REVIEW: The Secret Symphony of Plants
Have you ever taken the time to open your ears to the autumn wind rustling of the trees? The grass being blown in quiet waves or the sporadic fall of an acorn or two that follow undoubtedly creating a beautiful underscore to a relaxing morning?
What if these sounds were not the only tune the environment was humming?
This is the question that Artpark New Music Curator and conductor Brent Chancellor answered with the album The Secret Symphony of Plants. The album showcases five compositions by 5 different composers, all performed by the LUX Ensemble and recorded live at Artpark in early October.
The Artpark press release for the album states “The Secret Symphony of Plants is an invitation to hear what we rarely stop to listen for—the hidden music of the natural world.”
You may have seen recent experiments wherein scientists connect electrodes to fungi and flora to tune in to the sounds of their electric signals; this is precisely how the composers of the album found their inspiration. The composers took those signals from plants like speedwell, moss, and buckthorn and processed them as musical notes
When asked what the process for turning these little electronic blips into melodic and rhythmic themes entailed, Chancellor answered, “I imagined what the vibrations of cells and atoms might do when morning light first hit the leaves, and how the plant’s electrical impulses might react. I think it can be felt in the structure of the piece [Speedwell]. There are some quirky changes that I likely would not have composed, without the plant’s inspiration.”
As a generous act towards the plants this album showcases, all royalties from the album will be directly put back into the Artpark Conservation Fund.
Chancellor’s piece Speedwell began to show the utter uniqueness in the experimental sounds of nature as adapted to modern classical instruments.
Rhythmic repetition is very prominent, not shying away from the contemporary style of minimalism, taking inspiration from works by Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Speedwell pulses with life, almost as if the entire ensemble itself is breathing. This effect is perpetuated by the live delay effect worked into the composition through the marriage of repetition and dynamics. Chancellor reflected on the experience of composing for this project, “I took away a renewed sense of how alive sound is, even before it becomes what we call ‘music.”
Additionally, the work lies wonderfully effective traps, luring the listener into a false sense of security only to snap them out of it with the deep, bubbling drones of the cellos and basses.
The opening track of the album sets the tone for the rest, presented as dark and beautiful, as a clear meditation on the character of nature itself.
Each of the tracks that follow set themselves apart in their own unique way while still maintaining several musical ideas, tying the album together in a way that feels like a multi-movement symphonic work.
The second work, I Miss The Way You Swim by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, shares repetitive, rhythmic ideas from Speedwell while transforming it into a soundscape. She also incorporates electronic instruments with the acoustic ensemble immediately setting the piece apart from the previous.
In character, Smith’s piece feels more a reflection of nature rather than an interpretation of it. The complex, organic rhythms seem sporadic, but Smith works them together like the machinations of an old clock tower, slowly being reclaimed by nature.
Once the aural environment has gripped you, composer John Kaefer seizes your attention with his piece Stil de Grain: Fading Yellow. Kaefer titled this piece after the buckthorn, specifically, the pigment that is created from the berries of the buckthorn often used in making oil paints.
The piece begins with these powerful hits from the piano and the strings, the latter being plucked against the fingerboard instead of bowed, creating a percussive technique called Bartok pizzicato. Kaefer used these compositional techniques as tools to capture the qualities of a painter in this piece, as Stil de Grain feels like a burst of ambition in the creative mind of an artist.
One aspect that strangely caught me off-guard was the return to the A section, which is usually a rather overdone musical trope; think of how you always expect a jazz song to come back to the head of the tune after solos.
Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised to hear those big hits from the piano and strings return, thereby ending the piece in a classy way.
Marcus Foster sets his piece apart with a much less rhythmic work, simply titled Black Cherry, after the tree/shrub that provided him inspiration. Only later in Foster’s piece does a more prominent repetition arise, but with a different personality; one of intrepid hopefulness, as if our journey is almost over.
In order to more accurately imitate nature, Black Cherry shines a subtle spotlight on the flute by having the flautist drift out of tune on occasion. Naturally occurring sounds do not adhere to the way the western world tunes its music, so this seemingly tiny inclusion is one of Foster’s most accurate and distinct additions to the album.
Maintaining Black Cherry’s change of pace, Wild Resonance by Ricardo Romaniero approaches the album’s subject with a much more electronic angle. With the inclusion of heavy synths and woodwinds together, the tone of the piece looms with finality, being the last piece on the record.
These aspects of Romaniero’s piece are most definitely a nod to the technology that allowed for the electrical signals within each plant species to be heard.
From Wild Resonance comes an immense feeling of serenity, a perfect punctuation to The Secret Symphony of Plants. Through the unity of nature’s music and man-made music, The Secret Symphony of Plants is truly a conversation between human composers, and the living, breathing world that surrounds them. The album encourages you to wonder, what song do the trees whisper when we listen closely, and do they smile when we sing along?
