The [uncertain]
Four Seasons
What will our future sound like if we don’t act now on climate change?
ACTNOW![The [uncertain] Four Seasons — composed by humanity, ACT NOW](/static/future/uncertain-four-seasons/img/kv.webp)
The event
Vivaldi, re-composed by the climate crisis.
Youth and Public Empowerment Day at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow opened with performances of The (Uncertain) Four Seasons by fourteen orchestras from six continents, half of them youth orchestras. A thousand musicians represented young people’s voices in the climate movement and added pressure on world leaders to sign the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature — a commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2030.
United in The Uncertain Four Seasons initiative, the orchestras performed the sound of the Earth in 2050, heavily distorted by climate change: a sonic forecast of nature if world leaders and humanity fail to act in time. Vivaldi’s portrait of unspoilt nature was rewritten in the spirit of extreme climate change.
Working with composer Hugh Crosthwaite and Monash University’s Climate Change Communication Research Hub, the agencies AKQA and Jung von Matt used climate data and artificial intelligence to re-compose Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The result is a music design system that combines music theory with computer modelling and can algorithmically generate countless local versions of the original. The algorithm alters the score according to projected changes in rainfall, biodiversity, sea-level rise and extreme weather events, as set out in the reports of the IPCC.
All coordination with the orchestras happened — fittingly — online. The response was remarkable: in a single week, 3.2 million people from more than a hundred countries visited the website with the recordings.
Our variation
The Slovenian National Youth Orchestra played the Marshall Islands.
One of the most vulnerable places on Earth. Our concert was recorded in August in the Katedrala hall of Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, and then presented at the conference in Glasgow — a call to world leaders for more decisive action.
A. Vivaldi / AKQA / H. Crosthwaite: The (Uncertain) Four Seasons
Autumn · Marshall Islands · 2050
Autumn will be silent.
“The newly written, completely silent Autumn of the Marshall Islands is almost the most intense I have ever experienced. We decided that the conductor would take the original score and conduct, in silence, what Vivaldi wrote. What added to the dark, sad note was seeing Živa’s smiling face as she conducted the original Autumn — which no longer sounded, because in 2050 there will be no autumn on the Marshall Islands unless we commit to change.” Ariel Vei Atanasovski, cellist
Interactive experience
Hear the planet change.
Travel the globe and compare Vivaldi’s original with the sound of 2050 — place by place, season by season.
Video
Recording session · Katedrala, Kino Šiška
Fourteen orchestras · the places whose nature they set to music
One planet, fourteen futures.
- Slovenian National Youth Orchestra Marshall Islands
- Sydney Symphony Orchestra Sydney, Australia
- Kammerensemble Konsonanz Bremen Bremen, Germany
- Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Kenya National Youth Orchestra Nairobi, Kenya
- The [Uncertain] Four Seasons Orchestra Seoul, South Korea
- Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra Saskatoon, Canada
- Cape Town Philharmonic Cape Town, South Africa
- Costa Rica’s New Orchestra San José, Costa Rica
- Symphonic Orchestra of the University of São Paulo São Paulo, Brazil
- European Union Youth Orchestra Venice, Italy
- Academy of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Malé, Maldives
- Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Caracas, Venezuela
- National Network of Youth Orchestras and Choirs of Panama Panama
Voices
“To be part of something so big, to take an active part in the whole process, to feel the power of the global, to reflect on our role and on the voice we were given to portray one of the most vulnerable places on Earth, the Marshall Islands. Soon we want to present live how the future of our own, Slovenian environment sounds.”
SMO · on working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Jung von Matt and AKQA
“This summer, with young musicians, we carried out two projects calling for better care of our planet. Samo1planet, with Katalena, was performed in August at Festival Ljubljana. The international (Uncertain) Four Seasons was prepared for COP26. With it we urge world leaders to sign the Pledge for Nature and call on young people to be active citizens.”
Živa Ploj Peršuh
“At the very start of rehearsals, the score revealed something completely different from Vivaldi’s original. But as rehearsals went on and the whole picture emerged, I caught a few moments that were full of hope. Really just a few bars, a few seconds. When one came, I came alive. Most of it sounds like a caricature of what Vivaldi wrote — invented, distorted. The intensity of the energy in the silences was almost greater than while playing. It was emotionally exhausting, and I think it affected everyone.” — Ariel Vei Atanasovski
Credits
Special thanks: Mr Zoran Janković, Mayor of Ljubljana · Mr Jure Longyka · Mr Simon Kardum · City of Ljubljana
Global project: AKQA · Jung von Matt · Hugh Crosthwaite · Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub · Sydney Symphony Orchestra · supporting the UN ActNow campaign
