From the AGU EOS Blogs, amazing that one can get so worked up with feelings over a 0.7C global temperature difference.
The sounds and songs of climate data
My first formal introduction to the portrayal of climate data through music was at the 2013 ScienceOnline Climate conference, and I was most recently updated on various forms of art in STEM education at the AGU 2014 Fall Meeting session on Connecting Geoscience with the Arts. At ScienceOnline Climate, undergraduate student researcher Daniel Crawford (Univ. of Minnesota) took 130 years of the average surface global temperature data from NASA and translated it into music for the cello. The video below captures the story of this unique project and includes a performance of the piece “A Song of Our Warming Planet.”
A Song of Our Warming Planet from Ensia on Vimeo.
Mr. Crawford has continued working with his faculty mentor, geography professor Scott St. George, and has expanded his version of the climate conversation to not just over time but over latitudes. His newest piece, “Planetary Bands, Warming World,” is written for a string quartet and captures temperature changes across the globe. The video below explains this updated piece and includes a performance.
The sound of climate change from the Amazon to the Arctic from Ensia on Vimeo.
I have shared both of these videos with the students in my introductory-level Earth science courses. These videos are successful in capturing the attention of students (including non-science majors) and generating discussion. That students continue to mention these videos throughout the semester and share them with others outside of my course demonstrates to me how effective music can be to communicate climate data.
Another interesting “climate science meets music” project is the sonification of polar climate data, driven by City College of New York professors Marco Tedesco and Jonathan Perl. You can listen to an interview about Greenland Melt Music or visit the PolarSeeds – Sound website to listen to sonified daily and annual data. Unfortunately, I am unable to embed any of these soundtracks, but it is absolutely worth visiting the site to listen to the haunting sounds of the albedo choir.
If you are interested in additional climate music pieces, check out the New York Times article from 2013 titled “Fiddling While the World Warms.” In this piece, a digital violin plays 600 years of climate data – take a listen below.
More on this ‘music’ here: http://blogs.agu.org/geoedtrek/2015/05/27/climate-data-music/
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One thing’s for sure; they could all use more cowbell.
Testify! And anything that can’t be fixed by more cowbell, can be fixed by more Shatner. .
Does anybody remember really stupid things they did when they were younger and look back and go, “holy s..t, I can’t believe I did something so utterly stupid.” I can remember many such times and I’ll think, ‘whatever possessed me to do that?’ Years and years later I still cringe at some of the idiotic and embarrassing things I’ve done. But, thank god there wasn’t an Internet back then to capture my goofiness for all eternity to see. These were the first thoughts that crossed my mind when I listened to (just a few agonizing seconds) that first musician. How will he explain that away in 40 years?
Life is the progressive realization of how stupid you were ten years ago.
Yeah Tom. That’s why these progressive types invented the religion of therapy. That way they can pay for someone to tell them that nothing they thought or did in the past was actually their fault. That is why most likely nobody will be blamed or have to pick up the tab when this scam gets revealed besides taxpayers.
Here’s another bit of atmospheric music: https://youtu.be/pQ9qX8lcaBQ
Enjoy!
Random noises played with musical instruments. What a huge waste of……
Wait, is there any grant money?
How about sticks beating on buckets. Let’s all youtube ourselves banging on buckets
Yeh, that’s the ticket.
This cute little chick has over 122 million views.
I wonder how many that pasty student-loan-burdened dweeb got.
CRYSTALLIZE
by Lindsey Stirling
I made it through, never quite sure if it was to be taken seriously, or not, but now I see there’s even a Wikipedia entry for dubstep – I thank the fates this little laptop doesn’t do bass very well.
There are fools who drive around in cars with massive subwoofers in the trunk, and others who have similar equipment in their abodes. Those heavy, low notes can be dangerous. People blow out their hearing, and then need to keep turning it up to get their sound fix. Heavy low bass is palpable, as the low vibrations readily travel through solid objects, including our bodies.
In my view, assault by subwoofer falls within the tragedy of the commons. I cherish my own reasonably good hearing, not least of all because I like to hear the birdies, and Haydn’s violins. Silence is also precious.
Anyway, back to LS: I don’t find it very good – too much of a hodgepodge of different things going on. Her violin playing is overwhelmed by the choppy beats and cheesy electronics effects, and as a dancer, she owes more to Ian Anderson, than she does to Mitzi Gaynor.
If this doesn’t put a smile on your face …
Feminist ‘Music’ is the Funniest Thing Ever!
Good grief! They sound like howling monkeys. And funny commentary.
Cellist, “I will now play the commissioned work ‘Fraud’ by Christine McEntee. The commission was re-direction of $130 million dollars from AGU membership dues to a Swiss Bank account owned by Ms McEntee. I hope you enjoy it.”
I do not know how to place a video in the post, but here is the link for one of my favorites, and perfect for the subject of climate (or at least, weather).
It is called Rain.
LOL – it put the video in from the link – ain’t technology wonderful!
Led Zepplin was way ahead of their time (-:
Zeppelin
“portrayal of climate data through music?”
Try this…
https://climatesanity.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/sea-level-data-set-to-music-yeah-thats-right/
The first minute or so of the video explains what you will see and tells you what to look for in the data. The data, set to music, will flash across the screen very rapidly. The original music was “The End of the World As We Know It,” but I got into copyright trouble because of that. So I changed it to music from Creative Commons
Couldn’t resist…
This is proof that a modern college education is completely worthless. That aside, I prefer Megadeth.
https://youtu.be/PRmJbHdv2f8
Please add a Nobel Music Price already and give it to this guy…
/sarc
I keep hearing the notes a little flat at the beginning, on key in the middle and sharp at the end? Must be that my hearing is off?
Gard R. Rise May 28, 2015 at 3:38 pm wrote:
“You are probably right; but of the ones you mention I am only really vaguely familiar with Pärt. I seldom enjoy modern classical music; in my opinion its, at its best, more like moods and musical landscapes. At its worst it is horrible and angst-ridden broken fragments. I’d probably always prefer Beethoven and Brahms, Mozart and Haydn, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin. Add Verdi and Bach to the mix, and there’s likely enough music to study and enjoy to last a lifetime. I would definitely draw a pretty sharp line after composers like Grieg, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky. I have heard precious little classical music I can enjoy that was made after the First World War; that war that seemed to have had enormous consequences for European culture and morale.”
Indeed, as the German Ambassador to France said upon declaration of hostilities: “This is the suicide of Europe.”
You’re quite right: there’s a lifetime of treasure to enjoy among those you’ve listed. But, just curious, would you include anything of Rachmaninoff, or Respighi, or Prokovfiev, or Shostakovich? No Stravinsky? Ravel? Mahler? R. Strauss? Sibleius? Elgar? Vaughan-Williams?
Just askin’ if you have the time.
Incidentally, this article is probably worth the time of anyone interested in “How music theory proves what ancient mathematics thought impossible.”
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/04/the-divine-music-of-mathematics
Sure, but I’m not too good at the composers you’ve listed, so my opinions would be much less than expert. If one knows where to look there are probably gems among their compositions. I’ve had a few cracks at Mahler and Sibelius and enjoyed some of their work, but then again only the most well-known stuff like Kindertotenlieder and Finlandia. I still find them much less accessible than for instance Hugo Wolf. While I suppose one would call all of them romantics, there’s a kind of descent into the dream-like, contemplative among the later romantics. On the other hand, some of the Russians you mentioned may give me the creeps when I listen to them (like Stravinsky and Prokofiev); there seems to be this longing towards primeval, barbaric, destructive emotion. Richard Strauss has never appealed to me, I have never really found enough happening in his music to keep the mind and the heart interested. I know Strauss is well regarded and often played, so there may very well be something there I haven’t understood.
Of those you mentioned I am most intrigued by Mahler. And I would probably cram in Hugo Wolf along with the others on your list. He has written some marvelous lieder, not the least being the moving ‘Schlafendes Jesuskind’.
Actually, I’d say you have a pretty good ear and a good bead on those you’ve mentioned. Although in some cases, I personally think they may have been following the Zeitgeist and were not, necessarily, doing what they wanted to do. I could recommend a few things if I’ve understood your tastes correctly, but I’m afraid I’d be wasting your time. Sounds like you’ve got a good lock on what you like and why. That’s great.
What ever happened to underwater basket weaving as a college course?
Bringing this back around to the question of data as music, I think that general idea has been tried more than a few times by computer programmers, hobbyists, hackers and the like over the years, and that approach is reflected in “Fiddling a Warming Tune” at the end of the article, which lacks any musical structure, and is trying to make a point
As far as I know, human creativity has not yet been matched by a computer. So far, only a person can compose a haunting melody like in Borodin’s “Polovstian Dances.”
Successful performers must outnumber successful composers by hundreds to one.Whatever it is that drives the creative power of the human brain, we know that it has not been distributed evenly.
This version is conducted by Gergiev with the Kirov ( Mariyinksky) Opera Company.
Слово о плъку Игоревѣ
Prince Igor (Russian: Князь Игорь, Knyaz’ Igor’ ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin (1833-1887). The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor’s Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185
Borodin’s “
PolovstianPolovtsian Dances.” sometimes spelled Polovetsian, from the Russian Polovtsi, the Russian name for Cumans, and also includes Kipchaks, and Pechenegs, which were among the central Asian tribes that ravaged not only Kievan Rus’ with yearly raids, but also the various Chinese dynasties, until the Polovtsi were themselves conquered by the MongolsSteve P, I hear the Polovtsi finally settled in Detroit, if you ever wondered what became of them ;o)
(Seriously, thanks for the tunes and the history lesson. Interesting and appreciated.)
Real climate music-
Band in the rain – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1M5SEnfkg
Rainfall and Thunderstorm – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMrTTbJkhis