"A Song for Lost Trees" is written for four percussionists and the Skógarfura (Baltic pine) tree species. As a result of reforestation in the mid-20th century, alongside their ecological resiliency, these trees dot the Laugarvatn mountainside in small clusters. While the lack of thinning and trimming has allowed the trees to grow tall, their overstory has blocked the growth below—effectively suffocating smaller trees and producing an array of dead branches.
The unique orientation of these branches dictate the specific pitches for the composition. Guitar strings, connected throughout the grove, are tuned using pegs attached to the branches themselves. Contact mics and mini-amps amplify the strings, and are recorded using an ambisonic microphone. As the wind blows within the canopy, the strings flex and bend, constantly shifting the tuned pitches, as both climate and tree co-compose the work.
Additionally, noise pollution such as road traffic, air traffic, and machinery, envelope the nonhuman sounds of wind and birds. Together, they collectively resound as the predominant musical texture upon which the written music—a slowly developing composite rhythm—unfolds. The forest soundscape, “bending” effects of the wind, branch orientation, composite rhythm structure, and limited post-production effects, are all meant to guide listener’s beyond their direct experience of the landscape toward its complicated environmental past and prospective future.
To this end, the branches that comprised the tree-instrument were selected by members of the Iceland Land and Forestry Service. Eventually, these branches will be trimmed in order to foster the surrounding understory growth and individual tree health for years to come.
