Tag Archives: music and nature

Using Nature to Teach Children’s Music

music and nature, Uncategorised, ,

Throughout our time on earth, humans have always had a fundamental connection with nature. And with the discovery of instruments dating back as far as 40,000 years, music has certainly been woven into our culture before written history. Experts from various fields of science believe that music even predated speech, as early humans communicated through sounds and movements that mimicked their natural world. While the research on the connectedness of music and language development is still relatively young and limited, the relationship of nature and music is well established.

The Relationship Between Nature and Music

All of the world is vibration. In fact, it can be said that earth itself has a constant “heartbeat” of 7.83 beats per second created by global electromagnetic resonances caused by lighting in the ionosphere. Called the Schumann Resonance, this “vibration of life” is believed to be connected to and have influence on bioregulation in humans. Despite the theory of a biochemical connection to nature itself, recorded history has shown that music and nature have been indisputably linked. Every known culture in the world partakes in some form of music. In fact, there is a scientific study devoted to the study of music and cultures called Ethnomusicology.

While it is hard to trace the origins of music in early humans, many primitive cultures have music that mimics and involves sounds of animals and the natural world. These were used for communication, hunting, storytelling, and ritual. Much later, nature continued to influence great classical compositions, including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, or Brahms’ C Minor Symphony. Nature has continued to inspire music across the ages and all genres.

Using Nature to Teach Children’s Music

Nature based education is not a new concept but has gained attention in recent years because of the threat of climate change and increased severe weather events. Yet using direct interaction with the natural world has been utilized by teachers and caregivers for generations. In fact, a prominent nature-based education initiative, Nature Study, was followed in the United States between the 1890s and 1920s.

Musikgarten Nature and Music

Early childhood music teachers will often take their classrooms outside to help develop listening skills while demonstrating the connection between nature and music. They may ask the children to sit still and listen to birdsongs or the running water in a babbling brook. This helps not only to demonstrate musical concepts, but also self-control and respect. Many songs about nature and the animal kingdom are featured in children’s music, while early children’s music curricula are based on the concept. Many modern musicians use natural sounds exclusively as content for their compositions and to teach others about the fragility of our ecosystem.

Finally, many instruments can be created with things found in nature including hollow logs, dried gourds, or even river rocks and sticks. But the instrument that can always be used anywhere is voice. Singing in and about nature inspires children to respect their environment while enjoying the multitude of musical sounds it provides.

The Influence Between Buddhism and Music

Early Childhood Music, Music and religion, Musikgarten Teachers, ,

We began our exploration of music and religious history by discussing the difficulty to define music and its origins in history. The earliest cultures mimicked nature for functional reasons such as hunting, so when did the evolution to synchronized chanting and drumming actually become something more? And as humans began to ponder natural wonders around them and their existence within them, worship began to play a major role in developing societies. As a start, melody and written music offers some structure of how music as we know it today was born. Some of the very earliest known forms or music, such as Seikilos Epitaph is evidence of musical worship. In the following installments of this series, musical influence of each of the five major religions of the world – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism will be individually explored. Many of these traditional religious musical forms are used across the globe by early childhood music teachers even today.

The Contradiction of Music and Buddhism  

There are very few religious forms across the world that do not have some form of music in their sacred ceremonies. However, the very character of the original Buddhist message that contends things in life with no lasting significance distract from the quest for salvation seems contradictory to the evident influence of music in Buddhism. The association of music with earthly desires led early Buddhist monks and nuns to refrain from music practice and even the observation of musical performance. In Pure Land Buddhism, however, paradises are presented as profoundly musical places in which law takes the form of wonderful melodies. Most Buddhist practices involve some form of chanting, while some make use of instrumental music and even dancing. Music can be used in Buddhism as an offering to Buddha, a means of memorizing sacred texts, or cultivating meditation.

 Different Styles of Traditional Buddhist Music

Buddhist Music is considered part of Buddhist art and varies upon the different areas of the world it is practiced. Starting from the foothills of the Himalayas, Buddhism spread across Asia where, over time its original traditional practices became refined and regionally distinct. Historical Honkyoku are 36 collected pieces of music played by wandering, flute-playing Japanese Zen monks called Komosu in as early as the 13th century. Komosu temples were ordered destroyed in 1871, but the music honkyoku remains one of the most popular contemporary music styles in Japan today. Chanting is a part of most regional Buddhism, but is very prevalent in Tibetan Buddhism, where the chants are often complex recitations of sacred texts in Tibetan or Sanskirt. Some forms are accompanied by drums, while monasteries often maintain their own chant traditions. Shomyo, a style of Japanese Buddhist Chant, features both difficult (ryokyoku) and easy (rikkyoku) styles to remember.

Contemporary Buddhist Music   

Today, Buddhist influence can be heard in all different forms of contemporary music, from jazz, rap, and classical, to C-pop. Bibiladeniye Mahanama Thero is a Sri Lankan Buddhist Monk who is also a renown spiritual music composer. Li Na is a famous Chinese singer who became a nun in 1997 and went on to produce many popular Buddhist music albums under her new name Maser Chang Sheng. Several notable western musicians practiced Buddhism and cited it as a large influence on their music, such as David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. In 2009, Tina Turner and Buddhist musician Dechen Shak-Dagsay collaborated on an album combining Buddhist chants and Christian choral music called the Beyond Singing Project.

In some Buddhist teachings, music can be considered an earthly pleasure that distracts from the path of enlightenment. Yet music has always been a part of Buddhist religious traditions, as well as contemporary social forms. As we next explore the same kind of influences on Christianity, we will start to see a strong and undeniable bond between music and the major religions of the world. Children’s music educators may find this helpful in providing this influential context in the classroom while presenting sacred and even secular music.