Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Novels and stories:

• Paul Tremblay, Growing Things and Other Stories (Morrow/HarperCollins, 2019): “does what we expect the work of our best writers to do: reflect our world from a surprising perspective so that we might better see its beauty and contradictions, its comforts and aches. In these 19 stories, Tremblay doesn’t just hold a mirror up to reality, but live-streams it, projecting the whole spectrum of our modern anxieties so vividly it feels as if we’re watching in real time.”

Poetry

It may indeed be phantasy, when I
Essay to draw from all created things
Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings;
And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie
Lessons of love and earnest piety.
So let it be; and if the wide world rings
In mock of this belief, it brings
Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.
So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,
Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise
Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.

[Samuel Taylor-Coleridge, “To Nature”]

Other poems:

• William Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey”
• William Wordsworth, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, “To a Sky-Lark”
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Invitation” (1822)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”
• Joyce Kilmer, “Trees”
• Walter de la Mare, “Silver”
• Robert Frost, “Blueberries”
• Robert Frost, “Hyla Brook”
• Robert Frost, “Putting in the Seed”
• Robert Frost, “Rose Pogonias”
• Robert Frost, “The Vantage Point”
• Edgar Lee Masters, “Imanuel Ehrenhardt”
• Edgar Lee Masters, “William Jones”
• Seamus Heaney, “Postscript”
• Navarre Scott Momaday, “The Earth”
• John Keats, “I Stood Tip-Toe Upon a Little Hill”
• John Keats, “O Solitude! If I Must With Thee Dwell”
  Wallace Stevens, “In the Carolinas”
• Wallace Stevens, “The Idea of Order at Key West” (analysis)
• John Greenleaf Whittier, “What the Birds Said”
• William Blake, “The Echoing Green”
• Andrew Marvell, “The Garden”
• John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Worship of Nature”
• E. Cummings, “O sweet spontaneous”
• Pablo Neruda, “Horses”

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Richard Strauss, Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), Op. 64 (1915) (approx. 44-54’), depicts a day in the mountains. It is “. . . a vivid musical portrayal of a climbing party's alpine ascent and descent.  All of the action in Strauss' Alpine Symphony takes place within one day . . .” It was “inspired by an alpine expedition as a teenager (during which he'd lost his way), and written with an awesome view of the peaks from his villa in Garmisch.” “The sunrise grows out of a quiet, rumble which depicts night - and in a mighty crescendo, opens the day - a similar awakening to that in ‘Zarathustra,’ in fact. And, along with the day the climbers begin their ascent, which is so clearly rendered in the music. After hiking for a while they enter the wood - via a sudden tempo change - and encounter the mysteries therein, beautifully exhibited by the...well, the mysterious music.” “In the Alpine Symphony, Strauss wrote that 'this represents moral purification through one’s own strength, liberation through work, worship of eternal, magnificent nature.'” Top recordings were conducted by Strauss in 1941, Knappertsbusch in 1952, Böhm in 1957, Mravinsky in 1962, Kempe in 1966, Kempe in 1971, Karajan in 1980, Karajan in 1985, Ozawa in 1996, Maazel in 1998, Thielemann in 2000, Schwarz in 2001, Janowski in 2009, Bychkov in 2010, Jansons in 2017, and Jurowski in 2021.

Edward Elgar, Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1899) (approx. 22-24’) (lyrics) is a song cycle conveying images of the sea and human activity on and about it. “The songs are about a person’s relationship with the ocean, and possibly no other European nation had the deep dependency on the ocean than Britain.” “Elgar's chosen texts often relate to the dichotomy of fear and fascination.” Top recorded performances are by Brunskill in 1926; Ripley (Weldon) in 1946; Baker (Barbirolli) in 1965 ***; Minton (Barenboim) in 1977; Palmer (Hickox) in 1986; Finnie (Thompson) in 1991; Lemieux (Daniel) in 2018; Rudge & (Vasily Petrenko) in 2019; and Garanča (Barenboim) in 2019. 

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 3, “A Pastoral Symphony” (1922) (approx. 35-39’): musically, the work evokes an idyllic landscape, as suggested by the title. However, the composers’ intent was something else entirely: “'It’s really wartime music – a great deal of it incubated when I used to go up night after night in the ambulance wagon at Ecoivres and we went up a steep hill and there was wonderful Corot-like landscape in the sunset. It’s not really lambkins frisking at all, as most people take for granted.'” Still: “Vaughan Williams was indeed inspired by landscape, but not English landscape; rather, the landscape of wartime France.” We can hear it for the composer’s appreciation of what was being ruined. Top recorded performances​​ are conducted by Boult in 1953, Previn in 1971, Handley, Bakels in 1994, Norrington in 1997, Haitink in 1998, and Elder in 2014. 

American composer Ferde Grofé is best known for his Grand Canyon Suite but he composed several other works in the same vein:

• Grand Canyon Suite (1931) (approx. 31-36’): here are links to complete performances conducted by Toscanini in 1945, Ormandy in 1957, Hanson in 1959, and Bernstein in 1964.
• Death Valley Suite (1949) (approx. 13’)
• Hudson River Suite (1955) (approx. 22’)
• Mississippi Suite (1926) (approx. 13’)
• Niagara Falls Suite (1961) (approx. 22’) 

Other works:

• Charles Koechlin, The Jungle Book (Livre de la Jungle), Op. 175 (1940) (approx. 58’), is drawn from Rudyard Kipling’s story collection, “The Jungle Book” (1894). “Kipling’s Jungle Book was a lifelong obsession for Koechlin, and between 1899 and 1936 he based five orchestral pieces on it, some including voices, which together form a vast symphonic cycle.” “The stories are about relationships, family, nature and living in society.”
• Robert Schumann, Liederkreis, Op. 39 (1840) (approx. 25-26’) (lyrics), is a song cycle that “Trac(es) Themes Of Nature From Poetry To Music”.
• Gerald Finzi, Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15 (1935) (approx. 29’) (lyrics), is drawn from poems by Thomas Hardy.
• Lou Harrison, Four Strict Songs for Eight Baritones and Chorus (1955, rev. 1992) (approx. 16’): “The text for Strict Songs was Harrison’s own. Supposedly “modeled on Navajo ritual song,” the four movements are a salute to holiness, nourishment, tenderness, and splendor, respectively. The text is an ecstatic exaltation of the natural world.”
• Aaron Jay Kernis, Newly Drawn Sky (2005) (approx. 17-18’), per the composer, “is a lyrical, reflective piece for orchestra, a reminiscence of the first summer night by the ocean spent with my young twins . . . and of the changing colors of the summer sky at dusk.”
• Jennifer Higdon, Sky Quartet (1997, rev. 2000) (approx. 21’): in this work for string quartet, the movements are “Sky Rising”, “Blue Sky”, “Fury” and “Immense Sky”.
• Ida Gotkovsky, Le Chant de la forêt (Song of the Forest), for chorus and wind orchestra (1989)
• Frederick Delius, Florida Suite (1887) (as edited by Beecham in 1963) (approx. 37-38’) “. . . was inspired by the bright landscapes and balmy weather of Florida which he experienced while spending time managing an orange grove . . .”
• William Henry Fry, Niagara Symphony (1854) (approx. 12-14’) “is extravagantly panoramic in scope as befits all good travelogue pieces . . .”
• Arnold Bax, Enchanted Summer (1910) (approx. 28’)
• Antonín Dvořák, In Nature’s Realm Overture, Op. 91, B168 (1891) (approx. 14’), “has been described as a landscape painting, due to its richness in tone, colour and timbre throughout. It is also seen as a somewhat self-portrait of Dvořák’s home town, Vysoká, where he composed in a forest with peace and quiet, and the only noises that disturbed him were the natural sounds outside his window.”
• Lou Harrison, Solstice (1950) (approx. 17’)
• George Frideric Händel, Care selve, aure grate, HWV 88 (1708)
• Raga Miya Malhar (Malhar, Miyan Malhar) is a Hindustani classical nighttime raag aping nature’s vagaries, it is performed especially in the rainy season. It is “is a monsoon raga, popularly used for invoking and embracing rain to drench the earth and to welcome the monsoon.” Performances are by Venkatesh Kumar, Paluskar and Koparkar.
• Raga Pahadi (Pahari) is a classical raag for early evening. It “originates from the mountainous region of Himalayas.” Based on folk melodies, “the raga is like a lover, unruffled in union, serene in separation, powerful enough to achieve eternal union, but resigned to the painful parting ordained by destiny.” Performances are by Ali Akbar Khan, Nikhil Banerjee and Hariprasad Chaurasia.
• Outi Tarkiainen, The Earth, Spring’s Daughter (2015) (approx. 43-60’) “is a mythical epos illustrating the core experiences of the North and its people from the past to the present day.”
• Robert Carl, Symphony No. 5, “Land” (2013) (approx. 22’)  was inspired by a trip from the Great Plans to the Rocky Mountains. Carl says: “It takes this geography as a starting point to evoke images and sensations that can only come from music, and point beyond the physical surface towards something “other”.”
• John Harmon, “Earth Day Portrait” (2001) (approx. 24’)
• Edward Joseph Collins, “Hymn to the Earth” (1929) (approx. 37’) (lyrics)
• Alan Hovhaness, Symphony No. 66, Op. 428, “Hymn to Glacier Peak” (1992) (approx. 19’)
• John Luther Adams, “Canticles of the Holy Wind” (2013) (approx. 66’) is “a hypnotic and ethereally beautiful invocation of wind, sky and birdsong through human — but wordless — voices.”
• Bernard Rands, Canti del Sole (Songs of the Sun) (1983) (approx. 27’)
• Bernard Rands, Canti Lunatici (Songs of the Moon) (1981) (approx. 33’)
• Xiaogang Ye, Sichuan Image, Op. 70 (2013) (approx. 47’), “consists of 29 brief and atmospheric pieces composed to accompany a filmed travelogue of the scenic province in Western China.”
• Ottorino Respighi, Deità Silvane (Woodland Deities), P. 107 (1917) (approx. 16’), is a cycle of five songs, whose English titles are The fauns, Garden music, Aegle, Water, and Twilight.
• Ben Shirley, High Sierra Sonata (2020) (approx. 19’), was inspired by Shirley’s visit to the Sierra mountains in 2019.
• Lei Liang, “Six Seasons” (2022) (approx. 63’) “is an essay in environmental sound art and improvisation.”
• Haskell Small, “Alan Hovhaness: Mountain Fantasies for Piano” (2023) (59’)
• Margaret Brouwer, Symphony No. 1, “Lake Voices” (1997) (approx. 16-17’), “captures the beauty of the Great Lakes . . .”
• Philip Glass, Aguas da Amazonia (1999) (approx. 55’): “Inspired by the Amazon River and its tributaries, the suite explores a vivid mixture of orchestral and percussive textures in Glass’ signature style.”

Albums:

• George Winston, “Forest” (1993) (46’)
• Jacques Burtin, “Le Chant de la forêt” (Song of the Forest) (2007) (59’)
• Rich Halley Trio, “Mountains and Plains” (2005) (63’)
• Harris Eisenstadt, “Old Growth Forest” (2016) (54’)
• Brian Eno, “Deep Blue Day” (1982) (48’)
• Fergus McCreadie, “Forest Floor” (2022) (55’)
• Uakti, “Aguas de Amazonia” (Waters of Amazon) (1999) (55’), music composed by Philip Glass
• New Music Players & Primrose Piano Quartet, “Music for the South Downs” (2022) (69’) presents music by Ed Hughes, commissioned by the South Downs National Park Authority, for a film celebrating the park’s tenth anniversary.
• Leon McCawley, “Natural Connection: Piano music inspired by the natural world” (2024) (78’)
• Various artists, “Kristine Tjøgersen: Between Trees” (2024) (76’): “All of the works featured on Between Trees are the composer’s evocations of nature.”
• Cynefin, “Shimli” (2025) (49’): “As well as making music, Owen is a cultural historian, researcher and grain grower, the latter directly linking to the album’s title, meaning a gathering of farmers, telling stories and singing songs as their oats baked around them. This old practice continued well into the twentieth century.”

Music: songs and other short pieces

• John Denver, “Rocky Mountain High” (lyrics)
• John Denver, Sunshine on My Shoulders” (lyrics)
• Fawn Fritzen, “Green Island Serenade” (lyrics)
• Franz Schubert (composer), “Naturgenuß” (Delight in Nature), D. 188 (1815) (lyrics)

Visual Arts

• Franz Marc, Der Wasserfall (1912)
• Frederic Edwin Church, El Rio de Luz (The River of Light) (1877)
• Gustave Courbet, The Calm Sea (1869)
• Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevadas (1868)
• Gustave Courbet, The Beach at Palaves (1854)
• Joseph Mallord William Turner, Rainbow (ca. 1835)
• Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Rocks in Amalfi (1828)
• Thomas Cole, Scene from the Last of the Mohicans (1826)
• Thomas Cole, Kaaterskill Falls (1826)
• Carl David Friedrich, Moonrise Over the Sea (1822)
• Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Grand Cascade at Tivoli (1760)

Film and Stage