• Listen to some birdsong and try to write down the notes on a stave. Listen to more than one kind and notice the rhythm as well as the pitch.



• Write your own short piece of music based on natural sounds or a natural scene - related to a specific place or time of year, for example. You could also think about the fact that although much in nature seems very ordered, there is also lots that seems extremely unordered - a volcano, for example. So your piece might be very tightly structured, like a fugue, or full of quite unexpected events. How far, however, is it possible to compose a piece of music with no structure in it at all? A recording of the freeest of improvisations will inevitably reveal a structure of some sort.



• Gather together a collection of pieces of music that are called after, or describe, birds or animals. These might range from The Trout by Schubert, the Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams, though Lullaby of Birdland to The Hippopotamus Song or The Gnu by Flanders and Swann. (be warned, there are lots of them, so this should be a class exercise). Which ones are based on animal sounds and which describe animal characteristics? How do they make their point? You could also find out why some performers are associated with birds or animals - Charlie 'Bird' Parker, the famous Jazz musician, for example, or Jenny Lind, an opera singer known as 'the Nightingale'.

• Discuss the implications of whether or not animals - or the whole of nature - has a 'voice', as opposed to just making a noise. If they do have a 'voice', how might that affect the way we treat them?



• In Psalm 19, quoted above, what is the Psalmist trying to say about the created world?



• Music speaks to us in a way that goes beyond words. Our eyes see sights that can affect us more deeply than words. Our senses are natural, our words are human developments.



• Devise a collective worship that uses sounds related to the natural world and and allows participants a chance to reflect on creation.



• It can be based on any faith


• You can include images and readings (quote these as references if necessary - there are copyright problems for using other people's work).


• The music/sound can be some existing music or something you have developed yourself sent as a midi file.


• Include a prayer or reflection

Introduction
Music Imitating Nature - Composers & Birdsong - But is it Music?
Music of the Spheres - Science & Music - Does Nature Sing?
To Think About and Do