Sonic Portraits: Winter in Denali

NPS Photo Tim Rains

 

"Silence moves way beyond the absence of sound and into personal metaphors for how we explore everyday life." -Erik DeLuca, composer.

 

Composer Erik DeLuca worked with students from the Denali- Nenana Borough School district during January, 2012 to interpret the winter soundscape of Denali. Erik spent a week at the snowbound Savage Cabin, mile 13 along the park road taking field notes and recording natural sounds in preparation to compose an original piece of music. Post residency Erik took students from the Denali and Nenana Borough School Districts on a field trip into the park where they explored the winter soundscape through listening and writing exercises. The group discussed the nature of silence and how we interpret it in these natural spaces.

 

Click on the following images and listen to the sound recorded in the park by Erik DeLuca during his residency as well as original poetry read by the participants in the winter soundscape field exercise.

 

NPS Photos

 

"It was all put together like a symphony. The sound of people's feet on the snow. The deep breathing and the chatter of teeth. " Ani Mudge, Nenana High School, 2012

 

 

The images represented above are:

Sled dogs	A river beginning to freeze	Snow-covered spruce trees	A snowy meadow and forest
Closeup of birch bark covered in snow	A snow-covered forest of spruce trees	Closeup of wind-sculpted lake ice	Closeup of fractures in lake ice
A Snow and ice-covered lake	Wind-sculpted snow over ice	A bush pushing up through snow	Closeup of air bubbles trapped in lake ice
A Snow-covered bush	Ice crystals	Snow and ice covered bush	Melting ice hanging off a branch
Sunrise over a snowy ridge and meadow	A frozen river	Brown, ice-covered leaves	Closeup of a wood stove