For Earth Day 2025, the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra is highlighting five works written about Earth and Mother Nature. These works range from Beethoven’s classic Symphony No. 6, to a recently discovered work by Florence Price, and more modern music by Sarah Kirkland Snider.
Mass for the Endangered
Mass for the Endangered by Sarah Kirkland Snider was commissioned by Trinity Wall Street as part of their “Mass Re-Imaginings” Project. Mass for the Endangered is a hymn for the voiceless and the discounted, a requiem for the not-yet-gone. Using original text by writer, visual artist, and musician, Nathaniel Bellows, in combination with the traditional Latin, Mass for the Endangered embodies a prayer for endangered animals and the imperiled environments in which they live. Written for SATB choir and twelve instruments, the six-movement piece appeals for parity, compassion, and protection, from a mindset—a malignance or apathy—that threatens to destroy the planet we all are meant to share.
The Oak
Composed in 1943, The Oak is an unpublished tone poem that has only in the last few years been professionally recorded. Unlike many of Price’s other works, The Oak is notably more serious in tone and character. The foreboding string opening slowly grows as more instruments enter the mix. Price’s rich orchestral writing shines here as the woodwind interludes go against the rich and sonorous strings.
Become Ocean
Become Ocean, written by John Luther Adams, is based on an earlier work by the composer titled Dark Waves and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2014. Here is what the composer says about his work:
“If you stop and think about the oceanic dimension of music, there’s this implication of immersion. We came from the ocean, and we’re going back to the ocean, right? We’re made up mostly of water, and life on earth first emerged from the seas. And with the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising sea levels, we may become ocean sooner than we imagine.
“Eventually we begin to realize that we’re part of something much larger than ourselves. Become Ocean embraces this idea, but gets its title from something much more personal for me. Back in the late ’70s, John Cage wrote a mesostic poem called ‘Many Happy Returns,’ in honor of his dear friend – also my mentor and friend – Lou Harrison. He compares Lou’s music to a river in delta, with all these different influences and currents, coming together in a big beautiful sweep of music. And in the last line of the poem, Cage writes, ‘Listening to it, we become ocean.’ I’ve always been struck by what a beautiful image that is.”
Symphony No. 3, Planet Earth
Because of the title, Johan De Meij’s Symphony No. 3, Planet Earth may remind us of The Planets by Gustav Holst. De Meij states, “In Planet Earth I continue where Holst stopped. Not just in a figurative sense, but also literally: where The Planets ends with a six-part female choir and a large orchestra, I open my first movement with a similar instrumentation and atmosphere. After that, any comparison to Holst ends.” The piece begins with a “big bang” that launches us into the universe. The comets and planets are all around the listeners in the opening part, through speakers that are placed around the audience.
Out of the cosmic waste of Movement I, the second movement, Planet Earth, makes room for a pastoral, aerial view of the beautiful landscapes of our planet. De Meij: “In the second movement you hear the ‘big tune’ for the first time, a heroic unison melody in six horns from which much material is derived, each time in a different form and context, throughout the whole symphony. The symphony ends with the ancient Greek hymn Mother Earth (Gaia) and a finale in which the composer pulls out all the stops. All musicians contribute to this hymn and brilliantly bring the symphony to a close.
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
To close off the list, we have the classic Symphony No. 6, Pastoral by Ludwig van Beethoven. The five movement symphony is written for the listener to feel the emotions, rather than see the images, portrayed in each movement. Each movement has a unique title describing the scene depicted. It begins with “Awakening of Happy Feelings on Arriving in the Country”. It then moves to “Scene by a Brook”. The third movement, “Joyful Gathering of the Country Folk”, segues directly into the fourth, “Thunder. Storm.” This leads directly into the closing, “Shepherds’ Song: Happy and Thankful Feelings After the Storm”.