Update Title: 4D127F5F-C216-47D7-B424-DED294C9D254

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Call of the Cicadas is the first movement of my Symphony No. 1 Living, Breathing Earth. 
The rhythms and shadings of the earth were my inspiration. In summer 2005, cicada calls to mate were exceptionally strong, with 20-30 second waves of overlapping sound energizing Carolina and Georgia nights and into the days. I recorded the cicadas in my backyard in South Carolina, and the shape of their phrases caught my attention. They start slowly, get faster and build in volume, reaching a peak, and then a downward glissando carries the sound to quiet. I took the length and arch of that phrasing as the detail as well as overall shape for Call of the Cicadas.
 
Then, I asked myself, “What would ‘Mr. Cicada’ sound like if he had a whole orchestra, like I have, to sound his mating calls?” I enjoyed enlarging those sounds to the full range of the orchestra, using harmonics and tremolos behind the bridge in the strings, along with piccolos, clarinets, and xylophone, and later bringing in the low register with double basses and low brasses, as well as lots of percussion. Cicadas like the summer heat, and pitch bending in oboes and bassoons projects the wavy air of extreme humidity and high temperatures.
The title of the symphony, Living Breathing Earth, came to me in contemplating the image of the rainforests as lungs of the earth. I felt our planet alive with all variety of creatures and plants living in symbiosis with each other, breathing in and out, and the planet as a whole, pulsing with breath. I also contemplated the earth rotating through space, a spinning orb of blue and green, at just the right distance from the sun to support life, and our protective blanket of air, the atmosphere of the earth, providing the medium for our breath.
 
We know life on earth is in danger, with many species sick and dying from our pollution, and the atmosphere losing its protective qualities. The very breath of the earth, the relationship between carbon dioxide and oxygen, is out of balance. Sometimes it takes a threat of loss for us to realize the blessings we have, and to act to preserve them. Just as when praying for the healing of a loved one we picture the person in perfect health, so in this symphony, I celebrate the earth in her radiant fullness.
With gratitude for the miracle of life, and with prayer for the wisdom and will to heal our precious home planet, I dedicate this first symphony to the living, breathing earth and her Creator.
--Meira Warshauer

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