{"id":1466,"date":"2022-10-24T20:28:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T20:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2022-10-24T20:28:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T20:28:57","slug":"uk-researchers-use-mendelssohn-to-highlight-plight-of-disappearing-humpback-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2022\/10\/24\/uk-researchers-use-mendelssohn-to-highlight-plight-of-disappearing-humpback-whales\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Researchers Use Mendelssohn To Highlight Plight Of Disappearing Humpback Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There are approximately 30,000 notes in the original score for Mendelssohn\u2019s Hebrides Overture. Coincidentally, there was roughly the same number of humpback whales in the oceans at the time it was written in 1829.<\/p>\n

By 1920, about two-thirds of the world\u2019s humpback whales were gone. Today, they are at risk of disappearing entirely.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the dramatic decline that University of Cambridge researcher Dr. Matthew Agarwala wanted to illustrate in sound. He and his colleagues were frustrated at public apathy over disappearing North Atlantic humpback whales and other species. Agarwala came up with the idea of using sound to bring that point home in a way that would resonate with audiences.<\/p>\n

Dr. Matthew Agarwala and his team observed that nature was effectively silenced by the activities of human civilization and industrialization, and that\u2019s where the idea of dropping out notes at the rate that humpback whales began to disappear from the Earth\u2019s oceans originated.<\/p>\n

He worked with composer Dr. Ewan Campbell on the project, which zeroed in on Mendelssohn\u2019s Hebrides Overture. Mendelssohn\u2019s piece was chosen because it was inspired by the composer\u2019s trip to a sea cave, and captures the raw beauty and power of the oceans that he experienced at a time just before the industrialization of fishing.<\/p>\n

Campbell devised a system of demonstrating the progressive loss of whales. He divided Mendelssohn\u2019s score into sections he used to mark out the decades, eliminating the notes in direct proportion to the loss of whales in the sea. It\u2019s dramatic, and gives audiences a way of understanding the enormity of that loss.<\/p>\n

After 1:51, only one in every 16 notes remains.<\/p>\n

The piece, called Hebrides Redacted, was performed by the Wildnerness Orchestra, a 38-member ensemble, at the Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire in August to a standing ovation.<\/p>\n