Audiovisual Collaboration for Earth Day

In recognition of Earth Day this year, I would like to briefly discuss music that I created several years ago from 2017 to 2018 for the International Student Climate Art Project (ISCAP). The work entitled Lusus Naturae (“Freak of Nature” in Latin) resulted as incidental music for an audiovisual project and play called Our World... We Can Make a Difference! It served as a collaboration with STEAM[1] students at the elementary school level in Savannah, GA. The seven movements that comprise Lusus Naturae musically depict life on earth, the actions and consequences caused by pollution, and the necessity for humanity (specifically, the present and future generations) to take care of the planet as best as possible. I divided the score for Lusus Naturae into acoustic and electronic sections. The acoustic movements (Mvts. I, III, IV, VI, and VII) feature an ensemble with a “found instruments” percussion section of buckets and children’s choir singing lyrics written by students as part of the project. This acoustic ensemble depicts earth and humanity by applying short and repeated musical patterns like minimalist musical techniques. The electronic sections (Mvts. II and V) serve as stereophonic fixed media with synthesized tones and distorted sounds: most notably, a repeated phone “dial tone” edited with “Echo” and “Reverb” effects. I intentionally designed these movements to sound unsettling because they musically represent the earth ravaged by pollution. While ISCAP has unfortunately dissolved, access to the full performance of the project has not. Viewers can find the link to the work through YouTube. 

Note: The live performance features the children's choir siinging an a capella version of the chorus to "We Are the World" by USA for Africa. This song, not part of the musical score, helped to conclude the program from ISCAP.


[1] An abbreviation for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math”

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