more on field recordings...

"suddenly dissatisfied with the fluid form that had evolved in the fifth [symphony], he [sibelius] began to dream of a continuous blur of sound without formal divisions - symphonies without movements, operas without words. instead of writing the music of his imagination, he wanted to transcribe the very noise of nature. he thought he could hear chords in the murmurs of the forests and the lapping of the lakes; he once baffled a group of finnish students by giving a lecture on the overtone series of a meadow..."

alex ross on sibelius in the rest is noise.