Science, Poetry, and Music for Landscapes of the Marche Region, Italy. Teaching the Conservation of Natural Heritage

We present a new approach in science communication that uses artistic works to entice people to learn about landscapes. To this aim, we use narratives about a place in plain language accompanied by visual stimulations, poetry, and ancient music. The multidisciplinary approach resulting from the encounter and interplay among the different communicative methods arouse an emotional and intellectual experience that enables a personal connection to the place. This work is part of 10 a larger multidisciplinary project covering 20 sites in the Marche Region (Central Italy) that includes scientific information on geological-geomorphological genesis, trekking itineraries, poetry, ancient music, video and cultural offerings. The project is documented through live multidisciplinary performances, the publication of project materials in a book with a DVD attached, and through a web site with the same contents. Among the many amazing landscapes of the Marche Region, we focus here on three sites from the north, the centre and the south of the region: "The sea-cliff of San Bartolo", "The flatiron of Mount 15 Petrano" and "The fault of Mount Vettore", chosen as examples for their different processes of genesis and evolution. Our goal is to promote a deeper understanding of landscapes by integrating their origin and physical aesthetic with their cultural and artistic heritage. In doing so, we intend to educate people to have a new perception of geo-sites, starting from its physical beauty, building on scientific study and cultural history, and arriving to the knowledge of its social importance.

using a simple scientific language. Two geologists begin this story, analysing the processes and the "forces" that have created 95 and modified the landscape over time. For each location, we indicate an itinerary with some stops, from which it is possible to enjoy particularly significant "glimpses" or panoramas, and from where we are able to narrate the peculiarities of the landscape.
After some key words of the place have been identified, linked to its genesis, evolution, history or atmosphere that it evokes, we try to represent them through music and poetry. In other words, we try to translate the same information but following a different, more direct emotional path. The musician, through the musical language, tries to reproduce, or harmonize with, the 100 emotional impact of a site by searching for a piece of ancient music composed for harpsichord. The chosen pieces of music, as hereafter described, communicate aspects of the place through the elements that belong to the musical language. The choice of the musical instrument and the historical period is not accidental: the harpsichord has a punchy and gritty tone that clearly expresses the "strength" of the landscape. Early music, in addition, aptly suited to represent natural forms whose history began millions of years ago; many late Renaissance or Baroque pieces have been composed to describe a specific situation, in fact, 105 many pieces of music have a title. Other times the musical form (prelude, toccata, passacaille, rondeau, variation, canon, etc.) was critical in identifying the association with the place. In parallel, the poet expressly dedicates verses to these places, using powerful metaphors that become a cognitive tool linking nature and thought. Everything that in the realm of geological process might be shrouded in mystery is where the poet unlocks it, makes it available, lovable and palpable through a metric balance, and studied cadences of heartbeats. Such analogies make you love a place, even parts unknown, not only for the great scientific 110 interest, but also for the purely poetic fascination of all the things, which emerge from the deepness of time. Finally, for each site we suggest a section dedicated to one aspect of naturalistic, historical or cultural interest: a proposal to know "something more" around that place.
How are all these contents communicated to the public?
This project took place thanks to an important regional announcement dedicated to the development of the Marche Region. It 115 started in February 2018 and we concluded in December 2019. The results of this work are offered to the public through different products: an important medium is a book just published (Nesci and Valentini, 2019), dedicated to 20 sites in the Marche Region (central Italy). The same contents of the book have been summarized and posted in a website (https://www.terreraremarche.it). The poems and the pieces of music, which you can enjoy individually for each place, are also the soundtrack of videos that, by using beautiful images of these places, creatively interpret the science and nature through 120 the art. These videos can be found in the website and in the DVD attached to the volume, where it is also contained the book in interactive form. However, above all, the contents of our project are offered to the public through live events, dedicated to the places.

Description of the events
The most effective and engaging communicative method of our work is through live events. Since the beginning of this 125 project, we planned to address the public directly through shows of about one hour and half, that combine scientific communication (always by means of a simple and popular language) with the acting of poems and the performing of musical https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-5 Preprint. Discussion started: 27 April 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License.
pieces of ancient music. The project, as above described, include 20 sites from the region, but the shows were dedicated only to five or six of them, usually those closest to the place where the live event takes place. The events are structured in two parts: the first one is carried out by means of verbal communication, with the employ of figures, sketch and schemes, trying to 130 communicate the geological genesis and the geomorphological evolution of the places. It is not an academic lesson, rather the speaker uses a conversational language to involve the public, focusing on the most interesting aspect of the genesis, and investigating how the morphology of the landscape have influenced the history and culture of the place. The speaker guides the public and identifies some key words for the place. These key words will represent the link among the science, the music and the poetry. The speaker, at the end of this part, encourages questions from the public. The second part of the events is a 135 performance in sensu strictu: the actor and the musician are on a different plane with respect to the public and there is no interaction among the performers and the public, until the end of the performance. The lights are softened, and the shows develop. The performances are conducted in front of a large screen with projections of images and videos of the places: the result is a total emotional immersion of the public in the place. Up to now, we have organized about ten live events, all in central Italy, some of them in the proximity to one of the sites. The performances were carried out in different locations, but 140 always searching intimate and suggestive places with acoustic features suitable to the kind of the music (ancient, by using the harpsichord). Among these locations, the most suggestive were probably the church of S.Maria in the charming bay of Portonovo (Ancona), one of the most spectacular examples of Romanic architecture of central Italy; the theatre of the prominent Renaissance Fortness of Sassocorvaro (PU); the "Sala del Maniscalco" part of the magnificent Ducal Palace of Urbino (PU). We have in program also outdoors events, but they have not yet been realized. Moreover, we hope to organize 145 more events outside of the Marche Region and also from Italy, with the aim to attract people in a territory that still has a great development potential, still uncontaminated and rich in nature, culture and traditions.

Experience with the public
In the events, we always distribute a program of the show, indicating the localities that we are going to illustrate, the text of the poems and a track about the pieces of music chosen for each site; also, we add our contacts in the program. Until now, we 150 have never asked for a written feedback from the public. Our experience, therefore, is based on the direct feedback from the public: the evidence of interest shown, the questions we are asked there, the requests for further information we receive by email, the interest shown in the YouTube channel and in social media. The involvement of the public during the shows was always very high, and the number of participants was also satisfactory, even if it's difficult to quantify these data, because this value depends strongly from several variables. For instance, it depends from the advertising made before the event but also 155 from the season and the weather, the beauty of the place and how difficult is to reach it. Is also important the receptive capacity of the performance hall and the context of the event (if it is, or not, linked to a group of events organized that day in the place).
We underline that the project is now at a crucial step: we have just completed the book and we are improving the web site.
This material represents a fundamental step in promulgation and dissemination of the project. At this point, we have the concrete material to propose the events to the public and collect the response of the participants.
We emphasize that this work can be proposed to people of different ages and cultures. We have not done performances in didactic contexts (school, museum), but the presence of students of different ages during the shows encourages us to move in in this direction also. Our events are addressed to a general public of all ages, an assorted and wide audience, people interested in the territory, or in the poetry or in the ancient music. The show is not conceived for scientists even if, at a geomorphological meeting in Urbino (PU, Marche Region) it was much appreciated by the participants as a cultural moment. However, the most 165 satisfying result is related to people who show interest in those aspects of landscape evolution that affected the morphology of the place and consequently, the history of human settlements and culture.

The three case studies
As a description of case studies, among the many amazing landscapes of Italy we focus on three charming sites from the Marche Region ( Fig. 1): "The sea-cliff of San Bartolo", "The flatiron of Mount Petrano" and "The fault of Mount Vettore". 170

The geology
The northernmost sector of the Marche Region is characterized by a high and rocky coast that interrupts the continuity of beaches that fringe the Adriatic Sea south of Trieste. The sea-cliff of Mount San Bartolo (Fig. 2) is more than 200 meters high and represents the outermost ridge of the Apennine chain, which extends to the Adriatic Sea. The natural beauty of Mount San 175 Bartolo, makes it home to a natural park very popular with tourists during the summer season (Savelli et al., 2017). The outcropping late Miocene rock formations are represented by marls, marly limestones, dark mudstones and bedded sandstones and marls. The small and sporadic pebbly beaches that protect the base of the relief are eroded by sea waves during the strongest storms. Instead, the less protected rocky ridges are directly attacked by the waves (Fig. 3). For this reason, but also because of the easily erodible lithology and the fracturing of the rocks, the slope facing the sea is affected by extensive landslides that 180 endanger the overlying villages of Gabicce Monte, Casteldimezzo, Fiorenzuola di Focara, Santa Marina, and all of the panoramic road (Fig. 4). The natural causes of the instability of the mountain are superimposed on the anthropic ones: in fact, man has intervened heavily and disturbed the precarious balance, accelerating erosional processes. One of the most important causes of coastal erosion is the decrease in the sedimentary contribution by the rivers, which flow southeast of the relief. The solid load of these rivers, in fact, contributes to feeding the Pesaro beaches as the coastal currents transport the sediment to the 185 north. The solid flow of rivers has significantly decreased due to the construction of dams on rivers and due to the extraction of aggregates from the riverbeds (Colantoni et al., 2004). To stop the advance of the sea and reduce the risk of landslides, several barriers have been built which, while slowing down the process, have not solved the problem of the erosion of the relief and corrupt its wild beauty. The natural response of the coastal system has been the unnatural formation of sandy beaches between the cliffs and the shoreline, other than the triggering of complex refraction and diffraction processes of the wave motion on the breakwater structures, which determines dangerous coastal currents. The retreat of this stretch of coast has been fast and continuous since the Holocene (11,000 years ago) and the shoreline has changed continuously over time. The paleocoasts are now erased even though there is unmistakable geomorphological evidence of their existence in seaward locations of the submerged beach. Geomorphological data testify that about 6000 years ago, the paleo-coast compared to the current one was advanced of about two kilometres and the relief of San Bartolo was much more extensive and stretched out towards the 195 sea (Nesci, 2003).
Here we propose a route that leads from Fiorenzuola di Focara, an ancient village balanced on the cliff (Fig. 5, stop 1), to the beach below. Along the path, the thick and dense sequence of marly and clayey layers of Mount San Bartolo can be observed and the precariousness of the rock-wall on which the village rests is perceived (Fig. 5, stop 2).
How to communicate the peculiarities of this landscape through poetry and music? Our main objective was to identify a key 200 to interpretation, some key words, which synthetize the main genetic as well the process mechanisms, other than the critical issues: stratification, balance, fragility.

The Poem
The title "Up / Down / Fragile" recalls the "handle with care" written on the packaging of fragile objects. In a sense, Mount San Bartolo should not exist, so much is the stress placed on it as it undergoes a continuous consumption by guzzling by the 205 jaws of erosion, of human development, and of economic profit. Yet in the moment, it remains in perfect balance just by virtue of its beauty. The visual balance (color), olfactory (scent) and physical (sky and sea) is represented by the warmer and motionless hour of the summer season ("hour without a shadow"). To balance the Mount is the set of ecstatic looks and love that history, despite everything, offers. Appreciate this beauty says the poet, for it is fragile. Below is the poetry in the original language and its translation. 210

The Music
The piece of music selected to represent this site is the Passacaille from Suite VII in G minor HWV 432, by George Friedrich 270 Händel (1685-1759). The Passacaille is a folk dance of Spanish origin, and summarizes in its main structure the morphological appearance of the San Bartolo cliff and, besides, the poetic interpretation by the writer of the poem. The Passacaille, indeed, is made up of variations on a ground bass; the same sequence proposed in a varied repetition, following accurate rules of composition. That is exactly like the repetition of the layers on the cliff: layers that are in balance, although at times surprisingly unstable, on the previous. This piece of music is bright and overwhelming; as the San Bartolo cliffs are an explosion of colours 275 and vitality. In the last variations, several repeated arpeggios, like a series of sea waves on the cliff (https://youtu.be/-2a4i6iOGE0).

The geology
Mount Petrano has a relief of 1162 m, which stands out in the landscape for its characteristic flattened top visible even from 280 long distances. The gorges of the Burano and Bosso streams, which cross the mountain ridge transversely (Fig. 6), separate the Mount Petrano from Mount Catria to the south and Mount Nerone to the north. The panorama that can be enjoyed from Mount Petrano embraces a large territory offering spectacular views of the major peaks around it, and on the whole Province of Pesaro and Urbino, up to the Republic of San Marino and the Adriatic Sea. The relief constitutes a beautiful example of anticlinal ridge (Nesci et al., 2005). Anticlines are one type folded of rock layers, formed by compressive forces that rise slowly 285 over a very long period. But folded rocks are intriguing, hard to imagine and yet there they are, in plain sight. The morphology https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-5 Preprint. Discussion started: 27 April 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License. of relief perfectly follows the wide anticline and no tectonic dislocation seems to disturb the simple regularity of the fold (Fig.   7) exposing the anticline in its full and awesome natural wonder. Then too, the sedimentary rocks that outcrop in the ridge are alternately more or less erodible. The large smooth and almost flat upper surface consists of carbonate rocks of Maiolica Formation, highly resistant to degradation. The formation of Marne a Fucoidi, which rests on Maiolica, are more degradable, 290 being formed by marl and clays. Still above, the rocks return to being more resistant being formed by Scaglia Bianca and Rossa hard limestones (Alvarez, 2019). The selective erosion caused by run-off waters promotes the formation of the so-called "flatirons" which are subtriangular prismatic forms that recall the tip of an iron, from which their name derives. The observation of these spectacular forms is almost like being inside a natural laboratory, where the public gets to observe folded rock formed underground, somehow raised to the surface, and then sculpted by streams on the surface. The scale is overwhelming, the 295 forces involved immense, and the resulting landscape is a work of art. The streams running down the mountain from the flat top of Mount Petrano, follow paths related by the degree of erodibility and fracturing of the rocks, finally producing these characteristic morphologies. The flatirons are very well exposed on the sides of Mount Petrano, even if they represent forms that are quite common to other anticline ridges of our Apennines; the most significant in this area is the one called "La Roccaccia" (Fig.8). At the latter is genetically linked the small relief of "La Rocchetta" (1163 m), which rises above the 300 structural surface of Mount Petrano (Fig.7). This little hill represents a remnant of the ancient structure removed by the erosion.
For this site, we propose a route at the top of the Mount Petrano (Fig. 9). The path surrounds the hill of "La Rocchetta" and allows you to climb to the top of this hill. From there, you can benefit from an impressive 360-degree panoramic view over much of the northern Marche Region and part of the Umbria Region (Stop 1). Finally, reaching the stop 2 you can observe, in all its magnificence, "La Roccaccia" flatiron. 305 Again, the same question. How to communicate the peculiarities of this place through art? Here, the interpretation keys chosen to communicate the place through poetry and music were selective erosion, geometric shapes, childhood games.

The poem
The vision of pointed shapes on a plain dotted with lawns and flowers reminiscent one day holiday, cries of children playing and drawing. On joyful suspension of play, the reality, far away and top view, burns and disappears in the flames.

The music
Twelve Variations in C major on the theme "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman" KV 265, is a keyboard composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), published in Vienna in 1785 and probably composed when he was around 25 years old (1781 340 or 1782). This piece consists of 13 sections: the first one is the theme, the French folk song "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman". This French melody first appeared in 1761, and has been used for many children's songs, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and the "Alphabet Song". This traditional piece deeply fascinated Mozart, who took up the theme in a playful composition. The following twelve variations (in rhythm, harmony, and texture) are developed in a very simple way, to produce funny transformations that gradually articulate the starting melody, like several pieces of a children's game. The 345 simplicity of this paradigmatic example of musical variation reflects effectively the idea of geometric shapes in childish drawings, or a toy of building blocks (https://youtu.be/RYS5-25rulk).

The geology
Central Italy was struck by strong earthquakes in 2016 (Aringoli et al., 2016). On August 24, a magnitude 6.1 event shook the 350 area between Marche, Lazio, and Umbria, devastating the villages of Accumoli, Amatrice (Rieti), Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno, Fig.10). A second quake occurred on October 26 with magnitude 5.9 and epicentre between Mount Cardosa, Castel-santangelo sul Nera, Ussita and Visso (Macerata). Four days later, on October 30, an even larger event (magnitude 6.5) destroyed the town of Norcia (Perugia). With the choice of this site, we wanted to instil a "beauty shock" to infuse positive energy, break the darkness of destruction, and rekindle the life and creativity in a land rich in geological heritage 355 and artistic masterpieces.
The Castelluccio di Norcia basin is a closed depression of over 12 km in length and 8 km in width, located in the southern part of the Umbria-Marche Apennines and surrounded by an uninterrupted mountain ring. It consists of three closed plains: Pian Grande, Pian Piccolo and Pian Perduto. The Pian Grande (Fig. 11), five km long in the NW-SE direction and two km wide, is the largest and most spectacular one, and it is located to the west of the alignment of Mount Vettore -Mount Priora. 360 To comprehend the genesis of this area, it is necessary to understand the formation of the Apennine chain that consists of a compressive thrust system towards the Adriatic Sea. Toward the Tyrrhenian side, in the innermost part of the Apennine compressional system, an extensional zone occurs. Just in this sector, large and elongated intermontane plains have formed, which are bordered by complex systems of direct faults and fractures. Imagine a bulldozer that shoved layers of the upper crust and then when it stopped pushing, some of those layers started to slide backwards. But there was no bulldozer, just an 365 Earth system, evolving, whether you are watching it or not. And yet you can't avoid "hearing" this evolving process, because you can still feel the rumble of this process which we call earthquakes. Our site captures a moment in this process.
The Castelluccio plain was not always a closed depression, in fact during the Middle Pliocene -Lower Pleistocene (about 3.5 Ma) the subtropical humid conditions created a landscape with low energy relief, a large paleo surface. The subsequent distensional tectonic phase characterized by the reactivation of direct fault systems with NNW-SSE trend and by an intense 370 uplifting of the area, has strongly dismantled the paleosurface preserving it only in reduced fragments in the ridges. These processes interrupted and disarticulated the previous landscape, forming a series of tectonic depressions that characterize the whole Apennine area. A bundle of Quaternary faults of Mount Vettore -Mount Bove to the east and of Mount Castello -Mount Cardoca to the west surrounds the depression of Castelluccio. This depression is related to an extension direction, oriented around NS, which led to an oblique movement along the main border faults, and to the development of the tectonic depression 375 of Pian Grande (Passeri, 1994).
Starting from the end of the middle Pleistocene, the depressions were filled with debris deposits coming from the slopes through the short streams. Their placement is due to the glacial and periglacial morphogenesis as evidenced by the presence of large cirques and glacio-nival niches in the surrounding areas. The flat surface of the Pian Grande is affected by sinkholes in which the surface waters are dispersed in depth (Aringoli et al., 2018).
To the east of the plain stands Mount Vettore that, with its 2476 m height, is the major topographic relief in the whole Marche Region. Even the most inexperienced eyes cannot miss the large scar that cuts the mountain (Fig. 12), the direct fault that displaces the Sibillini's thrust plane. This fault appears in all its majesty at the base of the Aquila rock, consisting of massive limestone. Other faults are less visible, for example, the huge fault at the base of the mountain associated with the formation of the plain and many fractures scattered on the side. The whole slope is strongly deformed by landslides, both deep and 385 superficial, and by some fractures reactivated by the earthquake.
Mount Vettore represents one of the most popular destinations for excursionists in the Marche Region. The proposed route, (Fig. 13), starting from "Forca di Presta" (1550 m) until crossing the fault of Mount Vettore, can be, for trained and experienced walkers, only the first part of the longest and most difficult itinerary that leads to the top of the Mount Vettore (2476 m) or to the beautiful Lake of Pilato (1941 m). The route is always well signposted; the difficulty is medium, due to the steepness of 390 the slope and the coarse gravel on which it is not easy to walk. Enjoy the magnificent view of the Castelluccio Plain at Stop 1, and then continue towards the top of the Mount Vettoretto (2032 m). After about an hour of ascent, the fault of the Mount Vettore appears impressive, on your left. The fault plane is clearly visible, exposed for about 2.5 meters (Fig. 14). A little higher up, the route crosses a series of fractures resulting from the 2016 earthquake, some of which form open the ground fractures for a width of 30-40 centimeters (Fig. 15). 395 Here, the interpretation keys chosen to communicate the main peculiarities of this place through poetry and music are; fault system, readjustment, balance.

The poem
The spectacle of the suspended mountain, in precarious balance, captures the attention and forces you to breathe with your gaze turned upwards, with an apparently unnatural rhythm. The natural cycle of nature tends to plan, to the "horizontal world", 400 but some events are opposed, and this creates tension, even emotional. Reading backwards from the last verse to the title of the poem emphasizes this "return and stay" and accompanies the gaze and the contemplation. The basic principle of the canon is the imitation. In the canon, a melody is faithfully repeated by the various voices in regular 425 succession. An elementary example, well known to all, is Fra' Martino campanaro (Brother Martin), whose melody is always the same, repeated in the other voices in subsequent times. That is the case of a canon in unison, while more interesting is when the main motif is repeated at different heights from the initial one. The movement of the main voice is "the law", and is repeated in the other voices, at different heights, or reversed (retrograde canon), at the mirror (inverse canon) or with different rhythmic measures (mensuration canon). The absolute summit in the construction of the most complicated canon compositions 430 belongs to Johann Sebastian Bach. In his masterpieces L'Offerta musicale and L'Arte della fuga, the most interesting examples appear: infinite, retrograde, inverse, retrograde-inverse, mensuration and enigmatic canons. The Canone per Augmentationem in Contrario Motu here proposed, is a perpetual canon with two voices where the second voice repeats (at the lower fourth) the same melody but exposed for opposite motion (specular) and with notes of doubled value.
As in the canon the melody is differently repeated in the various voices, in a fault system the movement along the main fault 435 is followed by readjustment along the other faults in the surrounding area. The analogy among the mechanisms of the canon and a fault system is very strong. It is a wide, intermountain basin, delimited by several faults, mostly distensional, with different orientations but strongly linked together. The fault of Mount Vettore is there, concrete and clearly visible. To its movement the whole system reacts accordingly, until reaching new equilibrium (https://youtu.be/nXZGPwJDdAc).

Discussion and Conclusions 440
This work presents a new multidisciplinary and interactive method, which seeks promote the communication of rigorous and complex scientific content, related to the geological genesis and the evolution of a landscape, through art forms such as poetry and music. Art has a great power in-and-of-itself and in the communication of specific subjects, an opportunity not to be https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2020-5 Preprint. Discussion started: 27 April 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License.
overlooked. By addressing the emotional sphere, art manages to engage the observer in a profound and passionate way. The communication of information of any nature through the emotional sphere is recognized to be much more effective than 445 traditional communication methods. Our experience can confirm this effectiveness: attendance by a very large and varied audience, mostly without a scientific background at our live shows uphold a great interest in the problems proposed. The published volume, the DVD with the same contents of the book in interactive form and the material posted on the web site, which were finalized at the end of the 2019, represent an important step of the project. The next one, probably within one year, will be able to consider the response of the public relatively to these different proposing ways. 450 This work proposes small real or virtual trips to the Marche region: it is possible to go to places, follow paths and stop there to listen to the piece of music, read and listen to poetry. Alternatively, you can follow the route from home, using the virtual mode, listening to music and poetry while watching the videos of the places. It is possible to visit the website, where the contents of the book are summarized; one can participate in live shows, periodically organized in various locations, within and outside the study region (the site contains information on the dates and places of the shows). The performances are organized 455 following the multidisciplinary communication method above described, combining science, projections of images and videos, recitation of poems and live musical performances, with the aim of generating an emotional fusion that introduces the public in the strongest and most engaging way inside the wonders that our land offers. The aim of this project is not to provide yet another guide to visiting a beautiful region. The project is in fact much more ambitious, since it wishes to stimulate love for the territory through knowing it, in its formative and evolutionary mechanisms. From this knowledge, indeed, it is possible to 460 understand how nature, human settlements, history, culture and the traditions of a place have developed. This method addresses the curious, the lovers of the territory and art, to those who want to get to know "the place" in all its aspects. People of all ages and backgrounds can participate in this experience, to stimulate in them an awareness of which cultural heritage the landscape represents, with the aim of increasing their desire to understand the fragility of the territory to finally stimulate the protection and conservation of this heritage. The landscape must be understood to be loved and protected. We have the 465 scientific responsibility for the conservation of the priceless landscape heritage of our Earth for future generations.