Download "Trees Do Fall" (2.9 MB)
Trees Do Fall
This work, for woodwind and string quartets, is inspired by a stark photograph of a forest setting. In the foreground are dead branches, reminding us of the cycle of life and death. A bad pun in the title also suggests the scene of trees and fallen branches in the autumn.
Musically, I explored the use of quartal harmony. In tertial harmony not every interval in a chord is a third, and the same holds true for quartal harmony. The parallel sevenths in the closing phrase are quartals, with the middle fourth missing, extending through several octaves. I do not call this "atonal"; rather, the tonal centre is constantly shifting because of the tendency of rising fourth and falling fifths to strongly suggest a tonic resolution. I think of it more like a tonal centre in free-fall. Otherwise, it is a compact work involving a single climax and resolution.
