The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra from Hamburg, a city that is predicted to be flooded by the year 2050, could not remain silent to the mounting disaster of the global climate crisis. We wanted to use the power of music to send an unmistakable signal against climate change that would finally get people to listen.

After numerous scientific reports, extensive media coverage and a whole generation having taken to the streets, we should have all got the message by now. Yet, it seems the magnitude of the climate crisis is so overwhelming, many prefer to ignore it. Although there have been isolated attempts to bring climate change to the people and generate attention through music, there has been no data-based collaboration of this kind before. The facts of science paired with the world of classical music, especially for older audiences that could not be reached easily for climate communication so far, is a combination that is unique in its kind. In the end, science is far too important to be ignored. By means of music we have found a completely new way to make it audible and tangible in a surprising and impressive way.

To show the destructive effects of climate change, we took the most famous musical depiction of nature, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and adapted it to today’s weather conditions, using historical climate data. A collaborative team of sound artists, software developers and music arrangers converted the original Four Seasons into a new score: the For Seasons.

After months of work and rehearsals, the For Seasons premiered to the world at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and live on Facebook. Led by world-renowned conductor Alan Gilbert, the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra performed the altered concertos, making climate change audible.

Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons in 1723. His work was a revolution in musical composition: In each concerto, he portrayed the characteristics of the seasons and their natural phenomena like flowing creeks, violent storms, frozen landscapes and even singing birds. But, since then, the world he depicted in his music has dramatically changed.

To imagine what Vivaldi would compose today, we analysed every single nature element in the Four Seasons. Then, from temperature anomalies to CO2 emissions and to species extinctions, we gathered more than 10 data sets from the early 18th century until the present day to recompose the four concerti.

Custom-built algorithms were fed with 300 years of data to transform what Vivaldi had expressed in his masterpiece into what we experience now. While overall climate data sets were used to enhance the four seasons, special data sets like “insect population” were mapped only on individual motifs like “buzzing flies”.

For instance, the algorithms adjusted the duration of the seasons: today’s Winter is 51 bars shorter. Motifs of Summer already arrive in Spring.

Vivaldi represented “Summer’s occasional thunderstorms” with flashing solo violins. The algorithms placed unexpected thunderstorm motifs throughout the entire piece according to the dramatic increase in natural catastrophes.

The violin trills, mimicking bird sounds were reduced by 15%, signifying the decline in bird populations.

The new piece is not pleasant: harmonic passages shift into disharmonies, seasons blend together and some notes are completely missing. The balance is lost, just like in nature itself.

The For Seasons premiered at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg to a sold-out crowd and to 150,000 live viewers on Facebook. The concert ended with a 7-minute standing ovation by a visibly shocked audience.

Our message was picked up fast and the voice of climate change was heard by millions. Many of Germany’s most popular newspapers like Spiegel, Zeit and Welt published full page articles on the event. TV & radio stations in more than 130 countries reported on the concert and even Fridays For Future shared our message. In only a month, For Seasons achieved a global reach of nearly 1 billion contacts.

Moreover, 2 days before the concert the United Nations reached out to us hoping to “work together to fight climate change”.

For Seasons is partnering with the United Nations Development Program and more concerts are being arranged.

Finally, the score is freely available to any orchestra in the world.