Over the last few weeks, as of this writing, there have been a series of protests about climate change in art museums around the world. Activists, often wearing t-shirts that read “Just Stop Oil,” have been targeting famous artworks in museums throughout Europe, typically attacking them with food before gluing themselves to nearby walls. The underlying sentiment of these protests, as evidenced by statements made by the participants themselves, is that the average person cares more about paintings or museum exhibits than they do about the world and the people around them. Composer Brian Field, however, in a new work for solo piano, espouses the opposite point-of-view: that a meaningful work of art can itself be used to make people care more about their world.
This is, of course, not an unprecedented idea. The history of the arts is full of examples of creative souls taking inspiration from real-life events and tragedies: Voltaire was horrified by an earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1785, killing between thirty- and fifty-thousand people, and wrote Poem on the Lisbon Disaster; Liszt composed Funérailles as a response to the tragic fates three friends suffered as a result of the Hungarian uprising against the Hapsburgs in 1848; and Beethoven’s well-documented admiration and repudiation of Napoleon resulted in several compositions, most famously the Eroica symphony. It comes, therefore, as no surprise that composers in the 21st century should be similarly affected by contemporary concerns, especially when those concerns impact everyone on a global scale. Brian Field, inspired by the climate change crisis (which he describes as greater than that of “world wars, political unrest or the coronavirus pandemic”), recently completed “Three Passions for Our Tortured Planet,” a thirteen-minute suite in three movements for solo piano.
New York based composer Brian Field has lived his life in music, starting piano studies at the age of 8 and completing his first composition at 16. He is a former student of, among others, Milton Babbitt at Juilliard and both George Edwards and Mario Davidovsky at Columbia University. His works have received several awards, including first prizes in the Briar Cliff Choral Music Competition, the Victor Herbert ASCAP Young Composers’ Contest, and the Vivaldi International Competition. He states that he was inspired to begin composing “Three Passions for Our Tortured Planet” in 2020 as “a collaborative effort with South Korean pianist and Sony artist Kay Kyung Eun Kim,” and that the work began to receive attention from performers “in early 2022 and has been generating significant traction among pianists from around the world who are programming it for recital performance, recording the full work or movements of it, and social sharing it as well.”
Field has established a website for the work and its performers, https://passionsforourtorturedplanet.org, where he mentions three specific climate events that especially trouble him: the heat wave in the Arctic that is resulting in the melting of the glaciers, the escalation in the number and intensity of hurricanes and other storms due to increased rainfall, and severe droughts around the globe that are causing wildfires. The three movements (or “passions,” used here in the sense of suffering that precedes death) correspond to each of these climate catastrophes. Field describes the movements as follows:
The first movement, “…fire…”, is a reflection on the forest fires raging across California and the American West on a recurring, and increasingly alarming basis. The work starts with a “spark,” that flickers and quickly spreads, growing more complicated. The fire begins to rage loudly, and across register, building to a climax which eventually becomes more controlled, as it burns itself out and dies.
The second movement, “…glaciers…”, is a distant, stately movement that depicts the enormous ices on earth’s poles. These slow, ponderous moments are sporadically interrupted by rapidly falling, thundering episodes, depicting the shearing of the glacial ice with ever-warming temperatures.
Concluding the set is the third movement, entitled “…winds…” This virtuosic finale begins with running winds that become increasingly intense and hurricane/typhoon-like in their destructiveness before dissipating into a barely-noticeable breeze.
Since February 2022, “Three Passions for Our Tortured Planet” has been performed more than 40 times by 23 pianists throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, with additional performances scheduled to take place in the coming months. The work has also been the recipient of several awards, including Gold Prize, Global International Music Competition; Platinum Prize, 2022 North American Virtuoso International Music Competition; Absolute First Prize, 2022 UK International Music Competition; and first prize in the Bach International Music Competition.
Field closes his description of the movements by saying, “It is my hope that this work will play a role in continuing to bring further awareness and dialog around climate change, and our need to act quickly.” To further this end, he has made the score and a demonstration recording of the entire work available for free at https://passionsforourtorturedplanet.org, an act that can only encourage performances that will likely result in that wished-for dialogue. Field’s aims in this respect are not dissimilar from those of the protestors mentioned a few paragraphs ago. Both he and they want to stimulate conversation about climate change, probably the defining issue of this generation and beyond, and both are working to associate this goal with works of art. Unlike the activists mentioned at the beginning of this article, whose tactics seem largely to consist of meeting destruction with destruction, the protests of Brian Field and the pianists who perform “Three Passions for Our Tortured Planet” will perhaps be more effective–and maybe even uplifting–as they seek to fight destruction with acts of creation.
Conclusion
Brian Field’s composition, “Three Passions for Our Tortured Planet,” stands as a powerful and innovative contribution to the global conversation on climate change. Depicting environmental crises through music, the composition has garnered international recognition, with over 40 performances and accolades in prestigious competitions. By freely sharing the score and a demonstration recording, Field encourages a widespread dialogue on the urgent issues our planet faces.
In contrast to destructive protests targeting artworks, Field’s approach is one of creation and elevation. The composition serves not only as a musical masterpiece but as a catalyst for awareness and discussion surrounding climate change. Field and fellow performers symbolize a hopeful response, channeling the destructive forces of nature into acts of creation. In the intersection of art and activism, their commitment reaffirms the potential of music to inspire change and foster collective responsibility for our planet’s well-being.
