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Duo
2021
Fixed Media Audio
Live Electronics
Violin
- Program Notes
- In composing "Sonata for a Felled Tree," I wanted to deepen an appreciation for the expansiveness of time, complexity of interactions, and diversity of phenomena that fundamentally shape violins' acoustic properties by inviting listeners to experience life from the perspective of the trees they come from. I hope it inspires a renewed contemplation of the violin not only as the product of skilled human craftsmanship, but also the remnant of tremendous once-living organisms. When we hear a note played on the violin, we hear the imprinted experiences of every cell in the wood of every tree it is made of. In this sense, the ebony, rosewood, maple, spruce, poplar, boxwood, and willow trees typically used to build modern violins are just as much musical performers as violinists themselves. Underlying an evolving soundscape of the tree's growth from seed to decay, there is an ever-present, though sometimes subtle, sine-wave frequency of 220 Hz: the vibrational frequency sung by the roots of the trees around us...constantly beneath our feet, too quiet to reach our ears.
- Performer Credits
- Freya Hall (violin) and Ellie Cherry (electronics)
- External Links