At present, I am on holiday. having my acoustic microbass with me and playing every afternoon at the terrace of our holiday home. The terrace looks upon a meadow with some cows.
I noticed a long fascination with the cows for the ‘Somber waltz’ (lesson 11 in Pure Harmony Essentials. Is it that the spirit of music and of animal life line up easily?
Any other experiences or preferences with IFR and animals?
Ha ha! Great question, @TheoL! I have no particular insight about it, but I can share a quick story. About a year ago we were on vacation and I had a trumpet gig coming up so I had to practice every day. I couldn’t practice in the hotel room because the trumpet is too loud, so I found a field that was a short walk from the center of town. I went there every day at sunset with my trumpet and a small speaker, and I used my cell phone to play the IFR Jam Tracks through the speaker. It was quite a nice jamming experience all alone in that field. But after a couple of days I noticed that a bunch of lambs who had been grazing in the field were gradually coming closer each time I played. By the end of the week I had a nice audience of lambs all around me who were quite attentive. 
When you are a trumpettist you will like this video: Trompettist Eric Vloeimans speelt tussen tientallen paarden - YouTube (part of a larger documentary)
@TheoL, what a strange video! The audio seems to be from a woodwind instrument, but the video is some guy pointing a trumpet at horses. But I get what they’re trying to portray, and I can understand why it would catch your attention. My own practice sessions were a bit less mystical, to be sure. But being in nature with animals is always a beautiful experience that resets my perspective on everything. Thanks for sharing that story.
Or a heavily processed trumpet recording @ImproviseForReal? It certainly wasn’t the natural sound I expected from a trumpet of that size played in a field. I’m relieved to hear that it sounds odd to a real trumpet player too.
@DavidW, I don’t know if I’m the best example of a real trumpet player because I picked it up pretty late in life. But whatever the source instrument of the clip that Theo shared, the idea is lovely and I would be curious to know what the full documentary is about.
@ImproviseForReal This is the automatic translation from Dutch to English of the text on youtube:
Title: Trumpeter Eric Vloeimans plays among dozens of horses
Description: With melancholic trumpet sounds Eric Vloeimans from Rotterdam accompanies the death of the young horse Blacky. It is part of the film De Nieuwe Wildernis about the nature of the Oostvaardersplassen.
Perhaps something gets lost in the translation?
‘De nieuwe wildernis’ (The New WIlderness) is a full length movie nature documentary (2013) on the ‘Oostvaardersplassen’, a polder area in the Netherlands that was drained in the sixties. The area (between the new polder cities of Almere and Lelystad) developed into a nature reserve with many birds and wild horses. Jazz trumpet player Eric Vloeimans made the soundtrack to the movie and has a scene in the movie where he has contact with the flock of horses at the moment when a foal is about to die.
The music in the clip is a bit distorted, but it is surely free jazz trumpet solo playing by Vloeimans.
Not being familiar with the word, I looked up ‘polder’ & on this page I found
A polder is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes (dykes).
Where I’m originally from that would be known in English as a ‘fen’, even though strictly speaking a ‘fen’ is what the area was before it was drained.
As a matter of fact it was a part of a sea, where dikes where made around and the water pumped away.
The part where the horses graze is actually 3,7 m below sea level, so let us hope that the sound of the trumpet does not break a dike. – But that needs another topic on the force of music.
It’s a little off topic for how this thread is going, but speaking of music and animals, my Saint Bernard gets really excited when I practice singing (certain vocal exercises in particular, or certain higher notes). He comes over to me, and starts “singing” with me, using sounds that he doesn’t make in the course of his everyday life. It’s such a fun experience because he seems to be bonding with me in a special way when we sing together.
Great! That must be a wonderful experience.
I love that story, @Angela. It makes me realize how much we complicate our lives with projects, worries, goals, etc., and then suddenly you have this lovely musical connection with a Saint Bernard and it reminds you of the joy and purpose of life. How beautiful! Thank you for sharing that.