Richard Blackford
Composer

The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony

2014

"There has never been anything quite like this symphony... This beautiful, exciting, engaging work."

Michael McManus
Gramophone

The Great Animal Orchestra, Symphony for Orchestra and Wild Soundscapes is the result of two fruitful years of collaboration between English composer Richard Blackford and American bioacoustic recordist Bernie Krause. The symphony explores the traditional sounds of the orchestra alongside the voices of the natural world. From within the orchestra can be heard gibbons, humpback whales, Pacific tree frogs, mountain gorillas, beavers and the Central American musician wren.

The Great Animal Orchestra premiered at Cheltenham Festival in July 2014.

Watch

Here, in an interview with NAMM, Richard discusses his collaboration with Bernie Krause to compose The Great Animal Orchestra.

Buy

The Great Animal Orchestra Symphony, featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Conductor Martyn Brabbins, is available on CD from Nimbus Records. It was recorded live at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival. You can purchase it here. The album is also available to buy on iTunes.

You can purchase the score here and the original book by Bernie Krause here.