Eugene weekly., June 13, 2019, Image 15

grew up and as she wound down her
job with the Geological Survey, she now
plays viol with Los Angeles Baroque.
A few years ago on YouTube she heard
a piece of music that simply transcribed
rising global temperatures into notes.
“It wasn’t music, but it was, you know,
interesting,” she says. The idea inspired
her to use similar data to compose some-
thing with more musical heft.
It took her several years to complete.
“The last time I actually composed a
piece was in college,” Jones says. “I did
take a theory class in college.”
The result is In Nomine Terra Calens
— “In the Name of a Warming Earth” —
which is based on average global tem-
peratures since the 1880s. It’s written in
a 16th-century English musical form —
called “in nomine” — for several stringed
instruments, usually viols; in it, one
instrument plays a foundation theme,
around which the others play polyphony.
Jones uses historical climate data
for that foundation theme, resulting
in a pitch that rises faster and faster
throughout the seven-minute composi-
tion. By the end, she says, the notes are
so high they’re difficult to play.
“This data is like a graceful minuet ac-
celerating into a frantic jig,” she notes on
her website.
In February Jones and other mem-
bers of L.A. Baroque performed In No-
mine Terra Calens at the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County. She also
worked with an animator to create a vi-
sual depiction of the climate data to go
with her music on YouTube, where it’s received 30,000
views since it was posted May 15.
This, Jones says, is art sending a message that’s
loud and clear.
“I don’t understand why people aren’t more terrified
by what’s going on,” she says. “We should be talking
about restoring our world, and we’re just like putting
our heads in the sand.”
An Apocalyptic Genre
Malheur Symphony and In Nomine Terra Calens
mark just two data points in a growing wave of new
music being created in recent years, says Robert Kyr, a
professor of composition and theory at the University
of Oregon School of Music and Dance.
“More and more composers are feeling called,” Kyr
says, adding that he uses the term “called,” with its reli-
gious overtones, decidedly. “We need to awaken to new
possibilities of understanding our relationship with the
natural world and our obligation to serve as the very
best stewards of our incredible environments and our
incredible planet.”
Perhaps the most noted composer in this vein has
been Seattle’s John Luther Adams, who for years has
incorporated natural sounds into his environmentally
oriented compositions. His orchestral work Become
Ocean, which won the Pulitzer Prize in music in 2014,
draws its title from a poem by composer John Cage.
“Life on this Earth first emerged from the sea,” Ad-
ams explains in a program note. “As the
polar ice melts and sea level rises, we hu-
mans find ourselves facing the prospect
that once again we may quite literally be-
come ocean.”
Kyr — who was a professor of Thomas’
when the younger composer studied at
the UO — has created his own works with
a climate theme.
His 2007 A Time for Life: An environ-
mental oratorio was commissioned and
recorded by Portland vocal ensemble
Cappella Romana. Divided into three
parts — “Creation,” “Forgetting” and
“Remembering” — the work weaves in
sources from a Native American prayer
to a 1961 “Service for the Environment”
written by an Eastern Orthodox monk at
Mount Athos monastery in Greece.
“Music can reach people at levels
that perhaps nothing else can,” Kyr says.
“And so as composers, we have a partic-
ular obligation to use our musical gifts to
address these issues and to impel people
to take action.”
Birdcalls from a
Desert Marsh
‘I don’t understand
why people aren’t more
terrified by what’s
going on. We should be
talking about restoring
our world, and we’re
just like putting our
heads in the sand.’
— Lucy Jones
Forbidden Fuel
By all accounts, Malheur Symphony
was an unqualified success at its May 5
premiere in Burns.
“It was a nice way to reclaim that
space,” Keim said of hearing Thomas’
music in the high school gym, which had
been the scene of a contentious commu-
nity meeting during the takeover.
“The goal was accomplished,” agreed
Burns music teacher Marianne Andrews, who was also
there. “They didn’t dwell. The people of Harney County
are done discussing it. But they were thrilled with the
beauty of the symphony.”
Though I missed that premiere performance in
Burns, I was able to hear Malheur Symphony at one of
three performances later given by the Central Oregon
Symphony in Bend.
I’ve been going to Malheur Refuge for three de-
cades, often visiting three or four times a year with my
son, Noah Strycker. We both feel a deep connection to
the place and the community around it, and he joined
me at the concert.
I was, I will say, apprehensive as the music began.
Contemporary classical music has a well-deserved rep-
utation for being inaccessible to mere musical mortals.
But from its quiet opening, Thomas’ symphony was
not only warm and listenable but also smart and com-
plex. The entire audience — which nearly filled Bend
High School auditorium on a Monday night — was rapt
for the full half-hour the symphony takes to perform.
As the music died down, before the applause erupt-
ed, my son looked over at me. A birder, he’d been lis-
tening not only to the music, but also to the birdcalls
Thomas had woven into it, including a marsh bird
called a sora.
“I’ve never heard a symphony with a sora,” Noah
said. “It felt like being at Page Springs Campground on
a morning in June. He got it.” ■
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