Song of Our Warming Planet – Climate Music for Cello

Daniel Crawford, a cello-playing undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, came up with a new way to describe the trend and variations that characterize our warming climate: a solo composition Song for Our Warming Planet in which notes represent annual temperature readings from 1880 to 2012 as charted by NASA’s Goddard Institute  for Space Studies. The temperature data were mapped over a range of three octaves, with the coldest year on record (1909) set to the lowest note on the cello. Each ascending halftone is equal to roughly 0.03°C of planetary warming. In Crawford’s composition each note represents a year, ordered from 1880 to 2012. The pitch reflects the average temperature of the planet relative to the 1951-80 base line. Low notes represent relatively cool years, while high notes signify relatively warm ones. The result is a haunting sequence that traces the warming of our planet year by year . . . During a run of cold years between the late 1800s and 20th century, the cello is pushed towards the lower limit of its range. The piece moves into the mid-register to track the modest warming that occurred during the 1940s. As the sequence approaches the present, the cello reaches higher and higher notes, reflecting the string of warm years in the 1990s and 2000s.