Seminar Series: "Climate" by the Climate Music Project

Climate is an original composition by Erik Ian Walker, in collaboration with The Climate Music Project. It tracks historical and projected variations in the climate system over 450 years, from 1800-2250.

The music you hear in this score is not generated by the climate data (sonification), but is affected, and changed, by what the data prescribe. This collision of music (voice of humans) and data (changing nature) was a more compelling dramatic structure than sonification. Since the composition is still driven by the changes in temperature, CO2, solar energy, etc., after a certain tipping point the data takes over and becomes the generating force.

Collaborating with scientists on Climate was new and very interesting for me. There were many revisions, including completely changing the original theme a few times, due to the ‘destructive’ nature of the data, and the music becoming unrecognizable too fast. Working with inflexible data (CO2, temperature, ocean acidity, etc.) to drive a piece of music is not common. Something you like at a certain point will be “blown up” within 30 seconds! As a composer, one must “give over” their ego in this situation.

–Erik Ian Walker

Host or Publisher UC Davis Institute of the Environment