All the pieces here involve at least three performers (may include vocals, but pieces for groups of singers are listed under choral repertoire). Click here for our list of solo and duo repertoire. Chamber orchestra pieces may also be listed under orchestral repertoire.
Laura Bowler - Houses Slide (chamber ensemble with soprano and live electronics). Listen on SoundCloud or watch on YouTube. Contact the composer to request a score.
Michael Begg - Light Water Is Black Water (chamber ensemble with electronics). Listen on Bandcamp. Contact the composer to discuss further performances or developing the piece for your ensemble. This recording arises from a commission from the OCEAN ARTic Partnership (People Ocean Planet, Blue Action, MASTs, Creative Informatics) established to bring creatives and marine climate scientists together to increase public engagement with marine data science. This work is the result of a collaboration with ocean modellers at the Alfred Wegener Institute.
Michael Begg - Arise From The Twilight (listen on Bandcamp) and Sounding The Ice Factory (listen on Bandcamp) are further sonic explorations using environmental data to create soundscapes for electronics and chamber ensemble. Contact the composer to discuss further performances or development for your ensemble. Sounding The Ice Factory was developed while on a composer residency with the European Marine Board, for the European Commission's Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters.
Lauren Bernofsky - Anacostia Journal (string quartet). Listen on SoundCloud. Published by Theodore Presser ($37.99 score and parts). This piece is about the destruction that has happened to the Anacostia River, and its movements outline such harmful effects as flooding, pollution, and a hostile environment to trees.
Emily Doolittle - (re)cycling I: metals (four percussionists using recycled materials as instruments). Preview score and order at Composers' Edition (£11.99 per printed score or £7.99 per download). For underfunded ensemble and/or for concerts raising money and/or awareness for environmental issues, please contact the composer for free scores. Contact the composer for a private link to a video. I wanted to uncover the stories these recycled and discarded materials have to tell, rather than imposing pre-conceived sounds and structures on them. The beauty and playfulness of sounds created from recycling is not meant to underplay the danger that waste poses, nor is it intended to suggest that a bit of crafty upcycling is in any way a solution to the enormous problem of waste.
Paolo Fradiani - The rite without spring: music for environmental sustainability (1fl, 1cl, 1bs - 2hn - 3vl 3va 2vc 2db). Published by Universal Edition. An invitation to reflect on the climatic and environmental emergency in an act whose negative effects are intensifying year after year. The purpose of this work is to support a rapid ecological transition in order to mitigate the effects of climate change and balance human activities with the surrounding environment.
Fiona T Frank - Cycles of Life (oboe, violin, viola, cello). Listen to movement 4 on YouTube, contact the composer to request a score (£200). In 6 movements:- Cloudcover, Rose Moon in Capricorn, Gratitude, In Memoriam, Life Streams & Sunshine & Storms. The music celebrates nature in different guises, painting pictures of her ephemeral beauty and mourning the loss of habitats and the pollution which threatens to compromise our world and destroy her beauty.
Fiona T Frank - Tears of Gaia (string quartet, also available for string orchestra). Listen on YouTube, and contact the composer to request a score (£300). Written in response to uncharacteristic incessant rainfall, which provoked me to think about our beautiful world, Gaia; pouring out her tears to cleanse the poisoned earth and waters.
Steve Landis - IMPACT (solo snare drum and percussion trio with mixed un-pitched and pitched percussion instruments and found-objects, please see score for details). Listen on SoundCloud, order on Steve Landis' website ($25 score and parts). Addresses the issues of climate change, sustainability, and politics on the ecology of water. In particular, how these issues effect water in the U.S. Won the Black Bayou Composition Award at the 2018 New Music on the Bayou Festival.
Alexander Liebermann - Erwachen (soprano, flute, horn, viola, cello, percussion). Listen to a recording on YouTube with the complete score. Email the composer to order copies ($80 PDF, $280 hard copies). A monodrama set in a not too distant future when a girl realizes the consequences of climate change. At the end, she wakes up to realize she only had a dream and that there is still hope for change.
Liza Lim - Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus (flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon/contrabassoon, trumpet, horn, tenor-bass trombone, piano, percussion, violin, ‘cello, double bass). Further info and recordings at the composer's website.
Anselm McDonnell - Her Name is Sorrow (tenor [or mezzo-soprano], viola, chromatic button accordion). Listen on Bandcamp, view score and order (£30). Sets text by Boston poet Anna A. Friedrich, in which the earth is depicted as a giantess who transports the singer to various locations around the world and forces the to confront the impact of human action on nature such as coral reefs, local rivers, and changing ocean temperatures.
Gene Pritsker - We Call Upon The Earth (baritone and string quartet). Listen on Vimeo, and view the score (PDF). Contact the composer to order score and parts. Based on a poem from the Chinook Indians, which pleads with us to listen to the earth as it teaches us the way.
Dalton Ringey - swarming (piccolo, clarinet [doubling bass clarinet], 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets [1 B-flat, 1 C], trombone, bass trombone: also available as a clarinet octet). Hear a recording, view a perusal score and purchase at Dalton Ringey's website ($50 score and parts). The piece is inspired by industrialization and overdevelopment within the US - using bird call-esque motives and chant melody to represent the struggle between humans and nature.
Phil Salathé - The Nameless and Bounded Waters (horn quartet). Listen to a recording on YouTube, and view a sample score. Contact composer by email to request copies (Creative Commons license, free). Even on the least-traveled paths, evidence of our alarming indifference to the environment can be found – but venture a bit off the trail, and one can find countless streams, ponds, and wetlands, teeming with life and paying no mind to human folly.
Angela Slater - Non-Existent (mezzo-soprano, cello and percussion). Listen to a recording and view a sample score. To order copies, visit the composer's website. The piece sets a self-authored text based on quotes from articles, social media and personal conversations surrounding climate change from both advocates for change, scientists and climate change deniers. The title 'Non-Existent' refers to how all human narratives are, in one sense, shared collective myths. If we continue to ignore the problem of climate change, the fate of our planet and species may lead to us being non-existent.
Richard Whalley - Assynt to Letterewe (open instrumentation, 3-13 players). Preview score and order at Composers' Edition (£59.99 for complete score). Pretty much any combination of instruments is theoretically possible, it is also possible for singers to be involved. Every instrumentation will bring something unique to the piece. It celebrates the beauty of a unique landscape, capturing shapes of profiles of mountains in NW Scotland.
Lewis Coenen-Rowe - Stuff I like in nature (string quartet). View a sample score, contact composer by email to request a copy (free). A piece about small moments of happiness found in ways the composer engages with the natural world.
George Crumb - Vox Balaenae (electric flute, electric cello and amplified piano). Order from Faber.
George Crumb - An Idyll for the Misbegotten (amplified flute and 3 percussionists). Published by Edition Peters, available through various online retailers.
George Crumb - Ancient Voices of Children (soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, harp, amplified piano (and toy piano), and percussion (three players)). Published by Edition Peters, available through various online retailers.
Kevin Germain - Pastorals for String Quartet. Recordings, scores and contact details at Kevin Germain's website (free). Many of us in this pandemic have turned to hiking ... I, as well, dived deep into the many byways in Western Massachusetts. In these musical movements you’ll find me musing on some natural aspects and the associated feelings.
Sonya Leonore Stahl - Whale Ballet (two tenor trombones and piano, also available for other instruments, contact composer for details). Listen to a recording on Facebook, order via the composer's website ($18). Whale Ballet evokes whales participating in a synchronized swimming routine. I was also inspired by the telepathic conversation between Spock and Gracie in Star Trek IV.
Cassandra Miller - Warblework (string quartet). Listen on composer's website, order from Faber Music.
Rachel Portman - Ask The River (piano, violin, cello) - order at Wise Music Classical. These 13 pieces are the fruit of many years spent being immersed in nature... a personal reflection on the beauty of the earth around us — the trees, flora, rivers, birds, animals and all her gifts to us.
Kaija Saariaho - Terrestre (flute, percussion, harp, violin, cello). Further details at composer's website, order from Wise Music Classical.
Caroline Shaw - Plan & Elevation: The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks (string quartet). View details and order at Caroline Shaw Editions.
If you have a piece you'd like to add to this list, please fill in the submission form.
