Eric Kennedy Reflection on Berry (A Continuous Harmony) #1

Eric Kennedy Reflection on Berry (A Continuous Harmony) #1

In reading the chapter entitled A Secular Pilgrimage I couldn’t help but to think of Music. In reading about “nature poets” and poets in general I thought of music and questioned myself, where in music do we find nature? And is that what music is missing?, the connection with nature.

The first question, where do we find nature in music, is one that is not so easily answered. At first glance of the artists in the top 40 these days, there is little connection to nature. When was the last time Young Buck rapped about nature? Or even in the mainstream pop and rock scene, there is little connection to nature, in that it does not play a major role in lyrics or even musical inspiration. There are many “activists” who are also artists and they try to lobby for the general public to take an interest in the general health of the planet, but only for our chance to further exploit the earth in the future. This is disheartening. But if you change the question around and ask where you can find music in nature, there are plenty of answers. There are whole sections in the record store dedicated to the soothing sounds of a babbling brook, or the ornate sounds of birds and their calls. One doesn’t have to listen long while in the woods to hear these things, and I find there to be a slight melodic nature to it all, and thus there is music in nature, I find it kind of depressing that there is little in the public eye as far as musicians who encourage people to go camping, or hiking, or just enjoying a beautiful day in the park. Why not? I don’t know I guess it doesn’t sell records.

The second question I posed to myself was, what was music missing, the connection with nature? And I think that is defiantly something that is missing from music, that is the nature is missing. Since the dawn of time people have been writing music, and many of these original songs, and melodies were to appease gods, or spirits found in nature. Our connection to nature is something that as a whole we are missing, and I think one way to reconnect is through music. Yes it’s great that Snyder, Levertov, and Ammons, write amazing poetry, but if you had U2 singing about Mother Nature then we may have an easier time setting aside land and preserving nature that we already have.