Categories: Danube, Slovakia, PolandGermanyJourneyingMusic

Unfinished Symphony?

Making music - does practice make perfect?

Unfinished Symphony

There are so many quiet riverside spots for music making on the Danube as it runs its two thousand plus kilometre course towards the Black Sea. And at many of them nature plays her own symphony. The woods, streams, meadows and wildlife have their own sweet melodies, harmonies and rhythms. The white noise of water over weir, the ripple of wind over leaves, the lilting songs of river birds, the hum of hunting wasps, the slap of legs when midges bite.

In harmony with nature?

On our journeys we try to live more in harmony with nature and this year have used her natural auditoriums as a practice venue for our own attempts at musical harmony, slowly putting together the pieces of our 4 part Blue Danube recorder ensemble. But finding the time isn’t always easy, there are so many other things to see and attend to, and it’s easy to get distracted or interrupted, even in the midst of a peaceful practice session.

Who interrupted who?

But maybe what we see as being in harmony with nature, she sees as a rude, atonal, interruption herself. Is this nature’s way of interrupting us? Or was it Camerons plea for us to stop noise making? Or to include his part?

Whatever, rest assured Cameron and Hannah were fine, they just unexpectedly fell off a rock into some nettles, Mathew regained his composure and now knows it’s not helpful to freeze in an emergency, and practice of our unfinished symphony continues.

Stuart Wickes

Stuart's the adventure addict half of the team, always trying to persuade the family to get out, do more, go further. As co-founder and co-director he handles the business, creative, design, technical and publishing aspects of the project. He is our chief photographer and videographer. With training as a professional learning and development consultant. an engineer and musician, his contribution is eclectic and unpredictable!