Song of the Quaking Aspens

Year Composed:	2024
Instrumentation:	piano, 2 violins, viola, cello
Duration	15 minutes

Program Notes

The title refers to a type of tree called Populus Tremuloides (also known as the 'Quaking Aspen'),which grows in large colonies all over North America. Remarkably, the individual trees in these forest-like colonies are clones of one another: genetically identical offshoots of a single organism managed by a vast, subterranean root system. While most individual trees typically live to about a hundred years,the age of the root system is far older; a clonal colony in Utah was estimated to be 80000 years old, making it the world's oldest living organism.

Daydreaming about trees and root systems led me to envision a musical narrative in which motivic fragments would gradually coalesce to reveal a hidden aural image. Like zooming out of a complex tapestry, these fragments are eventually meant to be perceived as part of a greater, transcendent whole.

The piece is cast in three movements that flow into one another without pause. In the first movement ("I. Canopy"), delicate threads in the upper registers of the piano suggest the shimmer of light dancing through the foliage, while the strings surge and ebb beneath like wind passing through leaves, at once fierce and fragile. The second movement ("II. Between the Pillars of Light") is a scherzo that evokes the teeming wildlife between the trees; its form is organic and ever-shifting, guided by the impulses of the present moment rather than by any imposed structure. In this movement, a multitude of stylistic worlds collide, flow and cross-pollinate, unified by a sense of propulsive vitality. Eventually, a new kind of song - sonorous and rapturous - emerges, revealing these musical 'trees' as branches that spring from a common foundation ("III. Root System.") The effect, I hope, will be like journeying through a field of overtones and discovering the fundamental at the end.

This piece is suffused with the spirit of interconnectedness and belonging - themes that are prevalent in my creative output as a whole. But there is a subtler and more personal metaphor at work here as well. The many influences that haunt my practice - from Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky to progressive rock and film music, and finally, to the pinnacle of contrapuntal ingenuity that is the Baroque fugue - are like the 'quaking aspens' of imagination: seemingly disparate elements that nonetheless refer to an invisible root source. I believe that my creative voice - the part of me that yearns to flow between diverse systems and traditions - resides in this root source, and I am pleased to give it expression in The Song of the Quaking Aspens.

Commissions and Awards

• This commission is dedicated to the memory of Mary and David Bullock, generously supported by Linda Harvey, in celebration of Ottawa Chamberfest's 30th Anniversary. Written for Ironwood Quartet and Philip Chiu with support from the Ontario Arts Council.

Performances

• August 8, 2024 - Ironwood String Quartet, Philip Chiu, piano. Dominion Chalmers Centre, Ottawa, ON