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Forests of Song: Building Environmental Stewardship through Choral Singing
Forests of Song: Building Environmental Stewardship through Choral Singing

around you and listen to the whole. Try to hold a sonic and rocks and create their own ostinato patterns in small
image in your mind of your special space. Over time, this groups. Some students “played” the water with soft branch-
practice will sharpen your ears both in nature and in the es as we put all the parts together. Not only were they re-
choir while also connecting you deeply to your area. inforcing the music fundamentals, they were also engaging

Another effective extension is to draw a soundscape with nature and with each other in profound, creative ways.
map. While listening, sketch a map with pictures of what These were memorable days for many of us.

you hear in different directions, like “sound marks” rather These same activities could happen at a choir retreat
than landmarks. Try journaling about how your hearing or any dedicated rehearsal. A rehearsal can incorporate
changed or improved. Music that incorporates natural any level of musicianship nearly any place. Everyone has

sounds can be an exciting way to provide similar experi- a voice to off er. Take five minutes, or an hour, and let folks

ences for audiences transporting them to specific places and make an instrument out of what they can find. Visit the
environments. Kondalillia is a wonderful Australian work by woods, a beach, or seemingly barren land. Think about
Stephen Leek about a waterfall spirit, with the choir imitat- sounds inspired by previous listening experiences or involv-
ing sounds of the outback. Lydia Adams’s arrangement of ing unique timbres from your locale. Make it meaningful.
I’ko from the Mi’kmaq First Nations people incorporates Be sure not to lose any singers in the river!
coyote, loon, squirrel, and other animal calls throughout
the work and creates a rich atmosphere. 6
Conclusion
4) Service The greatest challenge we face in environmental edu-
Service builds compassion for one another and empathy cation is the notion that nature is a place we go to sepa-
for those we serve. Conservation projects can be a power- rate from where we are. When we can shift our thinking
ful tool, on many levels, for helping people develop care to nature being a part of all that we do and where we exist
for the natural world while building community within and find wonder, we can take action. As we sing in a way

a group. Getting hands dirty in the soil connects people that connects us to the earth, we begin to carry the natural
with the earth while working hard toward a common goal world more wholly in our hearts. Likewise, as we encounter
that will bond them together. Consider planning a choir wonder outside more fully, we transfer that into our music
environmental service project. Reach out to a local land and art.
management agency and develop a consistent partnership Sideris says that wonder creates “openness to the world
with a park or trail system. Serving together in the outdoors around us, an increased receptivity to beauty and feelings

benefits both the choir and our planet. of gratitude for it, a recognition of one’s place in something
Imagine offering an outdoor concert in the outdoor space much more vast. All of it helps to instill a sense of humility

following a day of service, with fellow trail workers, garden- and modesty, a sense of caution about our interventions
7
ers, and community members for an audience. Place-based in the natural forces around us.” As we and our singers
compositions like Veljo Tormis’ Looduspildid could help cel- engage with the earth through song, service, and creative
ebrate a particular community ecology. Find local compos- exploration, we can create music full of beauty and protect
ers whose work you could commission and premier that is an earth brimming with wonder.
tied directly to place and the environment.

5) Creating Music NOTES
Creating music together is one of the most empowering
and unifying experiences a group of people can have. In 1 Daniel J. Shevlock, Eco-literate Music Pedagogy (New York:

my first teaching job, I doubled as a music teacher and ad- Routledge, 2018), 3-6.
venture coordinator for an expeditionary learning school in 2 Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder (New York and Evanston:
southeast Idaho. For music class, we would hike out to the Harper & Row, 1965), 43.
greenway behind the school and have a natural materials 3 Lisa Sideris, “Environmental Literacy and the Lifelong
jam session. Students would make instruments from sticks Cultivation of Wonder,” in Teaching Environmental Literacy:

ChorTeach Volume 14 • Issue 1 6 www.acda.org/publications