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Music and the Natural World
with Joe Marchio

A series of discussions about how our natural world is revealed in music.
Mondays at 10 am, eastern 
September 28 - December 14, 2026
 
Registration Status: OPEN
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Series Cost:  $220 for series of 12
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In this series, Joe probably won't take us to see the northern lights in Norway, but he will introduce us to music that describes sunrises, birds, forests and trees, fish, clouds, flowers, the oceans and seas, mountains, lakes, rivers, canyons and pastures - in other words, the world we were given to honor.  Hopefully, we do.  Joe will take us around the world with composers whose compositions render our natural physical world.

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Here's the program:

Music and the Natural World

 

(9/28) Sunrises:

The Creation and String Quartet No. 63 “Sunrise” (Joseph Haydn)

Helios Overture (Carl Nielsen) 

Hymne au soleil (Lili Boulanger)

Also sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)

 

(10/5) Birds:

Die Vögel (Franz Schubert)

The Little Goldfinch (Antonio Vivaldi) 

Canary Cantata (Georg Philipp Telemann)

Cantus Articus: Concerto for Birds and Orchestra (Einojuhani Rautavaara)

The Swan of Tuonela (Jean Sibelius)

Catalogue d’oiseaux (Olivier Messiaen)

Mozart’s Bird Funeral

 

(10/12) Forests and Trees:

Der Lindenbaum (Franz Schubert)

To an Old White Pine (Edward MacDowell)

Forest Murmurs (Franz Liszt)

Pines of Rome (Ottorino Respighi)

Tales from the Vienna Woods (Johann Strauss II)

 

(10/19) Fish:

And God Great Whales (Alan Hovhaness)

Trout (Franz Schubert)

Six Fish (Nigel Westlake)

Le poisson d’or (Lord Berners)

 

(10/26) Clouds:

“Nuages” from Three Nocturnes (Claude Debussy)

Clouds (Florence Price)

Under the Stars (Amy Beach)

The Cloud Messenger (Gustav Holst)

 

(11/2) Flowers:

Guillaume de Machaut: Rose, liz, printemps, verdure

Heidenröslein (Franz Schubert)

Flower Duet from Lakmé (Léo Delibes)

Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

Flos Campi (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

Five Flower Songs (Britten Flowers)

 

(11/9) Seas and Oceans:

Sea Pieces (Edward Elgar)

La Mer (Claude Debussy)

Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (Benjamin Britten)

 

(11/16) Mountains:

Johannes Eccard: Übers Gebirg Maria geht 

In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (Edvard Grieg)

Night on Bald Mountain (Modest Mussorgsky)

An Alpine Symphony (Richard Strauss)

 

(11/23) Lakes:

Lake Isle (Ola Gjeilo)

La donna del lago (Gioachino Rossini)

Swan Lake (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) 

 

(11/30) Rivers:

Gabriel Fauré: Au bord de l’eau

Mississippi Suite (Ferde Grofé)

Mississippi River Suite (Florence Price)

Moldau from Má vlast (Bedřich Smetana)

On the Beautiful Blue Danube (Johann Strauss II)

 

(12/7) Canyons:

Grand Canyon Suite (Ferde Grofé)

Legend of the Canyon (Charles Wakefield Cadman)

Canyon (Philip Glass)

Des canyons aux étoiles (Olivier Messiaen)

 

(12/14) Pastorals:

Pastorale (Domenico Zipoli)

Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Pastorale Sinfonia from Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral” (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Hosts

YOUR HOSTS

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Joe Marchio
Instructor & Guide

Joe Marchio is a graduate of the College of Wooster, where he earned both a Bachelor’s degree in organ performance and a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies. He earned a Master of Divinity degree at the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, and a Master of Music degree in choral conducting at the Boston Conservatory. Joe became Music Director of the Chatham Chorale in 2010. He is also the Pastor and Director of Music of the First Congregational Church of Chatham.

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Joan Hill
Owner, Host, & Director

Years ago, it was suggested to Joan that she might offer an art program, and she jumped at the chance of a lifetime. Bringing together all of her life's passions, the development and administration of Artful Journeys is an exhilarating process for Joan.

 

Joan was born and raised in the apple country of the Hudson River Valley in New York; her father was a gentle, very tolerant, educated land surveyor, and her mother was the efficient business administrator and home engineer. The youngest of four children, Joan was encouraged to pursue anything she wanted, but also to do her best. Sometimes that was very difficult, especially succeeding three very accomplished siblings.

Cost

ARMCHAIR JOURNEY COST

  • The cost of the series is $220.  Individual sessions cost $20 each. 

  • PayPal or checks  work for payment 

  • You will receive an email with the Zoom link to the lecture with instructions on how to login within 24 hours of presentation

To register for a session or the series, please click below:

A Zoom link will be provided by email within 24 hours of each meeting.

For details or questions, please click here to contact Joan Hill.
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