Ludwig van Beethoven was a nature lover. He spoke with fondness of his childhood walks with his father along the Rhine near his home in Bonn. As an adult, he took regular hikes around his neighborhood to explore the woods near Vienna.
Beethoven's walk in nature, by Julius Schmid
Now more than 200 hundred years later we remember Beethoven’s work and it inspires us to cherish the natural world, be filled with inspiration, and fight for environmental causes.
Sometimes it seems that not much has changed. Beethoven lived during the Early Industrial Era. Pollution was starting to plague cities.
Exhaust fumes from steam engines going up and down the Rhine filled the air. Factories and home waste caused water pollution. Developing social and environmental issues were very much part of Beethoven’s life.
“How happy I am to be able to walk among the shrubs, the trees, the woods, the grass, and the rocks! For the woods, the trees and the rocks give man the resonance he needs.””
Read our blog post Nature Gratitude: Reflections.
Need For Nature Is Not New
Just as I do, nature was where Beethoven went when he was sad or in need of inspiration. When I cant write? The answer is to go for a walk. Beethoven often said he was musically inspired during his walks.
Beethoven was christened in the Catholic church yet seldom went to mass as an adult. Yet he reflected a strong beief in a supreme God and creator. One of his favorite books was Reflections on the Works of God and His Providence Throughout All Nature by Christoph Christian, a Lutheran Pastor.
Nature can be heard in much of Beethoven’s music. Why? Because Beethoven understood the power of natural healing. His life was very stressful.
His mother died when he was young, his father was an alcoholic, he had difficulties with family, with relationships, and then at the age of 28, he started to go deaf. The poor guy could not catch a break.
Beethoven NEEDED the power of nature. Beethoven said, “No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.”
To learn more you can read this wonderful book. Also available on Kindle
The Pastoral Symphony
The Sixth Symphony was inspired by his love of nature. Beethoven rarely gave his pieces titles, but on his Sixth Symphony, he inscribed: “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life.
One of Beethoven’s greatest symphonies was composed on these daily walks. The Sixth Symphony is better known as the Pastoral Symphony.
Beethoven described it to his publishers, by writing: “The title of the symphony is ‘Pastoral Symphony’ or ‘Recollection of Country Life,’ an expression of feeling rather than painting.”
The theme of nature was not new in the musical world. Compositions before him had expressed themes with storms, birds singing, and farmers tending their herds.
Beethoven also expressed these natural sounds in the thunderstorm and babbling brooks.
Here is the Scene By A Brook
Expression of Feelings
However, Beethoven was the first to express musically the feelings that humans had when in nature. The calm, the pleasure, the feelings of peace. He expressed the way one feels light hearted to hear birds sing and how we feel awed during a thunderstorm.
It took several years to write Symphony Number 6. He began in 1802 and finished it in 1808.
Beethovens 6th Symphony uses rustic sounds and simple folk tunes, to evoke a feeling of calm beauty. Bruno Walter is said to have one of the best renditions.
Beethoven and Climate Change
Beethoven’s love of the natural world is being given a visual definition to a new artistic environmental movement. Artists from around the world are honoring him while calling for carbon reduction and climate change.
Musicologist Luis Gago started the Beethoven Pastoral Project, a non-profit that enlists musicians and other artists to demonstrate the harmonious co-existence of mankind and nature.
Their mission “aims to draw attention to the theme of ‘mankind and nature’, represented in the romantic sense in the ‘Pastoral’ music, and to deal actively with today’s urgent questions of environmental protection and global sustainability, and achieving the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement.”
Pianist and elephant afishionado, Paul Barton will be performing for the "Pastoral Project”. Check out his YouTube channel.
This year on earth day the Beethoven Anniversary Society, together with UN Climate Change will celebrate Beethoven’s love of the natural world and our need to address environmental challenges.
Love music? Me too!
Take Away
We are so fortunate that Ludwig van Beethoven kept lots of notes and that they have been preserved. We get a real insight into this incredible musician and environmentalist.
I’ve added this final video during the Coronavirus Outbreak happening around the world. Thanks to the fabulous young composer Alma Deutscher.
Author, Ame Vanorio has 27 years of experience living off-grid, is a certified teacher, and an organic farmer. She is the director of Fox Run Environmental Education Center and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
Check out our EVENTS page. Ame teaches classes locally and online about organic gardening, herbs, homesteading, green building, living off-grid, and wildlife conservation. In addition, she is a freelance writer and writes for several gardening, tiny house, and pet websites. She lives a sustainable life on her Kentucky farm with a myriad of domestic and wild animals.
