now than ever. It will keep us human. It will keep us alive. It will give us hope. Stewart Copeland has always made me smile with his wit, thoughtfulness, and musical contributions. I think he would be a fun person to have a meal with and talk about music. Any kind of music. Stay the course… so it goes…
I Dissent (and other ramblings) 
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