Study: nature sounds against stress

The sounds of the forest, rivers and wind can help improve the psychosomatic state of a person, even if they are purely digital, according to a new study.

BBC’s Arva Haider explores how birdsong and other sounds from nature can calm us down when combined with music. The connection between natural sounds and music has been around for many years. Generations of composers from around the world have created works inspired by nature, such as Beethoven’s 6th Symphony (1808), known as the Pastoral Symphony ή Recollections of Country Life.

As recording technology advances, creative people are taking more and more samples from the physical world to translate them into music. The Finnish composer Einogihani Rautavaaras (Εϊνογιουχάνι Ραουταβάαραs), in his play Cantus Arcticus (1972), included bird sounds from the Arctic Circle. American musician and ecologist Bernie Cruz has recorded and archived the sounds of the world’s nature for decades and collaborated on various projects, including The Great Animal Orchestra, Symphony for Orchestra and Wild Soundscapes (in 2014 with British composer Richard Blackford).

In the modern world, this seems to have revived people’s interest in exploring the diversity of nature sounds more deeply. In addition, the impact of life on the pandemic (quarantine, self-isolation) made us realize the daily natural wealth of the world of the environment. In conditions of isolation, many have reconsidered their attitude to nature. One of the most common memes on the internet was that “nature heals.”

The article describing the study was published in 2021 in the United States and is titled “The benefits of nature sounds and their distribution in national parks.”

Scientists have studied the effect of sounds, including water and birds, on urban green spaces. “Our research has shown that only the sounds of nature can provide health benefits. They provide a sense of security, allowing you to control mental states, reduce stress, tension, anxiety and restore the mental state of a person, ”the expert notes.

“Music is an amazingly powerful tool that allows you to re-experience the charm of nature and merge with it. The primordial “old relationship” between man and the environment in a modern context can restore humanity and help everyone understand what we must fight for, ”said musician, singer, songwriter and environmentalist Sam Lee.

There is something intimate and bewitching in the moment of human unity with the sounds of nature. We no longer strive to “achieve victory at any cost” and begin to think about eternity, otherwise we look at the world around us.

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