THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATURE IN THE MUSIC OF E. J. MOERAN

Extract

It is generally accepted that many composers of the British musical renaissance were strongly stimulated and influenced by nature, but questions such as how and why this influence actually worked, how it manifests itself in the music, how variously composers perceived and reacted to nature, and how ‘nature’ might be defined in the first place (particularly as expressed in a work of art) seem less clear. Although discussions of nature's influence on art have been attempted for centuries, only recently have commentators begun analyzing the exact function of nature in its various guises in the inspiration, creation and shaping of music. Concepts of nature itself differ widely for both composers and musicologists; while ‘nature’ (as a social, cultural or personal construct) in early 20th-century British music tended to be rural, idealized and rustic, it may more generally be understood as the material world in its entirety. Thus Vaughan Williams's London Symphony is just as valid ‘nature music’ as the Sea and Pastoral Symphonies that came before and after.