“Contemplating The Sunrise” is an ambient, environmental piece inspired by Mary Oliver’s “At Great Pond,” a poem that investigates how one replicates lived experience in the outdoors through art.

The poem begins with a description of the sunrise; “At Great Pond/ the sun, rising,/ scrapes his orange breast/ on the thick pines,/ and down tumble/ a few orange feathers into/ the dark water.” “Contemplating” begins in the same way – the sound of a river lapping situates the listener by the water, while a slowly building chorus of a string-like synth pad fades in, creating an orchestral "wind" of sorts. The sunrise sound fluctuates spatially to give the sense of immersion. Oliver then describes a “white bird... like a white candle” across the pond, juxtaposed with the dim, lush surroundings. A soundscape of birds stacks on top of the original river and a new collection of strings and vocals add to the synth pad to represent this new character. Synthesized water droplet sounds further develop the aquatic atmosphere of the sunrise, representing “ lilies/… breaking open again/ from the black cave/ of the night.” The samples in this first section are unaltered to ensure that this section has the purest sound of the piece. 

Oliver then describes attempting to capture this beauty through her work; “Later, I will consider/ what I have seen.” This movement indoors becomes audible at 1:25, when the river lapping and waterfowl soundscapes begin to sound muffled and distant. I added reverb to the river sound and slowly faded it into rain, further emphasizing the transition from serenity to entrapment. White noise fades in and fluctuates in amplitude, further confusing the artist as to how they should proceed, and the reverberating ticking of the clock beginning at 1:38 creates pressure to commodify this art and beauty for others. This section is intentionally spare – it represents the struggle to convert an experience into words on a page when authentically replicating that experience feels so futile. We sit in this toil for nearly 30 seconds as the ticking of the clock increases in volume and the already muffled waterfowl grows ever more distant. 

“Contemplating” begins to deviate from the poem at 2:20, telling the story of the narrator finding flashes of inspiration in the memory of the waterfowl they once witnessed. The clock tick becomes clearer as the reverb is taken off, and staccato pops of the string stack pop intermittently. There are also “whooshes” of the filtered waterfowl noise that further draw the artist back into the outdoors. The rain increases in volume starting around 3:10, and is accompanied by four bell tolls (which are time-stretched and processed with reverb and EQ), telling the artist that something must change. The final bell toll accompanies a resurgence of the string section, which fades into low-pass filtered river lapping and delayed and filtered water dripping sounds that earlier represented the lilies emerging (around 3:45). A low-frequency heavy synth pad also underscores this section, giving the impression of swimming up from the depths of a body of water. 

Around 4:15, the river lapping slowly begins to lose its filter, the birds reemerge, and the string and synth pads slowly fade back in – the narrator has made it back to the surface and the sun. This section closely mirrors the opening of the piece – the synth pad and strings circle the listener, and birds and water create a sense of serenity. Each frequency of string and synth slowly fades out until there is nothing left but the lapping river. The sun has set, and peace has been restored.