Nature inspired composition?

Debussy La mer, L'apres midi d'un faune,
Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes,
Bax The Happy Forest - any of Bax' tone poems are about nature.

Originally Posted by rautavaara

Debussy La mer, L'apres midi d'un faune,

But interestingly, both of these were more directly influenced by other pieces of art than nature itself. "La mer" is to a great degree based on impressions by paintings of Turner and especially Katsushika Hokusai's painting "The Great Wave off Kanagawa".

And L'Après-midi d'un faune is based on Mallarmés poem with the same title.

Delius, On hearing the first cuckoo in spring, summer evening, walk to the paradise garden

Butterworth, On the banks of green willow

Any piece that incorporates the Fibonacci Sequence or the golden ratio, technically.

Hmm, but both of these were long known in theory and used in the arts before they were discovered in nature. So pieces incorporating them probably aren't directly inspired by nature, just correlate with aspects of it (as does any music, of course).

But of course, even before they were directly observed in nature those concepts were regarded as "natural principles", so you got a point.

Originally Posted by Christopher Dunn-Rankin

Any piece that incorporates the Fibonacci Sequence or the golden ratio, technically.

Well, why don't we just say ANY song (or piece of art, for that matter) is inspired by nature, technically? Or even any song that incorporates any mathematical sequence or ratio, as Fi isn't the only number in nature by a long shot?

Everything anything ever does is technically inspired by nature, but I don't think that's what the original poster wanted...

Some Vaughn-Williams would probably be good. He has a few pieces that sound bucolic.
Like his Oboe Concerto. I think that's what it's called.

Oh! You should totally do Mahler 3.

It's a beast, but the symphony is generally Nature-inspired.

Originally Posted by Jamie Whitmarsh

Some Vaughn-Williams would probably be good. He has a few pieces that sound bucolic.
Like his Oboe Concerto. I think that's what it's called.

The piece that came to my mind was his Symphony No. 3, originally just titled "A Pastoral Symphony," but you're right on here. Vaughan-Williams' music is definitely evocative of nature, just as a general rule. In that same vein, there's obviously Beethoven's 6th as well as as Glazunov's 7th (also labeled "Pastoral") although I haven't heard it myself. One underrated piece I personally associate with nature is Tchaikovsky's 1st, the Winter Daydreams.

Other assorted pieces I haven't seen mentioned (apologies if someone did and I missed it):
-Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
-Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 15 (just for the nickname "Pastoral", it doesn't really remind me of nature)
-Ives: Three Places in New England
-Schubert: Der Jungling an der Quelle (a lied, one of my favorites I've heard so far)
-Wagner: Forest Murmurs
-Grieg: Morning Mood (from Peer Gynt)