A Prairie Symphony - Promona Swati
“If assigned a key signature, Southern Alberta’s prairie grasslands would be in F# minor. I made this assessment by reviewing video and audio recordings of the places we explored around Pincher Creek in early July. I picked out the rhythms and melodies that interested me most and started plunking them out on a piano. It surprised me to find that many of the sounds fell into a similar range of frequencies. Taking my favourite melody, I found a simple pop chord progression to layer under the prairies. Originally, I had wanted to include lyrics about what I saw and learned on the grasslands to depict the importance of opportunities like this field school. In the end, I decided to let the audioscape speak for itself. Instead of adding instruments like the piano and rhythm guitar I started writing on to the final track, I created triad chords with my own voice - so everything that can be heard and seen in the piece is from the prairie grasslands. In order of appearance, this soundscape includes:
wind knocking against Piikani Secondary’s greenhouse - low end percussion
dead leaves crunching against hiking boots on the Old Man’s River’s shore - low end percussion
water from the Old Man’s River splashing onto rocks - melody
strong winds - alto
birdcalls - countermelody
grasses swaying in the wind - high end percussion
The audio clips were extracted from the videos shown. Creating this piece was almost meditative, because it forced me to look back on my experience with an eye (and ear!) for detail. I was able to reflect on what I learned from oral storytelling from the Elders we spoke with and from being surrounded by the environment that I was studying. I already cared a great deal about prairie grasslands conservation, but this week completely changed my perspective by showing me just how much there is to learn and how many ways there are to do it. Being able to show my learning through music, a passion of mine that doesn’t often make its way into my academics, was the icing on the cake. My field school experience was unforgettable and will easily remain one of the highlights of my university career.”