“A beautiful, but powerful overall soundworld”

PROFESSOR SIMON EMMERSON

Song of the Trees hints at the mysticism of the ancient woodland, revealing it’s life-force through the power of music.

It is scored for flute and clarinet with live processing (optional) and fixed media.  These woodwind instruments were specially chosen for their organic link to the theme of the piece, making use of extended techniques on both instruments. The fixed media track of the whispering wind was created from transformed clarinet and bassoon samples. All other sounds are created live with automated processing of the flute and clarinet, generating both the floating magical touches in the melodic sections, where the translucent harmony emerges through the mist, and the dramatic metamorphoses in the central sections.  These seemingly impossible powerful and wild transformations transcend the original timbre of the flute and clarinet, whilst remaining firmly rooted in the earthy spirituality of the forest. (Gareth Stuart - Clarinet,   Amanda Stuart - Flute)

In 2022 I created the film “Song of the Trees” which had it’s World Premiere at the Earth Day Art Model Festival IUPUI.

This film celebrates the beauty and strength of these of these magnicificent living scupltures - a journey that takes you floating above the tree tops, with images layered and woven together to create mesmerising 3D effects, altering the perpsective so all is not what it seems - from the textural microcosm of gnarled bark, to soaring above snow covered mountain ranges. The visuals were all created from photographs taken over several seasons in the village where I live.

SONG OF THE TREES - LIVE PERFORMANCES

• World Premiere: Light and Sharpness Concert 2013 Mumford Theatre, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
  Performed by Gareth Stuart (Clarinet) and Amanda Stuart (Flute)

• New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2015
  Performed by Margaret Lancaster (Flute) and Vaski Dukovski (Clarinet) at The Playhouse, Abrons Art Center, New York

• The Leeds International Music Festival For Innovations in Music Production and Composition 2014
  Performed by Gareth Stuart (Clarinet) and Amanda Stuart (Flute)