Falling leaves

As a musician — a piano player specifically — one of my favorite songs to play is “Autumn Leaves.†I’m not sure why, really. It’s probably because it has a beautifully haunting melody and can evoke many different emotions depending on how you play it.

For example, played slowly, especially with a vocalist, it can be quite melancholy and full of longing: “Since you went away, the days grow long and soon I’ll hear old winter’s song. But I miss you most of all, my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall.â€

However, I quite enjoy playing it as an up-tempo swing, which evokes a whole new feel and gives it more of a positive attitude (Perhaps). This certainly is not how it was originally intended when written in France in 1945 by Joseph Kosma and poet Jacques Prévert and entitled “Les feuilles mortes†— the dead leaves — but artistic license prevails!

By now you are wondering how this relates to a nature column, aside from the loose seasonal correlation. It is my assertion, and I am sure yours as well, that music and nature go together well and in many ways are inextricably linked.

Sit outside on a spring morning and listen to the symphony of the birds announcing their territory and communicating to one another. In my mind, a greater musical creation is hard to find.

As you experience autumn, you can’t help but notice the trumpeting of the geese heading south and the plaintive sound of new winter arrivals such as the white-throated sparrow with its clear but thin whistle: “Old Peabody, Sam, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.â€

 The creation of music by humans, since the earliest musical expressions, has long taken inspiration from cues in nature. Consider Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “The Lark Ascending,†in which the skylark is portrayed playfully by a violin.

Then there’s the second movement of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, “The Pastorale,†which paints a picture of a walk through the woods to a brook. Initially all you hear is the sound of the water, but one by one the birds grow used to your presence and become more and more vocal. Each bird is depicted by a different orchestral instrument until a flurry of birdsong is heard.

Beethoven once wrote, “How glad I am to be able to roam in wood and thicket, among the trees and flowers and rocks. In the woods, there is enchantment which expresses all things.â€

 I too am glad to be able to roam in the woods and thickets (and encourage others to do the same), and to be able to play music. “The falling leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold.â€

For more music and nature — join the costume parade at Audubon Kids’ Day, led by members of the Salisbury Band. Kids’ Day will be held Oct. 31st, noon to 3 p.m., at the Sharon Audubon Center. In addition to the costume parade there will be carnival-type games, children’s crafts, live animals, haywagon rides and more.

Scott Heth is the director of Audubon Sharon and can be reached at sheth@audubon.org, (subject line: Nature Notes).